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, Woodcote and Woodcote was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Woodcote and Woodcote in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by King William and Erlebald, under Urso of Abetot. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Earl Edwin and Wulfsi, a royal thane.
The settlement was assessed at 31.5 hides for tax. The record notes 80 plough teams at work (2 in the lord's demesne and 78 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 124 heads of household: 21 villagers, 94 smallholders and 9 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (7 * 4 leagues) and 3 mills. The manors were valued at 5 shillings in 1086, down from 10 shillings 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 →
Woodcote and Woodcote 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 Woodcote and Woodcote'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 Woodcote and Woodcote.
1,702 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Woodcote and Woodcote, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Woodcote and Woodcote 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.