A place in Somerset 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, Henstridge was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Henstridge in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by King William and Saint-Sever, abbey of, under Earl Hugh (of Chester). Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Earl Harold, free man, one and Ednoth (the constable).
The settlement was assessed at 14.07 hides for tax. There was land for 27 ploughs, with 24 plough teams at work (7 in the lord's demesne and 17 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 70 heads of household: 37 villagers, 21 smallholders and 12 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (160 acres), woodland (1 * 0.5 & 2 acres mixed measures) and 1 mill. The manors were valued at 27.62 pounds in 1086.
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 →
Henstridge was one of the settlements recorded in Somerset in the 1086 survey. Somerset in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Henstridge'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 Henstridge.
1,260 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Henstridge, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Henstridge is Great Oolite Group (Bathonian).
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.