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, Chislet was held by Canterbury (St Augustine), abbey of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Chislet in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Canterbury (St Augustine), abbey of and French men-at-arms, four. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Canterbury (St Augustine), abbey of.
The settlement was assessed at 12 hides for tax. There was land for 30 ploughs, with 44 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 39 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 154 heads of household: 72 villagers, 68 smallholders and 14 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (50 acres) and woodland (130 swine render). The manor was valued at 90 pounds in 1086, up from 53 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 →
Chislet 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 Chislet'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.
294 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Chislet, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Chislet is Thanet Sand Formation (Thanetian).
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.