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, Birling was held by Ralph of Courbépine.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Birling in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Ralph of Courbépine, who held from Bishop Odo of Bayeux. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Esbiorn Bicga.
The settlement was assessed at 6 hides for tax. The record notes 7 plough teams at work (1 in the lord's demesne and 6 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 30 heads of household: 10 villagers, 14 smallholders and 6 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (12 acres), woodland (40 swine render) and 1 mill. The manor was valued at 12 pounds in 1086, unchanged since 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 →
Birling 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 Birling'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.
118 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Birling, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Birling is Lower Greensand Group (Albian).
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.