Details

The monument includes an occupation and metalworking site of the early
Christian to Saxon, or `Dark Age', period, and an associated cemetery
continuing in use into the medieval period. The site was revealed by
excavation and lies below the present day ground surface.
On the north and west of the site lies an area of occupation dated to at least
the fifth to eight centuries AD. Remains are preserved here of a metalworking
site as well as settlement and burials. Ditches, pathways and structural
features such as postholes and mortar layers were revealed by excavation,
though the excavation trenches were too narrow to allow the plan of any of
these structures to be seen. The metalworking hearths are on the east of the
site, and quantities of metal slag and charcoal are present. There is an
indication that the hearths were abandoned suddenly at the end of their use.
From this phase were recovered several sherds of pottery of a rare type dating
to the late fifth or sixth centuries AD. There is currently no evidence for
pottery being made in Britain in these centuries, and the only sherds found
come from wares imported from places such as the eastern Mediterranean. Such
pottery is only found at a handful of sites in Britain along the western
coasts, and usually indicates either a place of high status or perhaps an
early monastic site.
The remains become more concentrated towards the east of the monument and it
is thought that the main part of the site lies below the area of the old
Eastbury Farm buildings and by the road. The settlement evidence which occurs
in this area is covered by a layer of occupation debris dating to the 13th
century or earlier. It is likely that the early settlement extends beneath the
remaining areas of the site, though excavations in these areas did not go
below the later layers.
The medieval cemetery lies in the south west part of the site, in an area
bounded to the north by the wall of what is now the old vicarage garden. A
large number of skeletons were uncovered, interred in an east-west direction.
Successive years of burials had disturbed earlier graves, and later skeletons
had become mixed with those below. Amongst the 18 burials seen were those of a
new-born child and a juvenile, suggesting that the cemetery was being used for
the general population. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the latest burials are
from the 12th to the 16th centuries.
Structural features were also present, some of which were earlier than the
burials, whilst others were integral to the cemetery towards the latter period
of its use. The wall between the vicarage garden and the paddock to the north
seems to correspond to the original boundary of the medieval cemetery, whilst
burials from the earlier period extend beyond this. The boundary may thus be
of some antiquity.
Records from the 19th century tell of skeletons being found over a wider area,
between the vicarage and Eastbury Farm. The number of burials in the cemetery
is estimated at several hundred.
From about the 13th century onwards much of the site was used as water meadow,
enriched by deliberate flooding, and a thick layer of silty soil overlies the
remains.
Documentary records show settlement here from at least the ninth century.
Carhampton may take its name from an early Christian saint, Carantoc. Monastic
legends written in the 11th/12th centuries tell how, centuries before, Saint
Carantoc built a church at Carhampton, and later a monastery and another
church, on land given to him by King Arthur. In the mid ninth century
Carhampton was raided twice by the Vikings, and the Saxon kings who fought
them were defeated. The area subsequently seems to have been taken into Crown
jurisdiction for reorganisation of the coastal defences, by King Alfred and
his son King Edward, and in Alfred's will of 899 he compensates monks at
Cheddar for the loss of Carhampton.
By 1066 it was part of the royal lands of Edward the Confessor, and in the
Domesday Book compiled soon after the Norman Conquest it is recorded as part
of a grouping of several manors. There were two churches here in the Norman
period. In 1180 they were given to Wells Cathedral, and later in the mid 13th
century made over to Dunster priory. One of the churches is the present Church
of St John, a common dedication of the 10th/11th centuries. The other was
dedicated to St Carantoc, and may have originally been the monastic church.
By the late 13th century changes are evident in the structure of the village.
Only one church is mentioned, and the first records of a number of small
manors appear. One of these manors is Eastbury, the manor house for which
stood on the site of the present Eastbury Farm. Archaeologically, this is the
period when the boundaries of the medieval cemetery appear to be defined, and
the water meadow system was introduced on the fields which now covered the
rest of the site. The old church of St Carantoc may have continued in use as a
private chapel, as the antiquary Leland in the 1540s records `a Chapel of this
Sainct that sumtyme was the Paroche Chirche'.
There are no mentions of the church and cemetery after this until the early
1800s when it seems that the building was gone and the location of the
cemetery forgotten. Workmen digging in orchards and gardens between the (old)
vicarage and Eastbury Farm came across stone and cement `ruins' with many
human bones and skeletons `lying as if decently buried'. This was interpreted
as the site of Lelend's Chapel of St Carantoc.
Excluded from the scheduling are all modern structures and fence posts, though
the ground beneath these features is included.

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

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Settlements dating to the fifth and sixth centuries are rarely identified in
western England due to the lack of distinctive artefacts. Those sites which
are identified on the basis of imported pottery are usually in defensive
locations and represent either high status sites or monastic establishments.
Such sites were never common and often survive poorly due to their continued
use. The centuries after the collapse of the Roman administration which saw
the establishment of kingdoms among the British and Anglo-Saxons are the
most poorly understood historical period in Britain. Any sites from this
period that survive substantially intact and undisturbed will be identified as
nationally important.
The site at Carhampton contains well preserved remains of this date,
associated with metal-working. It also contains evidence of the continuing use
of the site by the earliest Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of the area and subsequent
medieval activity. The cemetery is likely to be associated with the earliest
use of the site and contain an important sequence of evidence relating to
changes in the population through time.
The earlier remains are deeply buried, and potentially waterlogged, and will
contain evidence relating to the environment, agriculture, diet and industry
of the period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Savage, J, A History of the Hundred of Carhampton, (1830), 286-8
Savage, J, A History of the Hundred of Carhampton, (1830), 286-8
Other
Dunning, R, The Churches of Carhampton, 1993, Unpub.comm.,Somerset County Council
Dunning, R, The Churches of Carhampton, 1993, Unpub.comm.,Somerset County Council
Held by Somerset County Council, Hollinrake, C & N, (Various) Eastbury Farm and the Old Vicarage, Carhampton CE93&94, (1994)
Held by Somerset County Council, Hollinrake, C & N, (Various) Eastbury Farm and the Old Vicarage, Carhampton. CE93-4, (1993)
Hollinrake, N, (1994)
In Somerset County Council, Hollinrake, C and N, The Old Vicarage, Carhampton. CE93, (1993)
In Somerset County Council, Hollinrake, C and N, The Old Vicarage, Carhampton. CE93, (1993)
Webster, CJ, Pottery from Carhampton Bypass Evaluation, Site Code CE94, 1994, Unpub.report, Somerset County Council

Source: Historic England