A place in Huntingdonshire 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, Sawtry was held by Ramsey (St Benedict), abbey of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Sawtry in 1086, they recorded 4 manors held by Ramsey (St Benedict), abbey of, Walter (of Beaumais), Countess Judith and Alwin (the reeve)'s wife, under Eustace the sheriff. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Ramsey (St Benedict), abbey of, Tosti (brother of Erik), Thorkil (the Dane) and Alwin (the reeve).
The settlement was assessed at 21.99 hides for tax. There was land for 35.8 ploughs, with 26 plough teams at work (7 in the lord's demesne and 19 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 54 heads of household: 49 villagers and 5 smallholders. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (12 acres) and woodland (2 * 1 furlongs). The manors were valued at 19.5 pounds in 1086, down from 20.5 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 →
Sawtry was one of the settlements recorded in Huntingdonshire in the 1086 survey. Huntingdonshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Sawtry'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.
266 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Sawtry, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Sawtry is Kellaways Formation And Oxford Clay Formation (Undifferentiated) (Oxfordian).
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.