A place in Devon 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, Butterleigh was held by Edwin (of Butterleigh).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Butterleigh in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Edwin (of Butterleigh). The same lord had held the land before the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The settlement was assessed at 0.25 hides for tax. There was land for 2 ploughs. The recorded population was 6 heads of household: 4 villagers, 1 smallholder and 1 slave. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (8 acres). The manor was valued at 15 shillings in 1086.
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 →
Butterleigh was one of the settlements recorded in Devon in the 1086 survey. Devon in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Butterleigh'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.
199 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Butterleigh, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Butterleigh is Permian Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Permian).
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.