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 Midland Plateau sub-Province of the Northern
and Western Province, which is marked by a series of low plateaux and
escarpments, often with rather sandy soils, and great clay vales containing
alluvial and gravel terraces. Still well wooded in 1086, the area embraced
forests such as Kinver, Feckenham, Cannock and Arden. Compared with the land
to the east, the area had significantly lower numbers of nucleations and, with
the exception of the Severn valley, carried a mixture of medium to very high
densities of dispersed settlement. This included diverse hamlets, common-edge
scatters of small farms and cottages, and isolated larger farmsteads,
generally moated, many being of medieval foundation.
The Upper Trent and Dove local region is marked by varied terrain. The
alluvial tracts and terraces of the Trent and Dove mask a core clay lowland,
with Needwood Forest forming the watershed, while to the north and south are
the rising lands of Cannock Chase and the southern Pennines. It has low
densities of nucleated settlement, and medium and high densities of dispersed
settlement. Placenames indicate much woodland in the early Middle Ages.
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 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 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.
The earthwork and buried remains of the abandoned areas of the medieval
settlement of Callow are well-preserved and retain significant archaeological
deposits. The earthworks, aerial photographs and documentary evidence provide
a clear indication of the village layout and how it fitted within the wider
agricultural landscape. Taken as a whole the medieval settlement of Callow
will add greatly to our knowledge and understanding of the development and
subsequent shrinkage of medieval settlement in the area.
Details
The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of the abandoned areas
of Callow medieval settlement. The monument is aligned east to west and is
situated at 240m above sea level on a south facing slope to the south of
Callow Lane.
In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is documented that Callow was held by the king
and contained two carucates of land. A carucate was approximately 120 acres,
an area large enough for a plough team of eight oxen. The settlement was one
of several berewicks belonging to Wirksworth manor. A berewick was a
settlement which was physically separate from the village where the lord lived
but was still governed as part of the manorial estate. A moated site lies
approximately 200m south east of the monument and is protected by a separate
scheduling. This would have served as a prestigious home probably for someone
who was appointed by the king to govern the settlement.
The monument survives as a series of earthworks which, at its western end,
appear as a series of rectangular enclosures lying side by side at right
angles to Callow Lane. The enclosures are interpreted as crofts or small
holdings and front onto a wide, shallow gully which runs north to south
through the monument. The gully is interpreted as a sunken track. A total of
five crofts are defined by a series of banks which survive up to 0.5m in
height and represent the buried remains of walls. The layout is most clearly
seen from aerial photographs where smaller rectangular features are evident
within some of the enclosures. The smaller features are interpreted as the
sites of medieval buildings or tofts.
A second series of crofts, again lying at right angles to Callow Lane, are
visible to the east of the footpath which crosses the monument from north to
south. The footpath continues on the north side of Callow Lane where it
follows an existing sunken track. Aerial photographs indicate that the sunken
track continued to the south but in the area of protection and further south
the trackway has been infilled and is only just visible on the ground surface
as a shallow gully. A total of three crofts are evident fronting onto the
sunken track and again these contain smaller rectangular features interpreted
as tofts.
A third group of at least two crofts is visible at the eastern end of the
monument fronting onto what is now the access track to Callow Hall. The ground
rises up to 2m on both sides of the track and although there have been some
relatively recent alterations to its layout it is suggested that the origin of
the track lies in the medieval period. The tofts lie at a forty five degree
angle to Callow Lane suggesting their alignment was dictated by the sunken
track rather than Callow Lane. These crofts are slightly terraced into the
slope and at their western end banks, surviving up to 0.5m in height, define
the position of tofts. This group of crofts and tofts is more clearly visible
on the ground surface than those at the western end of the monument.
Raised terraces indicating the position of building platforms are also evident
on the eastern side of the access track to Callow Hall. In this area a covered
car port has been sunk into the side of the sunken trackway and although this
will have degraded the remains in the immediate area it does not detract from
the overall importance of the monument.
The tofts and crofts at the east and west ends of the monument are linked by
remains of part of the medieval open field system. These are visible as parts
of at least two furlongs (groups of lands or cultivation strips) marked by
headlands. The cultivation strips collectively form ridge and furrow which
survive to a height of approximately 0.25m. A bank approximately 5m wide and
surviving to a height of about 0.35m runs along the southern edge of the
central section of the monument. This is interpreted as a balk, a grassy bank
generally used to mark out particularly significant groups of lands, such as
blocks of demesne lands (belonging to the manorial home farm) or major-sub
divisions in the fields. In the context of Callow the balk separates the open
fields to the south, possibly belonging to Callow Hall, from the settlement to
the north. Aerial photographs indicate that ridge and furrow did exist to the
south of the balk but this has been seriously degraded and is not therefore
included in the scheduling.
Approximately 100m west of the access track to Callow Hall, adjacent to Callow
Lane and within the area of the scheduling, are the remains of a small quarry.
This has been worked in relatively recent times and the hollow created is now
used to store stone. Slightly further south are the earthwork remains of what
is interpreted as an earlier post-medieval quarry. This is evident as an oval
shaped hollow which is marked on its southern side by a raised stone bank.
All modern surfaces, field boundaries and the covered car port 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.
