A place in Dorset 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, Sherborne was held by Edward.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Sherborne in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Edward, Engelbert, Hugh son of Grip's wife (Hawise), Odbold, Ralph, Salisbury (St Mary), bishop of, Sinoth, Waleran, thanes, six, Lambert and Sherborne (St Mary), abbey of. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Queen Edith, Alward and Salisbury (St Mary), bishop of.
The settlement was assessed at 44 hides for tax. There was land for 46 ploughs, with 37.5 plough teams at work (9.5 in the lord's demesne and 28 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 229 heads of household: 111 villagers, 94 smallholders and 24 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (130 acres), woodland (2 * 2 leagues) and 12 mills. The manors were valued at 90.1 pounds 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 →
Sherborne was one of the settlements recorded in Dorset in the 1086 survey. Dorset in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Sherborne'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 Sherborne.
780 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Sherborne, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Sherborne is Inferior Oolite Group (Bathonian).
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.