Summary

Sheriff’s Naunton deserted medieval village 300m west of the church of St Bartholomew.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 21 May 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

The monument includes a deserted medieval village and moated manor house situated west of Naunton Beauchamp. The deserted medieval settlement survives as banked enclosures, building platforms, holloways and ridge and furrow. The enclosures are mainly rectangular in plan and orientated east to west and these define tenements or gardens of varying sizes. The manor house survives as an earthwork, moat and leat with a holloway that runs east from south of Naunton Court towards Piddle Brook with a spur to the moat which is fed by a stream. Pottery found on the site dates from the late 15th to early 16th century. The medieval village was probably created during the 13th or 14th centuries, however by the 16th century the village was merged with Naunton Beauchamp. The moated manor house may have been the home of Roger Aldbury in 1463.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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. 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 which provide important information on the diversity of medieval settlement patterns and farming economy through time.

Sheriff’s Naunton deserted medieval village survives well in a ploughed arable setting with a few later interventions of houses on the western side. The monument will include important archaeological structures, layers and deposits containing information relating to its construction, use and abandonment as well as environmental material concerning the surrounding landscape. Moated sites also provide conditions favourable to the survival of organic remains.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Pastscape Monument No:-118307 and 118300

Source: Historic England