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, Wilford was held by Robert Malet.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Wilford in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Robert Malet and N(orthmann the sheriff), under Roger Bigot. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Aedi, Edric of Laxfield and free man, one.
The settlement was assessed at 0.81 hides for tax. The recorded population was 3 heads of household: 2 smallholders and 1 freeman. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (4 acres). The manors were valued at 11 shillings in 1086, down from 16 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 →
Wilford 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 Wilford'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.
35 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Wilford, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Wilford is Thames Group (Eocene).
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.