Details

The monument includes a medieval settlement built into the slope of a south
west facing hillside in the Cotswolds.
The settlement includes earthworks representing the sites of houses and other
village features, while surrounding the settlement on all sides is evidence of
medieval agriculture in the form of ridge and furrow. At the centre of the
settlement is a broad street and village green, with house platforms and side
streets flanking it. The platforms are 0.5m to 0.75m high. In the north east
part of the site is a large depression which represents the site of the
village pond. Within the settlement and in the surrounding ridge and furrow
are a number of earth mounds, each about 0.5m high and 5.5m in diameter, which
are thought to be clearance mounds. From the south and east streets or hollow
ways lead from the fields. The ridge and furrow surrounding the settlement is
quite broad, with ridges about 4m wide and 0.3m high. A sample providing
evidence of its relationship with the settlement is included in the
scheduling.
Documentary evidence indicates that the village became ruinous at the end of
the 15th century.
The are post and wire fences are excluded from the scheduling, although the
ground beneath them 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 past 1500 years or more.
This monument lies in the Inner Midlands sub-Province of the Central Province,
an area characterised by large numbers of nucleated settlements, both
surviving and deserted, many of which are thought to have been established in
Anglo-Saxon times. Most of the sub-Province's thinly scattered dispersed
settlements were created in post-medieval times, but some of the local regions
are characterised by higher proportions of dispersed dwellings and hamlets,
which probably mark the patchy survival of older landscapes.

The medieval settlement of Upper Ditchford is a good example of a nucleated
medieval settlement in this subprovince. The monument will contain
archaeological deposits and environmental evidence relating to the settlement
and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
SMR No 373, Gloucester C. C. SMR,

Source: Historic England