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, Godwick was held by Ralph of Tosny.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Godwick in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Ralph of Tosny. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by free man, one.
The settlement was assessed at 1.03 hides for tax. The record notes 2 plough teams at work. The recorded population was 14 heads of household: 6 villagers, 7 smallholders and 1 freeman. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (9 acres) and woodland (200 pigs).
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 →
Godwick 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 Godwick'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.
307 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Godwick, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Godwick is White Chalk Subgroup (Maastrichtian).
Aubrey has published a full historical research report for Godwick, Norfolk, covering archaeology, geology, Roman roads, Domesday records and more.
Read the full historical research report for Godwick, Norfolk →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.