A place in Essex 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, Elmdon was held by Roger of Sommery.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Elmdon in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Roger of Sommery, who held from Count Eustace (of Boulogne). Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Aelmer (Milk).
The settlement was assessed at 14 hides for tax. The record notes 14 plough teams at work (4 in the lord's demesne and 10 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 41 heads of household: 26 villagers and 15 smallholders. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (7 acres) and woodland (250 pigs). The manor was valued at 20 pounds in 1086, up from 16 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 →
Elmdon was one of the settlements recorded in Essex in the 1086 survey. Essex in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Elmdon'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.
672 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Elmdon, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Elmdon is White Chalk Subgroup (Maastrichtian).
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.