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, Willesden was held by villagers.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Willesden in 1086, they recorded a manor held by villagers, who held from London (St Paul), bishop of. The same lord had held the land before the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The settlement was assessed at 15 hides for tax. There was land for 15 ploughs, with 8 plough teams at work. The recorded population was 30 heads of household: 25 villagers and 5 smallholders. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (500 pigs). The manor was valued at 6.32 pounds in 1086, down from 12 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 →
Willesden 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 Willesden'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 Willesden.
The bedrock beneath Willesden 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.