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, Mortlake was held by Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Mortlake in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Canterbury (Christ Church), archbishop of. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Archbishop Stigand.
The settlement was assessed at 72 hides for tax. There was land for 35 ploughs, with 33 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 28 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 110 heads of household: 80 villagers, 14 smallholders and 16 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (20 acres), woodland (55 swine render) and 2 mills. The manor was valued at 38 pounds in 1086, up from 32 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 →
Mortlake 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 Mortlake'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 Mortlake.
The bedrock beneath Mortlake 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.