A place in Essex 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, Great and Little Clacton was held by London (St Paul), bishop of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Great and Little Clacton in 1086, they recorded a manor held by London (St Paul), bishop of and men-at-arms, five. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by London (St Paul), bishop of.
The settlement was assessed at 20 hides for tax. The record notes 32 plough teams at work (9 in the lord's demesne and 23 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 152 heads of household: 47 villagers, 95 smallholders and 10 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (20 acres), woodland (400 pigs) and 1 mill. The manor was valued at 26 pounds in 1086, down from 40 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 →
Great and Little Clacton was one of the settlements recorded in Essex in the 1086 survey. Essex in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Great and Little Clacton'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 Great and Little Clacton.
239 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Great and Little Clacton, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Great and Little Clacton is Thames Group (Eocene).
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.