A place in Gloucestershire 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, Chepstow was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Chepstow in 1086, they recorded 6 manors held by King William, Roger of Berkeley, William of Eu, Roger of Lacy, Turstin son of Rolf and Alfred of 'Spain'. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by King Edward.
The settlement was assessed at 59 hides for tax. The record notes 31 plough teams at work (10 in the lord's demesne and 21 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 17 heads of household: 17 smallholders. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included 5 mills. The manors were valued at 39.52 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 →
Chepstow was one of the settlements recorded in Gloucestershire in the 1086 survey. Gloucestershire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Chepstow'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 Chepstow.
358 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Chepstow, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Chepstow is Dinantian Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Mississippian).
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.