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, Rowden was held by Grimkel.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Rowden in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Grimkel, Ralph the chaplain's wife and Walter son of the wife of Ralph the chaplain, under King William. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Grim and Aelfeva.
The settlement was assessed at 1.5 hides for tax. The record notes 1 plough team at work. The recorded population was 1 head of household: 1 smallholder. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. The manors were valued at 12 shillings in 1086, down from 15 shillings 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 →
Rowden 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 Rowden'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 Rowden.
25 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Rowden, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Rowden is Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Early Devonian).
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.