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, Loftus was held by Earl Hugh (of Chester).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Loftus in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Earl Hugh (of Chester). Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Earl Siward.
The settlement was assessed at 50.5 hides for tax. There was land for 34 ploughs, with 1 plough team at work. The recorded population was 1 head of household: 1 villager. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (8 acres) and woodland (1 league * 2 furlongs mixed measures). Loftus was valued at 48 pounds before the Conquest; no 1086 value was recorded.
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 →
Loftus 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 Loftus'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.
37 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Loftus, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Loftus is Ravenscar Group (Bathonian).
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.