A place in Cheshire 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, West Derby was held by Roger of Poitou.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed West Derby in 1086, they recorded 12 manors held by Roger of Poitou, another Geoffrey, Geoffrey (of Ria), Gilbert of West Derby, Robert, Roger, Theobald, Warin and William (son of Nigel). Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by King Edward.
The settlement was assessed at 24 hides for tax. There was land for 15 ploughs, with 31 plough teams at work (7 in the lord's demesne and 24 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 117 heads of household: 53 villagers, 62 smallholders and 2 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (2 * 1 leagues in Forest). The manors were valued at 16.6 pounds in 1086, down from 26.1 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 →
West Derby was one of the settlements recorded in Cheshire in the 1086 survey. Cheshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of West Derby'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 West Derby.
2 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of West Derby, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath West Derby 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.