Details

The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of the medieval village
of Sawcliffe and the earthworks of a moated site and later house and garden
features, all located to the south and west of Sawcliffe Farm.
The settlement of Sawcliffe is thought to date from at least the Saxon
period, as the construction of a water pipeline laid along the western
boundary of the monument in 1994 revealed a quantity of Saxon pottery.
Sawcliffe was named in the Domesday Book as Saleclif and was split between
three absentee landlords: the Abbot of Peterborough, Roger de Bully and
Gilbert de Ghent. These three men also held Risby (now the hamlets of High and
Low Risby) and Appleby to the east. Sawcliffe appears to have been badly
affected by the Black Death as it was one of those villages granted over 50
per cent relief from taxation in 1354. Sawcliffe is believed to have been
reduced to a single farm by 1600.
The monument includes two main groups of earthworks. Firstly, there are the
remains of the medieval village of Sawcliffe with its main street with house
platforms and building remains. Secondly, there is a moated site with other
features related to a higher status residence that is thought to have survived
the abandonment of the village. The monument includes a number of additional
earthwork remains.
Towards the centre of the monument there is a rectangular moated island. This
measures approximately 80m east-west and 20m north-south and is surrounded by
a seasonally water-filled moat with a dry causeway across the east end of the
northern moat ditch. The ditch is typically 10m wide with its eastern arm
broadened into a pond. Continuing the line of the western moat arm northwards
there is a 40m long `U' shaped depression about 10m wide and 0.5m deep. From
the north end of this depression there is an 8m wide ditch running eastwards.
These two ditches are interpreted as the unfinished remains of a second larger
moated island to the north of the first. North east of the moated island,
adjacent to and west of one of the buildings of the modern farm, there is a
large 40m by 30m level platform which is identified as the building platform
of the high status house that survived the abandonment of the settlement. To
the south east and slightly downhill from the moated island there is a
slightly curving 140m long ditch running eastwards. This is identified as
an ornamental canal typical of late Tudor and Jacobean gardens. It is also
seasonally water-filled and is about 15m wide and 1.5m deep, with a 10m wide
flat bottom. Most of the upcast of this ditch appears to form a broad bank
running along the south side. This bank overlies, and thus post-dates, the
eastern end of a hollow way that curves across the monument westwards, about
50m south of the south moat ditch. Either side of this hollow way, which was
the main street of the village, there are the earthwork remains of house
platforms standing up to 0.5m high, many with clearly visible remains of
buildings with grassed over stone footings still in situ. Most of these house
platforms lie on the south side of the street, forming an almost continuous
row extending at least 200m beyond western end of the deep ditch. One of the
breaks in this row is for a second hollow way which runs from the main street
SSE from a point south of the eastern end of the moated island. Just to the
west of this there is a raised trackway that curves from the road and forms
the southern boundary of the monument, passing between the moat and the canal.
This trackway, which runs towards the modern Sawcliffe Farm, overlies both the
main street and a house platform and is therefore of a later date.
The monument includes a number of other earthworks. These include at least one
small building platform to the north of the canal, an irregular area of
hollows to its south and, towards the north west corner of the monument, a
slight 7m diameter mound which is considered to be a windmill mound.
A number of features are excluded from the scheduling; these are the
electricity pylon that stands in the south western part of the monument, the
water pipeline maintenance access way that lies close to the western boundary
due west of the moated island, and all modern fencing, although the ground
beneath all these features is included.

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

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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 Lincolnshire Scarp and Vale sub-Province of the
Central Province, which comprises a succession of scarps and vales in which
clay vales with alluvial deposits and a chalk ridge, together with associated
glacial deposits, form the structural framework of the landscape. There is a
very dense scatter of nucleated settlements, many of which are situated in
lines along favoured scarp-foot and dip-slope locations. Large numbers of
medieval village sites now lie wholly or partially deserted. Densities of
dispersed farmsteads are very low.
The Scarp and Vale Country local region is divided by the Lincoln Edge from
the broad Vale of Trent to the west. Chains of ancient village settlements,
some now deserted, are characteristic of the region. They occur where soils
change and springs appear. Densities of dispersed farmsteads are uniformly
low.

Medieval villages were organised agricultural communities, generally sited at
the centre of a parish or township, that shared resources such as arable land,
meadow and woodland. Village plans varied enormously, but where 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 paddocks. They frequently included the parish church
within their boundaries, and as part of the manorial system, most villages
included 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.
Around 6,000 moated sites are known in England. They consist of wide ditches,
often or seasonally water-filled, partly or completely enclosing one or more
islands of dry ground on which stood domestic or religious buildings. In some
cases moated islands were used for horticulture. The majority of moated sites
served as prestigious aristocratic or seigniorial residences with the
provision of a moat primarily as a status symbol rather than as a means of
defence. The peak period of moat building was between about 1250 and 1350 and
by far the greatest concentration lies in central and eastern England. However
moated sites were built throughout the medieval period and are widely
scattered throughout England, demonstrating a wide diversity of forms and
sizes. They are a significant class of medieval monument and are important for
the understanding of the distribution of wealth and status in the countryside.
Many examples provide conditions favourable to the survival of organic
remains.
Sawcliffe retains well preserved earthworks of a small medieval settlement
together with evidence of early post-medieval activity. The canal and moat
ditches, still being seasonally water-filled, will retain waterlogged deposits
with well preserved organic remains. The settlement remains include complete
ground plans of small houses as well as earthwork evidence for the overall
layout of the village. Additional buried remains such as rubbish pits, yard
surfaces, and spreads of deposits such as smithing wastes will add to the
understanding of medieval village life.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
SMR record, Humber Archaeological Partnership, 1705, (1997)
SMR record, Humber Archaeological Partnership, 1996, (1997)

Source: Historic England