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, Ipswich was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Ipswich in 1086, they recorded 20 manors held by King William, Alwulf the priest, Culling the burgess, Leofstan the priest, Tumbi, Wulfwin the priest, Godric, Aeschere of Ipswich, Edric, Thorkil, Count Alan (of Brittany), Robert Malet, Ro(ger) Bigot, Richard son of (Count) Gilbert, Swein of Essex, Hugh de Montfort, Geoffrey de Mandeville, Roger of Rames, Ivo of Aluredestuna, Walter the deacon, Northmann the sheriff and Aelfric son of Rolf, under Bishop Odo of Bayeux and Ranulf brother of Ilger. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by (Archbishop) Stigand, Queen Edith, Earl Gyrth, King Edward, Leoffled, Edric of Laxfield, Edwy, Fin (the Dane), Wihtgar (son of Aelfric), Robert (son of Wiuhomarch), Leofson and Durand (of Offton).
The settlement was assessed at 15.12 hides for tax. The record notes 20 plough teams at work (4 in the lord's demesne and 16 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 51 heads of household: 15 villagers, 35 smallholders and 1 slave. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (4 acres), woodland (4 pigs) and 3.33 mills. The manors were valued at 90.05999999999999 pounds in 1086, up from 33.6 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 →
Ipswich 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 Ipswich'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.
12 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Ipswich, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Ipswich is Lambeth Group (Paleocene).
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.