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, Thanington was held by Aethelwold (the chamberlain).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Thanington in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Aethelwold (the chamberlain), Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of, Godfrey, the steward, Haimo the sheriff, Robert of Hardres and Vitalis. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Alfred Bicga and Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of.
The settlement was assessed at 7 hides for tax. There was land for 20 ploughs, with 29.5 plough teams at work (11.5 in the lord's demesne and 18 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 140 heads of household: 25 villagers, 114 smallholders and 1 slave. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (134 acres), woodland (60 swine render) and 17 mills. The manor was valued at 56 pounds in 1086, up from 24.62 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 →
Thanington 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 Thanington'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.
275 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Thanington, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Thanington 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.