A place in Herefordshire 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, Marston Stannett was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Marston Stannett in 1086, they recorded 4 manors held by King William, Roger of Lacy, William of Ecouis and Rainer the carpenter. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Queen Edith, Saeric father of Guthmund, Edwin and Ludi of Ashford.
The settlement was assessed at 61.5 hides for tax. The record notes 233 plough teams at work (32 in the lord's demesne and 201 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 323 heads of household: 224 villagers, 82 smallholders and 17 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included woodland (6 * 3 leagues) and 8 mills. The manors were valued at 15 shillings in 1086, up from 12 shillings 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 →
Marston Stannett was one of the settlements recorded in Herefordshire in the 1086 survey. Herefordshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Marston Stannett'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 Marston Stannett.
5 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Marston Stannett, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Marston Stannett is Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated) (Early Devonian).
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.