A place in Cheshire with a history you can trace through the records: its entry in the 1086 Domesday Book, the archaeological finds and scheduled monuments around it, and the nearest Roman sites and battlefields. Everything below is drawn from the historical record.
In 1086, Blackburn was held by Albert Grelley.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Blackburn in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Albert Grelley and Roger of Bully, who held from Roger of Poitou. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by (Blackburn), St Mary, church of, King Edward, (Whalley), St Mary, church of and free men, twenty-eight.
The settlement was assessed at 87 hides for tax. Its recorded resources included woodland (5 * 5 leagues).
The Domesday Book was the great survey of England ordered by William the Conqueror in 1085 and completed in 1086, the oldest surviving public record in the country. How the survey worked →
Blackburn was one of the settlements recorded in Cheshire in the 1086 survey. Cheshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Blackburn's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Nationally registered historic battlefields within 25 miles of Blackburn.
222 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Blackburn, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Blackburn is Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Lower Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated) (Westphalian).
Aubrey's full report for this location includes every Domesday manor, the complete record of medieval lordship, archaeological context, and the story of how this settlement evolved from 1086 to the present day.