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, Cottingwith was held by Ralph Paynel.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Cottingwith in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Ralph Paynel, Erneis of Buron and Nigel (Fossard), under Count Robert of Mortain. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Merleswein (the sheriff), Grim and Ernwin the priest.
The settlement was assessed at 12.25 hides for tax. There was land for 6.5 ploughs, with 1 plough team at work. The recorded population was 7 heads of household: 1 smallholder and 6 freemen. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (2 * 2 furlongs).
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 →
Cottingwith 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 Cottingwith'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 Cottingwith.
318 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Cottingwith, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Cottingwith 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.