A place in Surrey 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, Bermondsey was held by Count Robert of Mortain.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Bermondsey in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Count Robert of Mortain and King William. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Earl Harold and King Edward.
The settlement was assessed at 14 hides for tax. There was land for 8 ploughs, with 5 plough teams at work (1 in the lord's demesne and 4 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 59 heads of household: 25 villagers and 34 smallholders. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (20 acres) and woodland (5 swine render). The manors were valued at 15.4 pounds in 1086, up from 15 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 →
Bermondsey was one of the settlements recorded in Surrey in the 1086 survey. Surrey in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Bermondsey'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 Bermondsey.
The bedrock beneath Bermondsey is Lambeth Group (Paleocene).
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.