Details

This monument consists of the site of the deserted medieval village of Papley,
a moated house and garden site and an associated fishpond all of which lie
just to the north east of Papley farm.
The deserted medieval village of Papley lies to the north of the moat and
fishpond. A holloway 1m deep runs west to east through the site and from this
run roads and tracks at right angles, and the remains of building platforms
can be seen to lie beside the roadways. The area of the village earthworks is
surrounded by the ridge and furrow of medieval fields and there is some
adjacent early quarrying. The village was small in size and records show that
it was depopulated by the early 16th century. The moat lies on the south side
of the village earthworks and was the site of the medieval manor house. The
moat measures approximately 70m x 80m and has ditches on its north, south and
west sides which are u-shaped and waterlogged in parts. A 2m high bank,
possibly a walkway, runs around the length of the outside of the moat ditch,
and on the inner edge of the moat ditch lies a smaller bank about 1m in
height. The ditches form the boundary of an early 17th century garden
belonging to a house built in the 16th century. The earthworks of this garden
seem to overlie the ridge and furrow to the east.
Medieval buildings on the moated site were destroyed after the village was
deserted and were replaced by the 16th century building. In 1670 this house
was also demolished and vestiges of stone foundations can still be seen. Just
to the north east of the moated site lies a substantial fishpond which was
associated with both the medieval village and the later buildings. The pond is
35m long and over 2m deep in parts with retaining stonework in the banks and
at present it holds both water and fish.
The manor at Papley was listed in Domesday and recorded throughout the
medieval period until about 1495, when the owner destroyed seven houses in
Papley and enclosed 200 acres of former common fields. Her grandson was
brought before the Star Chamber in 1539 and charged with similar offences at
Papley. A detailed map of 1632 shows a large farmhouse with a garden on the
site of the present moat.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

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. 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.

Papley deserted medieval village is a very well documented site, which
exhibits a variety of well preserved features including a moat and fishpond.
The largely undisturbed earthworks are likely to preserve considerable
archaeological evidence of occupation, including the remains of houses and
other buildings. The moated site was also the location of a post medieval
house with an associated garden, and the substantial earthworks around the
moat provide unusual archaeological evidence concerning the incorporation of a
medieval moat within a later garden feature.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England, , Archaeological Sites in North East Northamptonshire, (1979), 110-11
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England, , Archaeological Sites in North East Northamptonshire, (1979), 109-111
Taylor, C, The Archaeology of Gardens, (1983), 8, 10

Source: Historic England