Summary

Abandoned areas of the medieval village of Winwick, first documented in Domesday Book of 1086, although archaeological features dating to the late Saxon period suggest earlier origins.

Source: Historic England

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 01/09/2014.

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
The settlement is located between two south-flowing streams, on the slopes of a spur of land which lies between 138m and 114m above OD. The top of the spur is capped in Northampton Sand but at the northern end this is overlaid by Boulder Clay.

DESCRIPTION
The settlement survives as a series of earthwork, buried and standing remains surrounding the currently inhabited core of Winwick village. It is not possible to say if the extensive remains represent the maximum expansion of the village at any one time or are the results of changes in location and layout over a long period. The latter appears more likely because some of the earthworks, particularly in the north-west have been over ploughed with ridge and furrow but others in the south-east survive as sharply defined features. The village therefore appears to have moved gradually upstream.

At the north-west end of the village are the remains of the small moated enclosure, believed to be the site of the monastic grange, consisting of an island about 40m across surrounded by a ditch c.1.2m deep. This feature has been over-ploughed with medieval ridge and furrow, suggesting it is at least early medieval in date. Approximately 180m south-east of the moat is a group of at least three long closes or crofts with tofts (house platforms) at their north-eastern ends. The crofts are subdivided by low scarps and are bounded by scarps and ditches. The whole area, excluding the house sites, is covered by later ridge and furrow. An earthwork survey and trial excavation in advance of a sewage replacement scheme (Leigh 2008) has shown a dense occupation of the area between C12-C14 with some deposits and a ditch cut in the Saxon period.

A wide hollow way which is understood locally to have been the main route to the existing manor house on the other side of the valley, separates these closes or crofts from a group of smaller and more sharply defined enclosures, some of which are embanked as well as ditched. The modern road cuts across the southern corner of this area and probably replaced an earlier route which survives as a hollow way up to c.1.2m deep, continuing west on the general line of the lane as it leaves the village. To the south-west of the lane are further closes. These have not been overploughed in ridge and furrow but the southern group have been rounded somewhat by modern ploughing although are now under permanent pasture. Despite having been ploughed in the past, aerial photographs (English Heritage, 2013) indicate the survival of archaeological deposits beneath the ground surface. On the east side of the stream, and of the road that follows it, is a row of at least seven crofts containing tofts. These are very well preserved and two of the tofts were still depicted on the 1839 Tithe map. Fragments of post-medieval pottery have been found here. On the higher ground behind the existing cottages, and to the east of the church, is a further group of ditched and scarped enclosures. These earthworks survive up to 1m in height and are bounded on the south-east by a sunken lane, which continued as a hollow way across the field to the east, and on the north-west by a wide hollow way which runs along the south side of the large mound on which the Church of St Michael (NHLE 1229677) is situated. Two parallel ditches north-west of the church may define the original driveway to the hall.

At the eastern end of the village lies the Grade II listed Winwick Mill, an example of a C19 mill including the Old Bakehouse and Mill House (NHLE 1229907). Although the standing structures of the former mill are considered to be primarily C19, a mill at Winwick was included in the gift of Richard de Blickville to the monks of Pipewell and in 1652 a Richard Draper was the tenant of 'an overmill' at Winwick valued at £10. The water management features for the mill survive partly as earthworks and partly as water-filled features but taken as a whole it seems that several phases of the mill's development and its associated water management features are preserved. Such preservation has the potential to retain significant organic archaeological deposits pertaining to the historic physical environment and specifically to the evolution of the mill itself.

Many of the medieval agricultural fields representing the economy of the village have been destroyed particularly on the north-east side of the settlement, but to the south-east, south-west and north-west of the village the layout is legible either on the ground or from aerial photographs. Evidence of cultivation in the form of ridge and furrow is arranged in end-on and interlocked furlongs in response to the direction of the slope. Behind the empty closes of the abandoned areas of the village the ridges all run up the slope to the higher ground. The best preserved ridge and furrow can be seen at the extreme north-west of the village, to the east and south of Winwick Grange, and at the south-eastern end of the village, east of Winwick Mill and Winwick Hall.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The area of scheduling extends around the entire village of Winwick including fields surrounding the inhabited settlement where earthworks of the former settlement or its associated field system are known to survive. The scheduling is defined by two areas of protection. The largest of the scheduled areas stretches from grid reference SP6182474111 to the south-west of Winwick Grange in the north-west to Winwick Mill in the south-east and from the fields south-east of Winwick Hall in the east to the Well House (NHLE 1278959) in the west.

Both areas of protection are defined by modern field boundaries with the exception of the linear feature running south-east of the mill. Here the edge of the scheduled area runs either side of the earthworks defining what is understood to be a water management feature but includes a 2m boundary from the upper edge of the feature which was considered necessary for its support and preservation. The smaller of the two areas of protection lies to the east of the Church of St Michael and begins at its western extent at grid reference SP6258973843. From here the line runs to the north-east following the northern boundary of small paddocks to the rear of Old School House and then two larger paddocks opposite Rectory Cottage. The area of protection is defined on all sides by field boundary fences or hedges

A number of features are excluded from the scheduling, including all modern fences, path and road surfaces, signage, drain covers, gates and styles, although the ground beneath all these features is included. Completely excluded from the scheduling, including the ground beneath, is Winwick Mill House, Winwick Old Mill, The Old Bakehouse and Courtyard Cottage. Also completely excluded is the sewage works to the west of the Church of St Michael. It is considered unlikely that significant archaeological remains will survive below ground here.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

The medieval village site at Winwick which is first mentioned in Domesday, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: for the exceptional earthworks and buried deposits depicting the form and plan of the settlement and its associated agricultural practices;

* Potential: for the stratified archaeological deposits which retain considerable potential to increase our understanding of the physical characteristics of the buildings and settlement. Buried artefacts will also have the potential to increase our knowledge and understanding of the social and economic functioning of the settlement within the wider medieval landscape;

* Documentation: for the high level of historical and archaeological documentation pertaining to the settlement’s evolution;

* Group value: for its close proximity to a number of listed buildings but particularly to the C13 Church of St. Michael;

* Diversity: for the range and complexity of features such as building platforms, crofts, trackways, and the moated platform which, taken as a whole, provide a clear plan of the settlement and retain significant stratified deposits which serve to provide details of the continuity and change in the evolution of the settlement.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Allison, K J, Beresford, M W, Hurst, J G, The Deserted Villages of Northamptonshire, (1966)
Astill, G, Grant, A, The Countryside of Medieval England, (1988)
Aston, M, Austin, D, Dyer, C(eds), The Rural Settlements of Medieval England: Studies dedicated to Maurice Beresford and John Hurst, (1989)
Everson, , Green in Dyer (ed), , Medieval Villages Revisited, (2010)
Hall, D, Turning the Plough. Midland Open Fields;landscape character and proposals for management, (2001)
Hall, D, The Open Fields of Northamptonshire, (1995)
Partida, T, Hall, D, Foard, G, An Atlas of Northamptonshire The Medieval and Early-Modern Landscape, (2013)
Peers, C, The Victoria History of the County of Northamptonshire, (1906), 116-121
Roberts, , Wrathmell, , An Atlas of Rural Settlement in England, (2000)
Williamson, T., Partida, T, Champion. The Making and Unmaking of the English Midland Landscape, (2013)
Other
Northamptonshire Historic Environment Record (HER),

Source: Historic England