A place in Norfolk 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, Weston Longville was held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Weston Longville in 1086, they recorded 4 manors held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, Count Alan (of Brittany), William of Ecouis and Hagni the reeve. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by (Archbishop) Stigand, King Edward, Hardwin (brother of Earl Ralph), free men, two and Hagni (the reeve).
The settlement was assessed at 7.47 hides for tax. The record notes 24.5 plough teams at work (3 in the lord's demesne and 21.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 98 heads of household: 1 villager, 49 smallholders, 43 freemen and 5 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (20 acres), woodland (5 pigs) and 2 mills. The manors were valued at 10.11 pounds in 1086, up from 7 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 →
Weston Longville was one of the settlements recorded in Norfolk in the 1086 survey. Norfolk in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Weston Longville'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.
117 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Weston Longville, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Weston Longville is White Chalk Subgroup (Maastrichtian).
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.