A place in Derbyshire 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, Birchover was held by Henry of Ferrers.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Birchover in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Henry of Ferrers. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Godric and Raven of Winster.
The settlement was assessed at 1 hide for tax. There was land for 1 plough. Its recorded resources included meadow (8 acres) and woodland (0.5 league * 3 furlongs mixed measures). Birchover was valued at 8 shillings before the Conquest; no 1086 value was recorded.
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 →
Birchover was one of the settlements recorded in Derbyshire in the 1086 survey. Derbyshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Birchover'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.
141 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Birchover, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Birchover is Bowland High Group And Craven Group (Undifferentiated) (Bashkirian).
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.