A place in Kent 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, Barham was held by Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Barham in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of, Robert son of Watson, Roger, Fulbert, Herbert son of Ivo and Osbern Paisforiere, under Bishop Odo of Bayeux. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of and Archbishop Stigand.
The settlement was assessed at 23 hides for tax. There was land for 32 ploughs, with 76.5 plough teams at work (11.5 in the lord's demesne and 65 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 228 heads of household: 186 villagers, 19 smallholders, 20 cottagers and 3 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (13 acres), woodland (150 woodland for fences) and 3 mills. The manors were valued at 115.81 pounds in 1086, up from 80 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 →
Barham was one of the settlements recorded in Kent in the 1086 survey. Kent in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Barham'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.
448 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Barham, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Barham 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.