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, Catfield was held by Count Alan (of Brittany).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Catfield in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Count Alan (of Brittany), Edric (the steersman), Robert and Roger Bigot. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Edric (the steersman), St Benet of Holme, abbey of, free man, one, free men, eleven, free men, two, Edric of Laxfield and free men, nine.
The settlement was assessed at 14.67 hides for tax. The record notes 24 plough teams at work (6 in the lord's demesne and 18 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 77 heads of household: 8 villagers, 34 smallholders and 35 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (6 acres), woodland (86 pigs) and 1 mill. The manors were valued at 11.120000000000001 pounds in 1086, up from 6.5 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 →
Catfield 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 Catfield'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.
73 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Catfield, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Catfield is Neogene To Quaternary Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Quaternary).
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.