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 last 1500 years or more.
This monument lies in the Trent sub-Province of the Central Province, where
the broad Trent valley swings in a great arc across midland England. Underlain
by heavy clays, it is given variety by superficial glacial and alluvial
deposits. Although treated as a single sub-Province, it has many subtle
variations. Generally, it is characterised by a great number of villages and
hamlets which cluster thickly along scarp-foot and scarp-tail zones, locations
suitable for exploiting the contrasting terrains. Throughout the sub-Province
there are very low and extremely low densities of dispersed farmsteads, some
of which are ancient, but most of which are 18th-century and later movement of
farms out of earlier villages.
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 include the parish church
within their boundaries, and as part of the manorial system most villages
include 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 for understanding 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 oxen-teams 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 or lands were laid out in groups known as furlongs defined by terminal
headlands at the plough turning-points and lateral grass baulks. Furlongs were
in turn grouped into large open fields. Well preserved ridge and furrow,
especially in its original context adjacent 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 or walls of subsequent field enclosure.
Colleges were occasionally part of medieval settlements. The term college is
used to describe a variety of different types of establishment whose
communities of secular clergy shared a degree of common life less strictly
controlled than that within a monastic order. Although some may date to as
early as the tenth century, the majority of English colleges were founded in
the 14th and 15th centuries. Most were subsequently closed down under the
Chantries Act of 1547.
Colleges of the prebendal or portional type were set up as secular chapters,
both as an alternative to the structure of contemporary monastic houses and to
provide positions for clerics whose services the monastic establishment wished
to reward. Some barons followed suit by setting up colleges within their
castles, while others were founded by the Crown for the canons who served
royal free chapters. Foundations of this type were generally staffed by
prebends or portioners (priests taking their income from the tithes, or other
income deriving from a village or manor). After 1300, chantry colleges became
more common. These were establishments of priests, financed from a common
fund, whose prime concern was to offer masses for the souls of the patron and
the patron's family. They may also have housed bedesmen (deserving poor and
elderly) and provided an educational facility which in some cases eventually
came to dominate their other activities.
From historical sources it is known that approximately 300 separate colleges
existed in the early medieval and the medieval period of which 64 were chantry
colleges. Colleges are very important contributors to our understanding of
ecclesiastical history.
The wealthier members of the village community, in addition to regulating the
communal agricultural system, often maintained fishponds and dovecotes for
their own private supply of meat. Both fishponds and dovecotes were an
expression of wealth and status during the medieval period and later and are
usually attached to monastic institutions or the main manorial complex. Most
surviving examples of dovecotes were built in the period between the 14th and
17th centuries. They were generally freestanding structures, square or
circular in plan and normally of brick or stone with nesting boxes built into
the interior wall. They were constructed for the breeding and management of
doves in order to provide a constant and sustainable supply of meat, eggs and
manure.
The building of fishponds began in the medieval period and peaked in the 12th
century. The difficulty of obtaining fresh meat in the winter and the value
placed on fish in terms of its protein content and as a status food may have
been factors which favoured the development of fishponds and which made them
so valuable. The practice of constructing fishponds declined after the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century although in some areas it
continued into the 17th century. Documentary sources provide a wealth of
information about the way fishponds were managed. The main species of fish
kept were eel, tench, pickerel, bream, perch and roach. Most fishponds were
located close to villages, manors or monasteries or within parks so that a
watch could be kept on them to prevent poaching. Archaeologically, fishponds
are important for their association with other classes of medieval monument
and in providing evidence of site economy.
The earthwork and standing remains of the deserted areas of Sibthorpe medieval
village are particularly well preserved and retain significant archaeological
deposits. The diversity of the archaeological remains compliment the extensive
documentary evidence and together provide a rare historical sequence for the
village and an insight into its wealth and importance. Taken as a whole
Sibthorpe village will add greatly to our knowledge and understanding of the
development of medieval settlement in the area.
Details
The monument includes the standing, buried and earthwork remains of the
deserted areas of Sibthorpe medieval village. The site is situated
approximately 200m south east and south west of Manor Farm and is in two areas
of protection.
Sibthorpe is first documented in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it is
recorded that the village was owned by at least four manors. The value of the
land at that time totalled five pounds. At the beginning of the 14th century
the lord of the manor was Simon Sibthorpe who lived in Hawksworth. Thomas
Sibthorpe, his younger brother, was a clerk in the King's service, and
instigated many changes in the village of Sibthorpe. In 1320 he built a chapel
to the north of, but attached to, Sibthorpe church dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin and St Anne but which later changed its dedication to the Blessed
Virgin, St John the Baptist and St Thomas the Martyr. The chapel took the form
of a northern aisle to the church, and fabric in the northern wall of the
existing church does show an original arcade which is now blocked. Earthworks
to the north of the church indicate the survival of the remains of the chapel
beneath the ground surface. Both the north and a south aisle are recorded as
being dismantled in 1662.
Thomas Sibthorpe financed a permanent warden and assistant priest to perform
services at the church. By 1327 much of the land in Sibthorpe and surrounding
villages had come into his possession as did the advowson of the church (the
authority to appoint members of the clergy). Thomas Sibthorpe established a
chantry house which over time was enlarged into a college of chantry priests
and became a large and important foundation. In December 1345 Edward III
gave the chapel of St Mary in Sibthorpe, including the warden, chaplains,
their lands and possessions, his protection. In 1399 further lands were given
to the church by Thomas Sibthorpe. By this time there were eight chaplains,
three clerks and a warden in the college. When the `Valor Ecclesiasticus' was
drawn up in 1534 the gross value of the college was declared at thirty one
pounds one shilling and 2d of which thirteen pounds six shillings and 8d came
from the rectory. Surrender to the Crown of the property held by the college
in Sibthorpe, Hawksworth, Flintham, Beckingham, Kneeton, Syerston, Elston,
Stainton and Shelton was signed by Thomas Magnus, the warden, on 17th April
1545. The college of Sibthorpe and its lands was subsequently granted by Henry
VIII in 1546 to Richard Walley, whose widow married Edward Burnell. It is
documented that Burnell had a large house at Sibthorpe but by 1790 nothing of
the house survived except a large dovecote and the field name `the park'.
Today the dovecote is the most prominent feature of the village.
The park lies to the south of the dovecote and Car Dyke. The land granted to
Richard Walley was enclosed by him, but was eventually acquired by William
Cavendish, Earl (and later Duke) of Newcastle who commissioned William Senior
to undertake a drawing of the estate in 1629. The map covers most of the
parish, is very detailed and many of the features shown still form the basis
of the current village plan. Sibthorpe remains a thriving village today with
modern settlement lying to the north and north west of the church. In the
medieval period the village extended across fields to the east of the church
and west of Church Lane.
The monument survives as a series of earthworks and buried remains. The
exception to this is the dovecote which remains as a standing structure to its
original height. In the field to the east of the church is evidence of a
sunken trackway running north to south across the field, although the northern
half is less well defined. The trackway is approximately 2.5m wide and
survives to a depth of 0.5m. The track leads to Car Dyke and at the point
where it meets the dyke there is evidence of a coursed stone structure
protruding from the western bank of the track. This has been interpreted as
the foundations of a bridge which would have facilitated the crossing of the
dyke. It may also have provided a through route to Top Green moat and
fishponds which lie 350m further to the south west and which are the subject
of a separate scheduling. Any physical links between the two sites will have
been degraded when the field to the south of Car Dyke was enclosed as a park
early in the post-medieval period and by later ploughing.
To the east of the trackway is a large rectangular enclosure which is defined
on the west and south sides by a narrow, low bank approximately 2m wide and
0.5m high. The north and east side of the enclosure is defined by a wide
ditch approximately 10m wide and up to 0.75m deep. The ditch on the east side
continues in a northerly direction beyond the enclosure for approximately 110m
and is currently used for drainage. The ditch continues south but is broken by
a modern gateway leading to a field to the east. The enclosure measures
approximately 90m north to south and 73m east to west and contains a number of
irregular earthworks. A series of rectangular platforms abut the trackway on
the east side and mark the positions of medieval houses. The platforms are
aligned east to west and are defined by low banks. The banks are created by
buried remains of walls.
To the west of the trackway and approximately 30m north of Car Dyke is the
dovecote (Listed Grade I). The circular stone structure measures 10m in
diameter at the base and tapers in towards the top and has a conical, tiled
roof. It is built of limestone with single courses of brick and tile inserted
at random. A low doorway provides access on the western side of the building.
Inside, the walls are divided into 28 horizontal bands with each band
containing 40 or 42 nesting boxes. The dovecote was probably associated
with the 14th century occupation of the site, although the 17th century map
does not depict it in its current position. A circular feature within the same
field, but a little further to the north, may represent the former location
of the dovecote, implying that it was moved at a later date.
South west of the dovecote are a series of six fishponds. Two pairs of
rectangular ponds aligned east to west and measuring up to 38m in length and
12m wide are divided by two smaller rectangular ponds aligned north to south.
The ponds survive to a depth of 0.75m and are shown clearly on the 17th
century map. The ponds are linked by shallow channels with outlet channels
leading to Car Dyke. Further earthworks can be seen in the field to the east
of the church. The layout of these is not clearly discernible on the ground
but the earthworks do indicate that more than one phase of occupation is
represented. This area was the site of college buildings and possibly the
later house occupied by Edward Burnell.
To the south west of the fishponds, west of Church Lane and just south of Car
Dyke, is a pair of moated enclosures. The ditches were infilled in 1967 and
have been ploughed ever since but still show as low earthworks on the ground
and even more clearly on recent aerial photographs. The features showing on
the photographs match very closely to a published earthwork survey of the moat
dating to 1908. There are two separate moated platforms enclosed by one large
ditch. The platform closest to the road is rectangular in shape, aligned east
to west and measures approximately 23m wide and 40m long. The ditch is 10m
wide on the eastern side but widens out towards the west to enclose the
larger, more elaborate platform. The second platform is square in shape and
measures approximately 18m by 18m. It is surrounded on all sides by a double
bank and ditch system. The internal bank measures approximately 8m wide with
evidence of a narrow entrance to the north west. Surrounding this is a ditch
again measuring approximately 8m across. This in turn is enclosed by another,
slightly wider bank, measuring approximately 10m wide with evidence of a
narrow entrance just west of the north facing corner. The whole of this
complex is then enclosed by the ditch surrounding and extending from the
rectangular platform. It is difficult to establish what the moats were used
for but remains of structures are likely to survive on the platforms beneath
the plough zone.
To the north of Car Dyke and to the west of Church Lane are the well preserved
remains of part of the open field system. The surviving remains are visible as
parts of four medieval furlongs (groups of lands or cultivation strips) marked
by headlands. The cultivation strips collectively form ridge and furrow. The
ridge and furrow is curved in the shape of an elongated reverse `S'. This
shape developed over the years from the need to swing the plough team out at
the end of a strip to enable it to turn and to continue ploughing in the
opposite direction. In the south east corner of the same field, adjacent to
Church Lane and north of Car Dyke, are at least two rectangular platforms
defined by low banks. These mark the position of medieval buildings and may be
the site of a mill. On the 17th century map of the village the adjacent fields
are called mil close' and mil close head' but no buildings are depicted. The
field names probably relate to an earlier building which was no longer
standing at the time when the map was drawn.
The existing church of St Peter (Listed Grade I) and grave marker stones and
all modern fences, gates, playground equipment and metalled surfaces 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.
