A place in Nottinghamshire 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, Southwell was held by York (St Peter), archbishop of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Southwell in 1086, they recorded a manor held by York (St Peter), archbishop of, clerics, three, Englishmen, two and men-at-arms, six. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by (York, St Peter), archbishop of.
The settlement was assessed at 22.5 hides for tax. There was land for 24 ploughs, with 90 plough teams at work (22.5 in the lord's demesne and 67.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 209 heads of household: 137 villagers, 62 smallholders and 10 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (188 acres), woodland (8 leagues * 2.5 furlongs mixed measures) and 3 mills. The manor was valued at 40.75 pounds in 1086, up from 40 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 →
Southwell was one of the settlements recorded in Nottinghamshire in the 1086 survey. Nottinghamshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Southwell'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.
Nationally registered historic battlefields within 25 miles of Southwell.
1,014 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Southwell, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Southwell is Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Triassic).
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.