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, Clopton was held by Gilbert of Coleville.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Clopton in 1086, they recorded 9 manors held by Gilbert of Coleville, Tigier, Roger of Poitou, Roger son of Arnold, Hugh de Montfort, Turold, Countess of Aumale (Adelaide), Wulfwin the priest, Bernard of St Ouen, William of Arques and Amund, under Robert Malet, Ranulf Peverel and Humphrey the chamberlain. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by free men, two, Wulfric, free man, one, free men, two and one half, Edric Grim, Burgric, free men, twelve and one half and Edmund the priest.
The settlement was assessed at 8.67 hides for tax. The record notes 15 plough teams at work (8 in the lord's demesne and 7 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 64 heads of household: 4 villagers, 57 smallholders and 3 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (4 acres), woodland (10 pigs) and 1 mill. The manors were valued at 10.85 pounds in 1086, down from 13.5 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 →
Clopton 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 Clopton'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.
10 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Clopton, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Clopton 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.