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, Orpington was held by Mauger.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Orpington in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Mauger, Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of and Deormann (of London). Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by free man, one and Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of.
The settlement was assessed at 3.75 hides for tax. The record notes 26.5 plough teams at work (3 in the lord's demesne and 23.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 80 heads of household: 50 villagers, 26 smallholders and 4 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (3 acres), woodland (11 swine render) and 3 mills. The manors were valued at 27.5 pounds in 1086, up from 17 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 →
Orpington 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 Orpington'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 Orpington.
36 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Orpington, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Orpington 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.