A place in Herefordshire 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, Bartestree was held by Nigel the doctor.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Bartestree in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Nigel the doctor. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Leoffled (wife of Thorkil).
The settlement was assessed at 4 hides for tax. There was land for 3 ploughs, with 6 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 1 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 6 heads of household: 1 smallholder and 5 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. The manor was valued at 4.5 pounds in 1086, down from 5 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 →
Bartestree was one of the settlements recorded in Herefordshire in the 1086 survey. Herefordshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Bartestree'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 Bartestree.
The bedrock beneath Bartestree is Pridoli Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Pridoli).
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.