A place in Lincolnshire 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, Belchford was held by Ivo Tallboys.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Belchford in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Ivo Tallboys. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Stori of Bolingbroke.
The settlement was assessed at 6 hides for tax. There was land for 8 ploughs, with 14 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 9 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 69 heads of household: 9 villagers, 15 smallholders and 45 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (360 acres), woodland (3 acres) and 2 mills. The manor was valued at 33 pounds in 1086, up from 15 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 →
Belchford was one of the settlements recorded in Lincolnshire in the 1086 survey. Lincolnshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Belchford'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 Belchford.
57 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Belchford, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Belchford is Wealden Group (Barremian).
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.