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, Watton was held by Ranulf son of Walter.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Watton in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Ranulf son of Walter, who held from Roger Bigot. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Althryth.
The settlement was assessed at 5.85 hides for tax. The record notes 11 plough teams at work (4 in the lord's demesne and 7 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 38 heads of household: 12 smallholders, 23 freemen and 3 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (30 acres), woodland (440 pigs) and 1 mill. The manor was valued at 7.08 pounds in 1086, down from 8 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 →
Watton 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 Watton'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.
195 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Watton, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Watton 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.