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, Gislingham was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Gislingham in 1086, they recorded 11 manors held by King William, W(illiam) of Bourneville, Robert Malet's mother, Robert Malet, (Bury) St Edmunds, abbey of, Gilbert, Adelelm (of Burgate), Robert Blunt and Gilbert the bowman, under Hugh de Montfort and Aubrey de Vere. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by King Edward, Leofric, free man, one, Stanhard (son of Alwy), Stubhard, Alfgeat, Beso of Gislingham, Coleman, Cypping, Ringwulf, Sorcbes, free men, four, free men, six, free men, three, free men, two, Aelfric, free men, twelve, free woman, one, Menleva, free men, twenty and a half, Aki (the Dane), Alsi (nephew of Earl Ralph), Alsi (nephew of Earl Ralph)'s wife and free men, eight.
The settlement was assessed at 6.22 hides for tax. The record notes 15 plough teams at work (1 in the lord's demesne and 14 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 7 heads of household: 5 smallholders and 2 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (2 acres) and woodland (10 pigs). The manors were valued at 9.68833 pounds in 1086, up from 5.2 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 →
Gislingham 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 Gislingham'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.
20 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Gislingham, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Gislingham 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.