Details

The monument includes the remains of the medieval village of North Middleton,
situated on each side of a small tributary of Coldgate Water. The village is
divided into three areas by the stream and by a hollow way aligned roughly
east-west. Two rows of small plots, with smaller enclosures and platforms
which represent at least six buildings, face each other across the hollow way.
The remains survive as banks of earth and stone on average 0.3m to 0.7m high
but in places stand up to 1.2m high. The walls of some buildings are exposed
and show that they are constructed of stone with clay bonding. The buildings
range between 8m and 27m long and some are divided into three or four
compartments. A well lies on the south side of the hollow way and is covered
with a millstone. To the north of the well there are the remains of what is
thought to be a kiln; it survives as a turf covered mound and is roughly key-
hole shaped in plan. Two areas of ridge and furrow cultivation lie at the
north east and west of the village and measure an average 4m wide from ridge
to ridge.
Documentary evidence suggests that the remains are those of North Middleton,
originally called Midilest Middleton, first mentioned in 1242. In 1296 there
were eight taxpayers and in 1580 11 tenants. By 1759 the vill was let to a
single tenant but the settlement is thought to have migrated in the late 18th
century with only a few buildings still standing at the old site c.1800.
A number of features are excluded from the scheduling; these are the two
ruined modern cottages on the north side of the village and the associated
stone field walls which run across the northern part of the site; however, 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

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 Wear-Tweed sub-Province of the Central Province, an
area long characterised, except for the western margins, by nucleated
settlements both surviving and deserted. Variations within the sub-Province
reflect land ownership as well as terrain: on some estates in Northumberland
there was much dispersal of farmsteads and consequent village and hamlet
depopulation after the Middle Ages, whereas Durham saw greater stability
because of ecclesiastical control. An overlay of mining settlements adds
complexity to the coalfield areas.
The Cheviot Margin local region is a narrow transition zone between two
contrasting areas, the high moorlands of the Cheviots and the agriculturally
favourable lowlands of the Tweed Valley and the Northumbrian Vales. Fieldwork
has shown that this region retains archaeological traces likely to date from
many periods, providing evidence for sequences of land occupation. Medieval
settlements are mainly in the form of small hamlets and isolated farmsteads.

Medieval villages were organised agricultural communities, sited at the centre
of a parish or township, that shared resources such as arable land, meadow and
woodland. Village plans varied enormously, but when 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
small enclosed paddocks. They frequently included the parish church within
their boundaries, and as part of the manorial system most villages include 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.
Most nucleated villages were surrounded by a series of unenclosed fields known
as an open field system. Open field systems originated before AD 1000 and
continued in use throughout the Middle Ages. However, recent work has
shown that some open field systems preserve the fossilized remains of earlier
Roman and prehistoric systems witin their basic framework. From the late 16th
century, the open fields began to be enclosed by banks and hedges into the
more familiar fields of the present landscape. Formerly more extensive, open
field systems generally survive as fragments in association with medieval
settlements. They were the product of a communal system of farming in which
each tenant held a share of a manor's arable and pasture land. The holdings of
each tenant were scattered across the open fields, the basic unit of tenancy
being the lande. Landes were parcelled together into larger groups called
furlongs, whose length and the number of landes they contained varied greatly.
Furlongs were grouped together into fields and an open field system usually
included several such fields. Systems of crop rotation were employed, and
these might be based on either the field or the furlong. The sides of the
furlongs were marked by baulks of unploughed land which often survive as low
banks and are known as furlong boundaries. The ends of the furlongs were
marked by headlands which survive as prominant earthen banks. Ploughmen used
the headlands as spaces on which to turn the teams of oxen or horses which
pulled the plough. Headlands were usually ploughed after work on the rest of
the furlong had been completed, though sometimes they were left unploughed and
along the baulks between furlongs, provided access between furlongs. Such
unploughed areas were grazed by livestock. The most characteristic features of
open field systems is ridge and furrow, a form of medieval cultivation
produced by the action of a heavy plough with a fixed mould board.
The medieval village of North Middleton is well preserved and retains
significant archaeological deposits. The village is a good example of its
type, which, taken together with the remains of its open field system will add
greatly to our knowledge and understanding of medieval settlement in the
region.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Dixon, P J, The Deserted Medieval Villages of North Northumberland, 1984, PhD Thesis

Source: Historic England