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, Ledsham was held by Walter of Vernon.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Ledsham in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Walter of Vernon. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Erngeat of Ness.
The settlement was assessed at 1 hide for tax. There was land for 2 ploughs, with 1 plough team at work (0.5 in the lord's demesne and 0.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 2 heads of household: 1 smallholder and 1 slave. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. The manor was valued at 10 shillings in 1086, up from 5 shillings in 1066.
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 →
Ledsham 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 Ledsham'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 Ledsham.
656 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Ledsham, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Ledsham is Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Triassic).
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.