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, Bromley was held by Rochester (St Andrew), bishop of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Bromley in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Rochester (St Andrew), bishop of. The same lord had held the land before the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The settlement was assessed at 6 hides for tax. There was land for 13 ploughs, with 13 plough teams at work (2 in the lord's demesne and 11 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 56 heads of household: 30 villagers and 26 smallholders. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (2 acres), woodland (100 swine render) and 1 mill. The manor was valued at 18 pounds in 1086, up from 12.5 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 →
Bromley 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 Bromley'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 Bromley.
The bedrock beneath Bromley is Thames Group (Eocene).
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.