A place in Middlesex 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, Enfield was held by Geoffrey de Mandeville.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Enfield in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Geoffrey de Mandeville. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Esger the constable and Freemen, five.
The settlement was assessed at 30 hides for tax. There was land for 24 ploughs, with 20 plough teams at work (4 in the lord's demesne and 16 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 113 heads of household: 57 villagers, 20 smallholders, 30 cottagers and 6 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (24 ploughs), woodland (2000 pigs) and 1 mill. The manor was valued at 50 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 →
Enfield was one of the settlements recorded in Middlesex in the 1086 survey. Middlesex in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Enfield'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 Enfield.
The bedrock beneath Enfield is Thames Group (Eocene).
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.