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, Riby was held by Ernwin (the priest).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Riby in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Ernwin (the priest), William (son of Nigel), Ascelin, Erneis (of Buron) and Ralph, under Roger of Poitou and Earl Hugh (of Chester). Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Stenkil of Riby and Earl Harold.
The settlement was assessed at 11.62 hides for tax. There was land for 23.3 ploughs, with 15 plough teams at work (3 in the lord's demesne and 12 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 80 heads of household: 16 villagers, 7 smallholders and 57 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (12 acres). The manors were valued at 1.5 pounds in 1086, unchanged since 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 →
Riby 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 Riby'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.
3 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Riby, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Riby 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.