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, Shelton was held by Roger Bigot.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Shelton in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Roger Bigot, William, Durand and Nigel, under Robert son of Corbucion. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Coleman, Ulf, free men, nine and one half and Aldwin.
The settlement was assessed at 6.05 hides for tax. The record notes 22.5 plough teams at work (7.5 in the lord's demesne and 15 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 107.5 heads of household: 10 villagers, 67.5 smallholders, 28 freemen and 2 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (50 acres) and woodland (22 pigs). The manors were valued at 12.04 pounds in 1086, up from 7.5 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 →
Shelton 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 Shelton'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.
255 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Shelton, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Shelton 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.