Details

The monument, lying within two areas of protection, includes buried and
earthwork remains of part of the medieval settlement of Settrington, including
the site of a chantry chapel. It lies at the west end of Settrington, mainly
within an area known as Town Green.
The Domesday Book of 1087 records that Settrington, valued at 30 shillings,
was held by Thorbrandr who took part in the 1069 rising against the Normans.
He was killed in Settrington on the orders of Earl Waltheof in 1073 as part of
a blood feud. By 1087 the manor, including 16 villagers, two small holders and
20 acres of meadow, was held by Berenger of Tosny and had increased in value
to 40 shillings. On his death the manor passed to Roger Bigod, Earl of
Norfolk. Settrington is mentioned in a number of 13th century documents and 22
people were assessed as having over nine shillings in assets in the parish and
thus taxed for the 1297 Lay Subsidy. In 1302 the manor was given to Sir John
Bigod by the last Bigod Earl of Norfolk. In the 1334 Lay Subsidy, the
settlement was assessed for five pounds 13 shillings and four pence, the
second highest in Buckrose Wapentake, the local administrative area. Although
Settrington had a church, in 1335 a licence was granted for a separate chapel
dedicated to St Mary and St John which at the Dissolution in the mid-16th
century had two chaplains. In 1537 the manor passed to the Crown following the
execution of Sir Francis Bigod for High Treason. In 1544 it was granted to
Matthew Earl of Lennox and his wife Margaret, but was back in the Crown's
hands in 1600 when a detailed written and mapped survey was made of the manor
under the supervision of John Mansfield. Once this survey had determined
ownership and other rights within the manor and valued the estate, it was then
granted to Ludovick Stuart, Duke of Lennox in 1603. The 1600 survey shows a
substantial village of 78 houses and cottages with an overall layout very
similar to that which exists 400 years later. The 1660s Hearth Tax returns
listed 69 households in the village, of which 13 had more than one hearth. In
1670 Settrington's pastures were enclosed by agreement; further enclosure
followed in subsequent years and the last of the medieval open fields were
enclosed by Act of Parliament in 1797.
The medieval settlement of Settrington is believed to have developed from a
twin row village lying either side of the northward flowing Settrington Beck,
and to have expanded westwards along a droveway leading from the north end of
the village to pastures to the west. This produced an L-shaped village plan
with the manor house and the church of All Saints in the south eastern part of
the village. The church, which remains in use, is at least 13th century in
origin. In the post-medieval period the settlement contracted and in the
western part of the village, the southern row of properties along the droveway
were abandoned. Parts of this row of medieval properties, along with most of
the area of the droveway, remain undeveloped and still retain medieval
earthwork remains. It is this area, on the south side of Town Street, that
forms the monument.
Mansfield's plans show that in 1600 Town Street was known as Highestret and
that it still formed a broad droveway leading to pastures to the west. This
droveway became known as Town Green and was finally enclosed in 1797. In 1600
there were a similar number of properties on the north side of the street as
exist today, with nine houses on the south side on the same east-west
alignment as the present Town Green Farm and the pair of cottages to the east.
By comparing Mansfield's plans, the 1797 enclosure plan and early Ordnance
Survey maps with the surviving earthworks, a number of features dating back to
at least the 16th century can be identified. These include several tofts
(enclosures for a house and related outbuildings), yards and garden areas. At
the eastern end of Town Green there is a prominent raised rectangular platform
20m north-south by 30m east-west with the remains of a building up to 12m by
17m in its north west corner. Extending to the west of this there is a
slightly lower platform 30m by 20m with a curving western end. These platforms
are identified as the site of the chantry chapel established in 1335 and shown
as Chapel Garth by Mansfield. Such chapels were established by endowment in
the Middle Ages for the singing of masses for the soul of the founder. By
1600, after the Dissolution, the garth was the freehold property of Leonard
Freer and included a dovecote. The surviving triangle of village green now
known as Chapel Garth to the north east is not included in the monument.
Mansfield's plans show it to have been part of the Highestret, and this area
does not retain significant upstanding earthworks.
The southern side of the Highestret was later preserved as a field boundary
and can still be seen as a marked step up in the ground surface topped in
places by a low bank. Immediately south of this boundary, between Town Green
Farm and the two cottages to the east, there are the low earthwork remains of
a building up to 17m by 15m with a sunken area to the east interpreted as a
former yard. To the south there are further low earthwork features extending
as far as the modern field boundary. This area is identified as the toft that
was the freehold property of John Swynborne in 1600 and which had been part of
the holdings of the chantry chapel before the Dissolution. The modern field
boundary is considered to be on the same line as that mapped in 1600. The
buildings of Town Green Farm are thought to overlie the northern half of two
tofts. In 1600 the first was tenanted by Thomas Dunnington and the second the
subject of an ownership dispute between Roger Thorpe and Richard Peckett. The
boundary between these two tofts and also the next toft to the west can be
seen as low banks heading south from the gardens of Town Green Farm. To the
west there are the earthwork remains of four complete tofts, each extending
about 80m south from the Highestret. The first is about 40m wide and in 1600
was recorded as the site of a cottage owned by George Dodesworthe,
Settrington's Bailiff, and occupied by Christopher Bagget. After a low broad
bank there is a narrower toft 25m wide which retains earthworks of two
buildings. One building platform is orientated east-west in the north east
corner of the toft, the second is better defined, with the footings for a
building around 15m by 8m, and lies to the south west, orientated at right
angles to the first building. Mansfield recorded a house and barn in this
toft, both supported by six pairs of timber crucks and noted that it was
tenanted by Matthew Farum. The next toft is about 50m wide and also has the
remains of two buildings. These are both 6m by 13m with evidence of stone
footings. They are end on to each other, sited along the north side of the
toft. Mansfield records the tenant as being Percival Warmoth and that he had a
house and a barn both supported by five pairs of timber crucks. The
westernmost toft is thought to extend between a ditch and Scarlet Baulk Lane,
thus being just over 90m wide. The 1600 survey recorded that Aubrey and
Richard Heslerton claimed, but could not prove, freehold title to this toft
and the associated farm. The detailed plan shows the house, with a small
circular walled or fenced yard attached, lying within the Highestret extending
north from the boundary of the croft. This may relate to a mound sited on the
northern edge of the toft, 70m east of the lane, as immediately to the north
there are the stone footings of a structure 7m by 7m with rounded corners.
This is particularly interesting as it gives an insight into the complexity of
medieval rural settlement. Similar sites located within thoroughfares
investigated elsewhere have been identified as originally being squatter
houses built on the common land of the street. Alternatively it could be the
remains of an earlier street frontage.
The complexity of medieval Settrington is further highlighted by the fact that
Mansfield's Survey can only be related to some of the earthworks. The area of
Mansfield's depiction of the Highestret includes remains of additional
buildings, some with stone footings, yards, trackways and other features.
These remains show that the monument has a greater chronological depth than
that indicated by the post-medieval maps and that the layout and use of the
Highestret changed over time. Some of these features will be medieval in
origin and would have been earthworks unimportant to Mansfield in 1600. Others
are thought to have been still in use, but not recorded by the survey, which
for instance did not show outbuildings, or even important structures like
barns, on the plans. Some of the features will post date 1600, although it
should be noted that the 1797 enclosure plan shows that there were no
buildings on Town Green or further to the south at that date, proving that the
present Town Green Farm and the cottages to the east were built later. The
interrelationships between the various features and the changing uses of the
Highestret in the medieval and post-medieval periods can only be more fully
understood after detailed investigation and excavation.
Fronting onto the present Town Street, just east of the paddock north of Town
Green Farm, there is a building platform standing up to 1.2m high supporting
the stone footings of what is interpreted as a pair of houses or cottages each
12m by 6m. Behind each there is a lower mound identified as the remains of
outbuildings. Centred 80m to the east of the paddock, also next to Town
Street, there is a further group of building platforms which appear to front
onto a hollow trackway which passes to the south. These are interpreted as the
remains of a medieval peasant farmstead abandoned before Mansfield's survey.
To the south of these building remains there are two broad hollows which in
form are typical of crew yards. These were open yards used to hold cattle
during the winter which became common from the 14th century. There are further
crew yards to the west of the paddock, opposite Fisher Farm, along with a
complex of sunken trackways and raised platforms which include the probable
sites of at least four timber buildings. Approximately 120m west of the
paddock there is a north-south ditch, marked on early Ordnance Survey maps as
a field boundary. Just beyond this there are the stone footings of a 9m by 9m
building fronting onto Town Street with the earthwork remains of a range of
outbuildings extending 25m southwards to its rear. South of this, after a gap
of about 30m, there is another earthwork structure with evidence of stonework.
This is a 10m by 7m rectangular platform, with a 5m diameter, 0.5m high mound
sited on its southern half which is interpreted as a kiln or oven. The second
protected area, which lies to the west of Scarlet Balk Lane, retains further
crew yards and raised platforms.
A number of features are excluded from the scheduling; these are all modern
fences, walls, and gates, water troughs and the platforms that they stand on,
and all telegraph poles; 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.
The Yorkshire Wolds local region is a soft, rolling, chalk landscape with deep
valleys. Dispersed farmsteads, usually impressive creations of the late 18th
and 19th centuries, are present in small numbers. The earlier pattern of
medieval nucleated settlements - villages and hamlets - still dominates the
archaeological landscape as either deserted settlement sites or sites still
occupied by rural communities.

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.
Chantry chapels were built and maintained by endowment and were established
for the singing of masses for the soul of the founder. Some chapels possessed
burial grounds. Unlike parish churches, the majority of which remain in
ecclesiastical use, chapels were often abandoned as their supporting finances
declined or disappeared. With many chantry chapels this occurred in the 1540s
after the dissolution of their supporting communities.
The medieval settlement of Settrington is known to have a long history. The
earthworks and other remains of the settlement lying to the south of Town
Street are well preserved and retain significant evidence for buildings,
including a chantry chapel, and associated yards and enclosures. The
settlement is particularly unusual in having a surviving detailed survey from
the Tudor period. Evidence of properties mapped in 1600 can still be found,
but the surviving earthwork remains also provide evidence for earlier
settlement phases. This combination of archaeological and documentary evidence
provides a complex and rare insight into what was a major rural medieval
settlement.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Mansfield, J, 'Yorkshire Archaeological Society Records Series' in Survey of Settrington, , Vol. 126, (1961)

Source: Historic England