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, Salford was held by Roger of Poitou.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Salford in 1086, they recorded 5 manors held by Roger of Poitou, Gamal (son of Gruffydd), Geoffrey (of Ria), Nigel (of Burcy), Warin and another Warin. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by King Edward, Gamal (son of Gruffydd) and thanes, twenty-one.
The settlement was assessed at 109.5 hides for tax. The record notes 25 plough teams at work (2 in the lord's demesne and 23 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 59 heads of household: 32 villagers, 9 smallholders and 18 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (3 * 3 leagues in Forest). The manors were valued at 12 pounds in 1086, down from 37.2 pounds 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 →
Salford 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 Salford'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 Salford.
15 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Salford, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Salford 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.