A place in Worcestershire 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, Wast Hills was held by Worcester (St Mary), bishop of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Wast Hills in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Worcester (St Mary), bishop of. The same lord had held the land before the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The settlement was assessed at 13 hides for tax. The record notes 16 plough teams at work (2 in the lord's demesne and 14 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 23 heads of household: 12 villagers, 7 smallholders and 4 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (4 leagues leagues). The manor was valued at 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 →
Wast Hills was one of the settlements recorded in Worcestershire in the 1086 survey. Worcestershire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Wast Hills'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 Wast Hills.
298 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Wast Hills, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Wast Hills is Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Triassic).
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.