A place in Hertfordshire 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, Therfield was held by Ramsey (St Benedict), abbey of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Therfield in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Ramsey (St Benedict), abbey of and Wigar (of Orwell), under Hardwin of Scales. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Ramsey (St Benedict), abbey of and Alric the priest.
The settlement was assessed at 11 hides for tax. There was land for 21 ploughs, with 13.5 plough teams at work (2.5 in the lord's demesne and 11 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 50 heads of household: 29 villagers, 16 cottagers and 5 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (20 pigs). The manors were valued at 11.5 pounds in 1086, down from 13 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 →
Therfield was one of the settlements recorded in Hertfordshire in the 1086 survey. Hertfordshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Therfield'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.
1,893 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Therfield, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Therfield is White Chalk Subgroup (Maastrichtian).
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.