A place in Suffolk 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, Bredfield was held by Count Alan (of Brittany).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Bredfield in 1086, they recorded 16 manors held by Count Alan (of Brittany), W(alter) of Caen, Robert Malet, Northmann (the sheriff), Roger Bigot, Ro(bert) Malet, Hervey (of Bourges), Hervey of Bourges, Norman, R(obert) of Glanville and Peter, under Ely (St Etheldreda), abbey of, Richard son of (Count) Gilbert and William of Warenne. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by free men, five, Aethelwold the priest, free man, one-fourth part, free men, three, free men, three-half, free men, two, free man, one, Farman, free men, three and three halves and one-fourth part, Edric of Laxfield, Alric (of Burgh), Swarting and free men, twenty-one.
The settlement was assessed at 5.52 hides for tax. The record notes 9.4 plough teams at work. The recorded population was 2 heads of household: 1 villager and 1 smallholder. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (0 acres). The manors were valued at 6.010000000000001 pounds in 1086, up from 3.5 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 →
Bredfield was one of the settlements recorded in Suffolk in the 1086 survey. Suffolk in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Bredfield'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.
19 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Bredfield, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Bredfield 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.