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, Neatham was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Neatham in 1086, they recorded a manor held by King William. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by King Edward and Leofwin the forester.
There was land for 52 ploughs, with 52 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 47 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 96 heads of household: 54 villagers, 26 smallholders and 16 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (15 acres), woodland (150 swine render) and 8.5 mills. The manor was valued at 76.83 pounds in 1086, unchanged since 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 →
Neatham 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 Neatham'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 Neatham.
364 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Neatham, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Neatham is Grey Chalk Subgroup (Cenomanian).
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.