Details

The monument includes the remains of the medieval village of Lazenby. The
monument is located on the east bank of the River Wiske in the lowlands south
of the River Tees. The monument occupies an area around Lazenby Hall.
The remains of the village include substantial earthworks representing
rectangular house platforms with associated enclosures clustered around a
network of hollow ways and sunken roads. There are a group of three yards or
paddocks along the north boundary of the monument. In the centre of the
monument is a large rectangular platform 43m north to south and 31m east to
west. To the east of this is an uneven mound 1m high and 14m in diameter which
may be the remains of a dovecote or a windmill base. In the south west area of
the monument, in the low lying ground near the river, are the shallow
earthwork remains of possible fishponds and other water management features.
There is a boundary bank marking the edge of the village surviving along the
north and to a lesser extent the west side of the monument.
In the north east corner and north west of the monument are two small sections
of preserved ridge and furrow, the remnants of the medieval field system.
Lazenby Hall, which is Listed Grade II*, dates from the early 17th century,
lies on the higher ground in western part of the former village and may have
been the site of a manor house for the village. The Hall and its gardens and
adjacent buildings and yards are not included in the monument.
The village of Lazenby is mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086 and by
1301 had 13 households. The monument lies immediately east of the current
village of Danby Wiske which is a planned medieval village. It is thought that
Lazenby may have been abandoned during the 14th century and the settlement
focus relocated across the river into a planned settlement centred around the
manor and church at the south of Danby Wiske.
Lazenby Hall and associated buildings, yards and gardens are excluded from the
scheduling. All other gates, fences and road surfaces are excluded from the
scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

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.
The Northern Vale of York local region has been identified on two criteria.
First, it contains low numbers of nucleations when compared with the rest of
the sub-Province: village depopulation may partly account for this. Secondly,
there are greater densities of dispersed settlement than is normal for the
sub-Province, a phenomenon which cannot yet be fully explained.

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
included one or more manorial centres which may survive also as visible
remains as well as below ground deposits. In the Central Province of England,
villages were the most distinctive aspect of rural life, and their
archaeological reamins are one of the most important sources of understanding
about 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 landes) which were allocated to individual tennants. The
cultivation of these strips with heavy ploughs pulled by oxen-teams produced
long, wide ridges, and the resultant `ridge and furrow' where it survives is
the most obvious physical indication of the open field system. Individual
strips or landes 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 or walls of subsequent field enclosure.
The village of Lazenby survives well and significant evidence of the domestic
and economic development of the settlement will be preserved.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Beresford, M, 'Yorkshire Archaeological Journal' in The Lost Villages of Yorkshire Part IV, , Vol. VOL 38, (1954), 302

Source: Historic England