Enclosures in park of Sherbourne House, 200yds (180m) NE of church

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1002989

Date first listed: 11-Jan-1971

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

National Grid Reference: SP 26478 61421

Summary

Two enclosed Romano-British farmsteads 450m south-east of Sherbourne Manor.

Reasons for Designation

Later Iron Age and Romano-British occupation included a range of settlement types. The surviving remains comprise farmsteads, hamlets, villages and hillforts, which together demonstrate an important sequence of settlement. The non-defensive enclosed farm or homestead represents the smallest and simplest of these types. Most early examples are characterised by a curvilinear enclosure with circular domestic buildings and associated agricultural structures. Where excavated, these sites are also found to contain pits or rectangular post- built structures for the storage of grain and other produce, evidence of an organised and efficient farming system. The surrounding enclosures would have provided protection against cattle rustling and tribal raiding. The simple farmsteads are sometimes superseded by rectilinear or triangular shaped enclosures with rectilinear buildings and many examples were occupied over an extended period and some grew in size and complexity. In central and southern England, most enclosed Iron Age farmsteads are situated in areas which are now under intensive arable cultivation. As a result, although some examples survive with upstanding earthworks, the majority have been recorded as crop- and soil-marks appearing on aerial photographs. Despite cultivation the two enclosed Romano-British farmsteads 450m south-east of Sherbourne Manor survive comparatively well and will retain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, development, longevity, function, chronological relationship between features, agricultural practices, domestic arrangements and overall landscape

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 2 June 2015. This 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. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

This monument includes two enclosed Romano-British farmsteads and medieval features including a drove road and strip fields situated on the floodplain of the River Avon. The prehistoric farmsteads and medieval features all survive as entirely buried structures layers and deposits visible as crop and soil marks on aerial photographs with no surface remains. There are a series of complex crop marks which include a medieval drove road with associated rectangular strip fields running from it which have been superimposed over a D-shaped and double ditched roughly rectangular enclosure. There are also indications on some photographs of hut structures within the latter enclosure.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number: WA 142

Legacy System: RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape 333589
Warwickshire HER 967

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.