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, Tring was held by Count Eustace (of Boulogne).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Tring in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Count Eustace (of Boulogne) and Freemen, three. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Engelric (the priest), Freemen, three, Freemen, two and man, one.
The settlement was assessed at 39 hides for tax. There was land for 20 ploughs, with 14 plough teams at work (3 in the lord's demesne and 11 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 62 heads of household: 29 villagers, 6 smallholders, 16 cottagers, 3 freemen and 8 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (10 ploughs), woodland (1000 pigs) and 2 mills. The manor was valued at 22 pounds in 1086, down from 25 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 →
Tring 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 Tring'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 Tring.
1,048 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Tring, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Tring 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.