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, Merestone was held by Ilbert son of Turold.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Merestone in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Ilbert son of Turold, Ralph of Mortimer, Roger of Lacy and King William. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by King Edward and pigman, one.
The settlement was assessed at 15 hides for tax. The record notes 22 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 17 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 32 heads of household: 21 villagers, 9 smallholders and 2 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included 2 mills. The manor was valued at 13.15 pounds in 1086, up from 6 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 →
Merestone 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 Merestone'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.
3 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Merestone, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Merestone is Silurian Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Silurian).
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.