A place in Norfolk 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, Brettenham was held by William of Bourneville.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Brettenham in 1086, they recorded 4 manors held by William of Bourneville, Ely (St Etheldreda), abbey of, Eudo the steward and William, under Roger Bigot and John nephew of Waleran. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by free men, three, Ely (St Etheldreda), abbey of, free men, seven, free man, one and free men, two.
The settlement was assessed at 11.9 hides for tax. The record notes 14.5 plough teams at work (6 in the lord's demesne and 8.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 49 heads of household: 19 villagers, 24 smallholders, 1 freeman and 5 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (4 acres), woodland (15 pigs) and 4 mills. The manors were valued at 15.379999999999999 pounds in 1086, up from 10.5 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 →
Brettenham was one of the settlements recorded in Norfolk in the 1086 survey. Norfolk in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Brettenham'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.
117 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Brettenham, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Brettenham 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.