Gift the history of any location.
A digital gift card for Aubrey Research, delivered by email: the full history of a location, from the ground beneath it to the people who lived on it, researched and written for them. Give one report, or three or twelve months of unlimited access.
Choose a gift
Why this one
- They choose the location, so you do not need their address.
- It arrives by email on the day you choose, or straight away.
- No card details from them, nothing renews, nothing to cancel.
- The code stays valid for twelve months from purchase.
How it works
- 1Choose the gift and write them a message.
- 2Send it now, or pick the morning it arrives.
- 3They claim it, choose a location, keep it.
The questions it answers
What is the history of the land it stands on?
Domesday, scheduled monuments, Roman roads, recorded finds, the geology underneath, and any battle fought within sight of it. This is the part nobody expects and everybody reads first.
What were the fields here called?
Victorian Ordnance Survey maps carry the field names, and field names carry history of their own. Aubrey reads them off the old sheets and explains what they point to.
What has been found in the soil near here?
Artefacts recorded near that spot and reported to the national finds database, what they are and when they came out of the ground. For a detectorist this is the part that matters.
Was anything ever fought over here?
Battles and skirmishes on record near the location, drawn from the national battlefield register and published sources, with what happened and how close it was.
Who it suits
Gifts for history lovers who have everything
The hardest person to buy for, because they already own the books. Nobody has given them the history of their own doorstep.
Gifts for metal detectorists
Every detecting gift is a spade, a pouch or a t-shirt. This is the one that is actually useful: what has been recorded near a permission, what the old maps show, and what the ground was doing before anyone put a field boundary on it.
Gifts for family historians
They have the names and the dates. What they do not have is the ground: the monuments, the finds, the old field names and the record of the place their family came from.
Someone who has just moved
Somewhere new is a question mark. This is the history of the ground it stands on, and a far better housewarming present than another candle.
Questions about the gift itself
Where can they research?
Anywhere in the United Kingdom or the United States. They choose the country when they claim it, so a gift bought here still works for someone living in America. They place a pin on a map, so it can be a specific address, a village, or a single field, and Aubrey researches that point and the ground within five kilometres of it.
What do they actually get?
An interactive report on a location they choose, in around sixteen sections: the monuments and battlefields near it, artefacts recorded in the ground, Domesday, Roman roads, the geology underneath, historical Ordnance Survey maps, field names off the old maps, and a timeline drawing it together. Which sections appear depends on what the record holds for that place. It is saved to their account permanently, so it stays theirs to return to. With three or twelve months of unlimited access they can do this for as many locations as they like.
How long does a report take?
Up to five minutes. It opens on screen as the sections finish and keeps filling in behind them, and it is saved to their account, so they can close the page and come back to it.
What if they do not like the location they picked?
They confirm the location before anything is used. They can drag the pin to the exact spot, change it again on the next screen, and the last step names the location and asks them to start. Once a report has started it is fixed to that point, and a different location is a different report.
How does the gift reach them, and can I choose when?
By email, and you choose when: straight away, on Christmas Day, or on a date you pick. Nothing reaches them before then. You get your confirmation as soon as you have paid, and a note from us once the gift has gone.
What do they have to do to claim it?
Open the email and follow the link. If they are new, they make an account and the gift is already on it. If they have one already, they sign in. They can also type the code in themselves on the claim page. Then they choose their location.
Do they need to pay anything or give card details?
No, never. You have paid for it. They are not asked for a card at any point, nothing renews, and there is nothing for them to cancel.
What happens if they already subscribe?
We add it to the end of what they already have, rather than running the two alongside each other, so they get every day of what you bought.