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, Beltoft was held by Geoffrey of la Guerche.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Beltoft in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Geoffrey of la Guerche. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Alnoth and Ulf Fenman.
The settlement was assessed at 1 hide for tax. There was land for 1 plough, with 3 plough teams at work. The recorded population was 20 heads of household: 16 smallholders and 4 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (4 * 4 furlongs).
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 →
Beltoft 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 Beltoft'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.
11 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Beltoft, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Beltoft is Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Triassic).
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.