Deserted medieval village

Summary

Deserted medieval village 205m north west of Chapel Farm.

Reasons for Designation

The village, comprising a small group of houses, gardens, yards, streets, paddocks, often with a green, a manor and a church, and with a community devoted primarily to agriculture, was a significant component of the rural landscape in most areas of medieval England, much as it is today. Villages provided some services to the local community and acted as the main focal point of ecclesiastical, and often of manorial, administration within each parish. Although the sites of many of these villages have been occupied continuously down to the present day, many others declined in size or were abandoned throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. As a result over 2000 deserted medieval villages are recorded nationally. The reasons for desertion were varied but often reflected declining economic viability, changes in land use such as enclosure or emparkment, or population fluctuations as a result of widespread epidemics such as the Black Death. As a consequence of their abandonment these villages are frequently undisturbed by later occupation and contain well-preserved archaeological deposits. Because they are a common and long-lived monument type in most parts of England, they provide important information on the diversity of medieval settlement patterns and farming economy between the regions and through time.

Despite dumping, drainage work and levelling caused by agricultural activity the deserted medieval village 205m north west of Chapel Farm will retain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, development, social organisation, longevity, function, domestic arrangements, industrial activity, agricultural practices, abandonment and overall landscape context.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 25 September 2015. The record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

The monument, which falls into two separate areas of protection, includes the deserted medieval village of ‘Walton Cardiff’ situated on the banks and floodplain of a confluence of two tributaries to the Tirle Brook. The village survives differentially as entirely buried building platforms, boundaries, hollow ways and ancillary structures including at least three successive churches within a moat and a manor house or as slight earthworks which are best preserved on the western side. The whole village is bisected by a road. The village was described in documents of 1419. The final church went out of use in 1963 and was subsequently dismantled, although it was built on the site of at least two earlier successive churches. The church site was surrounded by a now buried moat of up to 12m wide.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

GC 460

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape 117942

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