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, Leominster was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Leominster in 1086, they recorded 4 manors held by King William, Leofwin the interpreter, Ralph of Mortimer, Roger of Lacy, Urso of Abetot and William son of Norman. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Queen Edith.
The settlement was assessed at 80 hides for tax. The record notes 243 plough teams at work (32 in the lord's demesne and 211 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 367 heads of household: 235 villagers, 103 smallholders and 29 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (6 * 3 leagues) and 12 mills. The manors were valued at 36.900000000000006 pounds in 1086.
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 →
Leominster 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 Leominster'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 Leominster.
1 recorded find has been logged within about 5 miles of Leominster, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Leominster 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.