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, Rodmell was held by Count Robert of Mortain.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Rodmell in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Count Robert of Mortain, Norman (the hunter), William of Warenne and William of Braose. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Earl Godwin and Earl Harold.
The settlement was assessed at 71 hides for tax. There was land for 42 ploughs, with 51.5 plough teams at work (7 in the lord's demesne and 44.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 153 heads of household: 124 villagers, 28 smallholders and 1 slave. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (140 acres) and woodland (40 swine render). The manors were valued at 47 pounds in 1086, down from 70 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 →
Rodmell 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 Rodmell'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 Rodmell.
1,587 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Rodmell, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Rodmell 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.