Medieval settlement and part of field system at Castletown Farm

Reasons for Designation

Medieval rural settlements in England were marked by great regional diversity in form, size and type, and the protection of their archaeological remains needs to take these differences into account. To do this, England has been divided into three broad Provinces on the basis of each area's distinctive mixture of nucleated and dispersed settlements. These can be further divided into sub-Provinces and local regions, possessing characteristics which have gradually evolved during the past 1500 years or more. This monument lies in the Cheshire Plain sub-Province of the Northern and Western Province, a gently rolling plain of red marl covered by ice-carried clays, sands and gravels. It is diversified by occasional sandstone escarpments, notably the Central Cheshire Ridge east of the Dee valley. It has lower densities of nucleated settlements than surrounding areas, and high concentrations of dispersed farmsteads and small hamlets. In the Wirral and the lower Dee and Weaver valleys, the settlement mix is different, with low and medium densities of dispersed farmsteads intermixed with more frequent villages. Domesday Book records a thin scatter of settlement in the Wirral, the Dee lowlands and the central and southern plain in 1086, with much woodland.

Medieval villages were organised agricultural communities, sited at the centre of a parish or township, that shared resources such as arable land, meadow and woodland. Village plans varied enormously, but when they survive as earthworks their most distinguishing features include roads and minor tracks, platforms on which stood houses and other buildings such as barns, enclosed crofts and small enclosed paddocks. They frequently included the parish church within their boudaries, and as part of the manorial system most villages included one or more manorial centres which may also survive as visible remains as well as below ground deposits. In the Central Province of England, villages were the most distinctive aspect of medieval life and their archaeological remains are one of the most important sources of understanding about rural life in the five or more centuries following the Norman Conquest. Medieval villages were supported by a communal system of agriculture based on large unenclosed open arable fields. These large fields were subdivided into strips, known as lands, which were allocated to individual tenants. The cultivation of these strips with heavy ploughs pulled by teams of oxen produced long wide ridges, and the resultant 'ridge and furrow' where it survives is the most obvious physical indication of the open field system. Individual strips were laid out in groups known as furlongs defined by terminal headlands at the plough turning points and lateral grass balks. Furlongs were in turn grouped into large open fields. Well-preserved ridge and furrow, especially in its original context next to village earthworks, is both an important source of information about medieval agrarian life and a distinctive contribution to the character of the historic landscape. It is usually now covered by the hedges and walls of later field enclosure. The earthwork remains of the village at Castletown Farm together with well-defined ridge and furrow furlongs to the east survive well. Their close association with the remains of Shocklach Castle and the Norman church at Church Shocklach form an historic surviving landscape of the medieval period.

Details

The monument includes the house platforms (tofts) and the small enclosures (crofts) of a medieval settlement situated to the north and south of Castletown Farm. It is in two areas of protection. In the fields to the east of the settlement are substantial remains of the cultivation strips known as ridge and furrow. The settlement was associated with a motte and bailey castle, Shocklach Castle built c.1100, and a later moated site 500m to the west. A church of Norman date stands at Church Shocklach 600m to the south. The remains of the settlement extend across the boundary between the present parishes of Grafton and Caldecott and consist of the tofts for at least three houses on the southern side of the farm and three or four tofts and crofts to the north. Originally these two areas of settlement would have been linked but the later construction of Castletown Farm has divided the two areas and obscured evidence of the settlement beneath it. The well-preserved blocks of earthwork ridge and furrow to the east with their headlands represent part of the open fields cultivated by the villagers during the medieval period. All post and wire fences are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

30391

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Williams, S, West Cheshire from the Air, (1997), 42-43

End of official list entry

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