A place in Sussex 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, Goring was held by Robert (son of Theobald).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Goring in 1086, they recorded 5 manors held by Robert (son of Theobald) and Gilbert, under Earl Roger (of Shrewsbury) and William of Braose. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by King Edward, Godwin, Gundrada and free men, three.
The settlement was assessed at 25.5 hides for tax. There was land for 18 ploughs, with 18 plough teams at work (7 in the lord's demesne and 11 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 75 heads of household: 47 villagers, 5 smallholders and 23 cottagers. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (3 acres). The manors were valued at 13.5 pounds in 1086, unchanged since 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 →
Goring was one of the settlements recorded in Sussex in the 1086 survey. Sussex in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Goring'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 Goring.
829 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Goring, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Goring is White Chalk Subgroup (Maastrichtian).
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.