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, Silkstone was held by Ilbert of Lacy.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Silkstone in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Ilbert of Lacy and Alric. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by King Edward and Alric.
The settlement was assessed at 27.5 hides for tax. There was land for 18 ploughs, with 30 plough teams at work (6 in the lord's demesne and 24 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 56 heads of household: 29 villagers, 11 smallholders and 16 cottagers. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (3 acres), woodland (1 * 0.5 leagues) and 3 mills. The manors were valued at 16 pounds in 1086, down from 22 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 →
Silkstone 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 Silkstone'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 Silkstone.
522 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Silkstone, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Silkstone is Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Lower Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated) (Westphalian).
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.