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, Fownhope was held by Hugh the ass.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Fownhope in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Hugh the ass. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Thorkil White.
The settlement was assessed at 15 hides for tax. The record notes 29 plough teams at work (3 in the lord's demesne and 26 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 42 heads of household: 14 villagers, 10 smallholders and 18 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included 1 mill. The manor was valued at 16 pounds in 1086, up from 12 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 →
Fownhope 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 Fownhope'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 Fownhope.
The bedrock beneath Fownhope is Ludlow Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Ludlow).
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.