Medieval settlement at Stanmer

Summary

A medieval settlement on the edge of the South Downs surviving as earthwork tofts, crofts, tenement boundaries, a hollow way and a further lane.

Reasons for Designation

The medieval settlement at Paddock Field, Stanmer, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: the essential elements of the medieval settlement are well defined;
* Potential: the undisturbed earthworks protect below-ground deposits;
* Rarity: no other medieval settlements are protected by scheduling in this part of the South Downs.

History

In the medieval countryside people lived in a wide variety of settlement types from individual farms, through hamlets of a few households, to much larger villages. Many deserted medieval villages were mapped by the Ordnance Survey from the 1860s onwards; however medieval settlements as extant earthworks did not attract much academic research until the mid C20 when the work of Maurice Beresford and WG Hoskins recognised the earthwork remains of medieval ploughing and those of deserted medieval villages. The study of deserted medieval villages was most publicly carried forward by the Deserted Medieval Village Research Group (DMVRG), formed in 1952, which was dedicated to their identification and excavation. In recent years new approaches to the classification of the medieval landscape have developed using the characterisation of areas of the countryside as well as the analysis of medieval settlement plan forms.

The village was a significant part of the rural landscape in most areas of medieval England, much as it is today. Medieval villages can be broadly seen to comprise a small group of houses, gardens, yards, streets, paddocks, often a green, a manor and a church, and with a community devoted primarily to farming. Villages provided some services to the local community as well as acting as the 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 C14 and C15. As a result over 2,000 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.

Stanmer was a manor from at least AD 765 when it was given by the King of the South Saxons to Earl Hunlabe. In 1086 it was held by the Archbishop of Canterbury and of him by the canons of South Mailing. At this time it was assessed for 20 hides (a hide being an area of land considered sufficient to support a family). The manor continued in the possession of the college until it was surrendered to Henry VIII, who then, in 1545, granted it to Sir Thomas Palmer for services and 1,000 marks. The manor, in royal hands, was granted to various private parties until the early C17 when it was sold into private hands. The village apparently had 25 tax payers in 1327, but by 1664 the Hearth Tax return suggest 3 houses, which is thought to be explained by the fact that between 1598 and 1632 John Mitchelbourne, the then owner, incorporated most of the tenants' land into the demesne (the manorial lands held directly by himself rather than being tenanted) and converted the estate into a sheep farm. In 1713 it was sold to the Pelham family, afterwards Earls of Chichester, who in the 1720s built a new house with a designed landscape around it, including the site of the village. The Pelhams retained the estate until the modern era. In 1947 the Chichester estate sold the Stanmer estate to Brighton Council which is the present owner.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION HISTORY
The medieval settlement at Stanmer was subject to geophysical survey by the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society on the 20th October 2013.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
A medieval settlement lying on an east-facing slope and comprising a number of tofts or house platforms, their crofts (gardens), their tenement boundaries to the west of the tofts, a hollow way and bank, and a further NW-SE lane.

DESCRIPTION
At the N end of the site, in what was the N field, is a low bank, about 8m wide, extending from the rear of the gardens, which back onto the E side of the field, to the W boundary of the field. On the N side of this bank is one toft or house platform, and another five tofts continue in a line S to the end of this field where it meets the orchard, a distance of some 148m. These tofts vary in dimensions from about 8m to 10m N-S by 16m to 28m E-W, extending E downslope. The height of the tofts varies from 0.3m to 0.7m when measured on the upslope side, to over 1m on the downslope side. To the W of this row of tofts or house platforms are two further tofts which appear to form a second row; one 10m E-W by 6m N-S and the other roughly 7m square, the space between the first and second row represents a hollow way or trackway through the settlement. To the W of this pair of tofts is a third row which may be a continuation of the second row of tofts. To the W of the tofts are a number of W-E tenement boundaries. In this field is also earthwork evidence of a NE-SW trackway or lane which may equate to a lane shown on the William Figg Estate map of 1799-1800.

The piece of land to the S, W of and adjacent to the present orchard, is no longer a separate field. There is a toft on the corner of the present fence line with the orchard; it extends 16m S along the fence line and to 4m W from the fence line. At the S end of this field, 16m from the S fence, is a bank 2m wide by 0.3m high. Also towards the S end of the field is an amorphous mound about 4m in diameter by 0.2m high with a depression in its centre. It is thought likely that this is of more recent origin. There are three additional W-E tenement boundaries in the south field.

There is also some evidence in both the north and southern parts of the site of croft (garden) boundaries in association with the tofts.

None of the archaeological features appear to have been ploughed in the past.

The scheduled Stanmer medieval settlement lies within the later C18 Stanmer Park, itself a Grade II registered Historic Park and Garden of special historic interest.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The scheduled area extends for about 240m N-S by 120m E-W at its maximum. The whole of the former N and S fields (now conjoined) are included in the scheduling.

All fence posts and drinking troughs are excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath them is included.

End of official list entry