A place in Hampshire 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, Brading was held by William son of Azur's nephew.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Brading in 1086, they recorded a manor held by William son of Azur's nephew, who held from William son of Azur. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Alnoth.
The settlement was assessed at 0.18 hides for tax. There was land for 0.5 ploughs, with 1 plough team at work. The recorded population was 4 heads of household: 4 smallholders. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (1 acres) and woodland (2 swine render). The manor was valued at 1 pound in 1086, up from 10 shillings 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 →
Brading was one of the settlements recorded in Hampshire in the 1086 survey. Hampshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Brading'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.
The bedrock beneath Brading is Bracklesham Group And Barton Group (Undifferentiated) (Eocene).
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.