A place in Yorkshire 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, Sherburn was held by Walkelin (nephew of the Bishop of Winchester).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Sherburn in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Walkelin (nephew of the Bishop of Winchester), York (St Peter), archbishop of, Geoffrey and Hugh son of Baldric. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by York (St Peter), archbishop of and Orm (son of Gamal).
The settlement was assessed at 98 hides for tax. There was land for 35 ploughs, with 22 plough teams at work (6 in the lord's demesne and 16 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 53 heads of household: 43 villagers, 7 smallholders and 3 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (30 acres) and 1 mill. The manors were valued at 6.5 pounds in 1086, down from 26 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 →
Sherburn was one of the settlements recorded in Yorkshire in the 1086 survey. Yorkshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Sherburn'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 Sherburn.
736 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Sherburn, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Sherburn is Wealden Group (Barremian).
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.