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, Worstead was held by Count Alan (of Brittany).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Worstead in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Count Alan (of Brittany), Robert the bowman, St Benet of Holme, abbey of and Roger, under Reginald son of Ivo. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Earl Ralph the constable, St Benet of Holme, abbey of and Skeet.
The settlement was assessed at 6.33 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 74.5 heads of household: 18 villagers, 52.5 smallholders and 4 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (3 acres), woodland (6 pigs) and 1 mill. The manors were valued at 7.25 pounds in 1086, up from 4.4 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 →
Worstead 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 Worstead'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.
87 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Worstead, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Worstead 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.