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, Saxlingham was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Saxlingham in 1086, they recorded 13 manors held by King William, Walter (of Caen), Ranulf (son of Walter), W(illiam of Noyers), Bishop William (of Thetford), John nephew of Waleran, Walter Giffard, Drogo of la Beuvrière, Theodric and Gunfrid, under Robert Malet, Roger Bigot, St Benet of Holme, abbey of, Peter of Valognes and Robert son of Corbucion. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Freeman, one, free man, one, Edric (of Laxfield), (Bishop) A(lmer of Elmham), Bishop Almer (of Elmham), free men, two, Edric (the steersman), Alward, Wulfnoth, Leofwold and Stergar, a royal Guard.
The settlement was assessed at 18.63 hides for tax. The record notes 42 plough teams at work (11.5 in the lord's demesne and 30.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 151.5 heads of household: 104 smallholders, 36.5 freemen and 11 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (1 acres), woodland (50 pigs) and 5.12 mills. The manors were valued at 41.690000000000005 pounds in 1086, up from 22.05 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 →
Saxlingham 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 Saxlingham'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.
301 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Saxlingham, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Saxlingham 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.