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, Dartford was held by Helto the steward.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Dartford in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Helto the steward, Helto the steward's nephew, Rochester (St Andrew), bishop of and King William. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by King Edward and Osward (of Norton).
The settlement was assessed at 1.5 hides for tax. There was land for 40 ploughs, with 55 plough teams at work (2 in the lord's demesne and 53 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 155 heads of household: 142 villagers, 10 smallholders and 3 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (22 acres), woodland (11 pig pastures) and 1 mill. The manor was valued at 63 pounds in 1086, up from 60 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 →
Dartford 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 Dartford'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 Dartford.
59 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Dartford, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Dartford 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.