Horn deserted medieval village and moated site

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 village of Horn comprises extensive and well preseryed earthworks and a good example of a manorial moat, a surviving medieval landscape that is rare on such a large scale in Leicestershire. As the area is largely undisturbed, it is considered to retain high archaeological potential.

Details

The deserted medieval village of Horn comprises a series of earthworks and a moat lying on a west facing slope 2.5km east of Exton. The village earthworks are ranged along a pronounced hollow way which is up to 2m deep in places and runs west-east up the slope of the hill. Branching off this is a second hollow way which can be traced northwards into a small spinney. Many building platforms and old closes can be seen south of the hollow way, and there are signs of earthworks in the spinney to the north. Across the stream to the west is a moat, measuring approximately 70 x 50m in overall dimensions, partly filled with water. The moat ditch is 8m across and 1.5-2m deep. On the moat island is a large depression on the north east side 8m x 5m and lm deep, with a similar depression on the north west measuring 15 x 5m indicating manorial building foundations. There is a channel leading into the stream on the south east. An outer enclosure formed by a low bank lies to the west of the moat, and further building platforms lie to the north. Horn is listed in the Domesday survey and referred to in the 13th century, but by 1376 the principal manor was declared to be almost valueless. By 1384 the whole village is described as `wasted and destroyed'. The village was given taxation relief in 1445 and 1489 indicating its general poverty and decline by the end of the 15th century.

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:

17021

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of Rutland, (1911), 138-40
Hartley, R F, The Medieval Earthworks of Rutland, (1983), 22-3

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