A place in Shropshire 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, Walford was held by Sturmy.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Walford in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Sturmy, who held from Robert the butler. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Siward (the fat).
The settlement was assessed at 2 hides for tax. The record notes 2 plough teams at work (0.5 in the lord's demesne and 1.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 4 heads of household: 2 villagers and 2 smallholders. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. The manor was valued at 1 pound in 1086, up from 15 shillings 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 →
Walford was one of the settlements recorded in Shropshire in the 1086 survey. Shropshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Walford'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 Walford.
299 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Walford, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Walford is Permian Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Permian).
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.