Deserted medieval village of Newsham

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.

The deserted medieval village of Newsham survives as visible earthworks, including house platforms and hollow ways which will retain archaeological information relating to the medieval period; information on the layout of the village and the structural form and function of buildings will be preserved, as will information on its date. There are good historical references to the site which link it to the modern shrunken villages of Bempton and Buckton.

Details

The monument includes a group of earthworks, the remains of the deserted
medieval village of Newsham, situated on the south eastern side of the modern
village of Bempton, between Bolam Lane and Newsham Hill Lane.
The earthworks include a series of north facing platforms, each with a long
house at its northern end, original north-south aligned streets and lanes with
one prominent hollow way, the remains of a pond and several quarry pits,
probably dating to a later period. Present day turf levels suggest the
existence of building foundations just below the surface.
Newsham is not included in the Domesday Survey. The Manor of Newsholme and
five blocks of arable land were held by Erwin during Edward the Confessor's
reign; in 1086 it is referred to as `Nivvehusum', held by one Drogo. The first
reference to it as Newsham occurs in 1284-5, when it appears to be included as
part of Buckton and Bempton, both of which survive as shrunken villages to the
present. The village or hamlet must have always been adjacent to the parent
township of Bempton, as its area is indicated in the Tithe Award to have
formed the southern part of Bempton parish.
In 1299 the village belonged to the Canterbury fee. In the 13th century,
Bridlington priory received the lordship of Newsham as a gift from Stephen de
Meynell and held it until its last mention in 1441. By the next reference in
1535, Newsham is no longer mentioned and it is believed that the village was
deserted at an early stage, probably sometime before the 16th century.
In the field to the west side of the site there is a gravestone of one Henry
Jarratt, who was said to have committed suicide in 1721.
All modern post and wire fencing and modern animal water and feed dispensers
are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features
is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 3 June 2025 to amend the language in the description

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

26520

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of East Riding of Yorkshire, (1974), 12
Beresford, M W, Yorks. Archaeological Journal in The Lost Villages of Yorkshire, Vol. 38, (1952), 65

Other
Bastow, M., AM107, (1987)
Coppack, G, AM7, (1973)
Humberside SMR, Sites and Monuments Records Sheet, (1994)

End of official list entry

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