A place in Northamptonshire 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, Uffington was held by Geoffrey.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Uffington in 1086, they recorded 5 manors held by Geoffrey, Robert of Tosny, Alfred of Lincoln and Countess Judith, under Peterborough (St Peter), abbey of. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Alnoth, Arnbiorn of 'Avethorpe', Leodwin and Peterborough (St Peter), abbey of.
The settlement was assessed at 10.5 hides for tax. There was land for 10 ploughs, with 14 plough teams at work (4 in the lord's demesne and 10 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 64 heads of household: 42 villagers, 2 smallholders and 20 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (48 acres) and 3.5 mills. The manors were valued at 16 pounds in 1086, up from 11.5 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 →
Uffington was one of the settlements recorded in Northamptonshire in the 1086 survey. Northamptonshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Uffington'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.
355 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Uffington, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Uffington is Kellaways Formation And Oxford Clay Formation (Undifferentiated) (Oxfordian).
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.