Details

The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of an abandoned
medieval settlement in the shallow valley to the east of Baddiley Hall. The
remains have been truncated by the building of the Shropshire Union Canal at
the eastern end of the complex.
This settlement was included in the Domesday survey of 1086 as a small manor
with one plough. In the later medieval period the present church was built on
the site of an older one which was first recorded in 1308. The manorial centre
at this time was probably the moated site at SJ60805080 which has been
destroyed. This was followed by the present Baddiley Hall which dates from the
17th century.
The village remains include a series of tofts and crofts (house platforms and
their associated enclosures) situated along the course of a small stream, now
culverted, running to the east from the boundary of the hall garden. There are
platforms for at least nine houses and barn buildings which are situated on
either side of the watercourse. Modern agriculture has levelled any other
remains which may have existed on the top of the slopes above.
Immediately adjoining the ha-ha which forms the eastern boundary of Baddiley
Hall are two terraces which may have been made as part of a former garden
scheme attached to the hall. They may also reflect medieval field boundaries
associated with the village remains.

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 Cheshire Plain sub-Province of the Northern and
Western Province, a gently rolling plain of red marl covered by ice-carried
clays, sands and gravels. It is diversified by occasional sandstone
escarpments, notably the Central Cheshire Ridge east of the Dee valley. It has
lower densities of nucleated settlements than surrounding areas, and high
concentrations of dispersed farmsteads and small hamlets. In the Wirral and
the lower Dee and Weaver valleys, the settlement mix is different, with low
and medium densities of dispersed farmsteads intermixed with more frequent
villages. Domesday Book records a thin scatter of settlement in the Wirral,
the Dee lowlands and the central and southern plain in 1086, with much
woodland.

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 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 small enclosed 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
of rural life in the five or more centuries following the Norman Conquest.
Medieval villages were supported by a communal system of agriculture based on
large , unenclosed open arable fields. These large fields were subdivided
into strips (known as lands) which were allocated to individual tenants. The
cultivation of these strips with heavy ploughs pulled by teams of oxen
produced long wide ridges, and the resultant `ridge and furrow' where it
survives is the most obvious indication of the open field system. Individual
strips or lands were laid out in groups known as furlongs defined by terminal
headlands at the plough turning points and lateral grass balks. Furlongs were
in turn grouped into large open fields. Well-preserved ridge and furrow,
especially in its original context adjacent to village earthworks, is both an
important source of information about medieval agrarian life and a distinctive
contribution to the character of the historic landscape. It is usually now
covered by the hedges and walls of subsequent field enclosures. The earthwork
remains of a former medieval settlement at Baddiley Hall survive well. The
remains will contain important evidence for the life and farming practices of
a small medieval community, and waterlogged deposits in the area beside the
former watercourse will preserve organic remains of the trees and plants and
as timber from the settlement. In addition the terraces from an extended
garden to Baddiley Hall may reflect further remains of the original village
structures.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Morgan, P, Domesday Book, (1978)
Other
SMR, (1998)

Source: Historic England