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, Risby was held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Risby in 1086, they recorded 4 manors held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, Ralph, Roger of Bully and Robert (Marmion), under Peterborough (St Peter), abbey of and Gilbert of Ghent. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Ernwin (the priest), Thorfridh, Tosti (brother of Erik), Eskil, Gamal and Ulf (Fenman).
The settlement was assessed at 12.99 hides for tax. There was land for 26 ploughs, with 24 plough teams at work (7 in the lord's demesne and 17 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 94 heads of household: 45 villagers, 4 smallholders and 45 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (31 acres) and woodland (12 acres). The manors were valued at 12.8 pounds in 1086, up from 11.5 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 →
Risby 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 Risby'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.
The bedrock beneath Risby is Inferior Oolite Group (Bathonian).
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.