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, Cobhall was held by Gerald.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Cobhall in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Gerald, who held from Roger of Lacy. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Alward.
The settlement was assessed at 1 hide for tax. The record notes 2 plough teams at work. The recorded population was 9 heads of household: 4 smallholders and 5 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. The manor was valued at 2.5 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 →
Cobhall 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 Cobhall'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 Cobhall 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.