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, Thetford was held by Bishop Herfast (of Thetford), sons of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Thetford in 1086, they recorded 5 manors held by Bishop Herfast (of Thetford), sons of, R(oger) Bigot, King William, Roger Bigot and Thorsten (of Thetford). Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by (Archbishop) Stigand, King Edward, Earl Harold, Archbishop Stigand and men, thirty-three.
The settlement was assessed at 57.99 hides for tax. There was land for 4 ploughs, with 60 plough teams at work (20.5 in the lord's demesne and 39.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 262 heads of household: 65 villagers, 133 smallholders, 28 freemen and 36 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (12 acres), woodland (1080 pigs) and 11.5 mills. The manors were valued at 216.8 pounds in 1086, up from 87.96000000000001 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 →
Thetford 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 Thetford'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.
12 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Thetford, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Thetford 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.