West Mudford medieval settlement, 500m south west of West Mudford 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 last 1500 years or more. This monument lies in the West Wessex sub-Province of the Central Province, an area characterised by large numbers of villages and hamlets within countrysides of great local diversity, ranging from flat marshland to hill ridges. Settlements range from large, sprawling villages to tiny hamlets, a range extended by large numbers of scattered dwellings in the extreme east and west of the sub-Province. Cultivation in open townfields was once present, but early enclosure was commonplace. The physical diversity of the landscape was, by the time of Domesday Book in 1086, linked with great variations in the balance of cleared land and woodland. The Somerset Levels and Polden Hills local region is divided into two parts by the low ridge of the Poldens. Settlements are few on the wide green wetlands, but the land is intricate enough to bring ridges, islands and tongues of higher land into close contact with the Levels. It is at the junction between these dry lands and wetlands that ancient villages and hamlets are to be found.

The medieval settlement of West Mudford, 500m south west of West Mudford Farm, is a good example of a nucleated medieval settlement in this subprovince, retaining prominant earthworks which mark the locations of village features. The monument will contain archaeological deposits and environmental evidence relating to the settlement and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a medieval settlement on high ground on the west bank of the River Yeo in South Somerset. The settlement includes earthworks indicating the sites of houses and other village features, and to the north of these is evidence of medieval agriculture in the form of two fields defined by field boundaries. The area containing the village features is surrounded on its south, east and west sides by a bank which is 1m high in places and a ditch 6m wide. Within this area are three water-filled ponds and one depression marking the site of a fourth pond. From the pond on the south west side of the site a village street runs north west with four house platforms on its north side and two on its south side. The site of the dry pond, which is 12m in diameter and 1m deep, is on the south side of this village street. The street bends to the north with two house platforms on either side of it, each about 1m high and about 15m long and 10m wide. Another branch of the village street runs south with a house platform on either side. On the north side of the village earthworks the surrounding bank merges into the first bank of the medieval field system. On the east side of the site is another earth bank 0.75m high and 9m wide which forms the east boundary of the medieval fields. This bank continues south to end in a number of house platforms. The medieval fields are sub-divided by east-west banks 0.5m high and 8m wide forming two fields each about 50m wide. Documentary evidence indicates that the village was known as Mudford Terry in 1316, and eight people were assessed here in the lay subsidy. The settlement is also mentioned in the late 13th and early 14th century, and again in the Tudor period. There are the remains of a well head of undetermined date close to the field gate. The post and wire fences and the iron gate 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:

28854

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
SMR No 54329, Somerset C. C. SMR,

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