By Isobel Curwen, Trainee Heritage Research Supervisor
Here in the Heritage Research team we’ve had a few sites recently which we’ve been getting very excited about, because they are located in areas with extensive earthworks and cropmarks. Earthwork remains usually means there are earthen banks, ditches, low walls and perhaps building platforms. These can either be upstanding archaeological remains or show up as features beneath the surface often visible because of variations in crop growth – commonly referred to as cropmarks.
Remains of deserted medieval villages in rural Lincolnshire
Some of the earliest cropmarks we see date to the prehistoric period (think hill forts, barrows and henges) but some are much later and tell us about the medieval landscape in the form of ridge and furrow, mottes and deserted medieval villages (DMV). In previous blog posts we have looked at ridge and furrow and we’re now going to explore their counterpart, the deserted medieval village.
Many medieval settlements in midland Britain were first established in the 9th and 10th centuries. They often contained burgage plots, set back from the main road with a back lane linking them and a church and a manor house contained within larger plots at the end of the village (Stamper 2011). In the Middle Ages some settlements were abandoned because of the Black Death (1348-49), warfare and famine but also due to clearance to provide space to graze more profitable sheep. Some were abandoned due to the deliberate actions of their lords (White 2012), and the natural progression of the settlements saw that they contracted, expanded and gradually shifted, following regional and local trends of change and continuity (Stamper 2011).
Today, the remains of these medieval settlements can be recognised from the patterns of roughly rectangular tofts, sometimes with building platforms which are raised and enclose banks and ditches, and by holloways – worn down tracks that pass between the house platforms.
So with the summer fast approaching keep your eyes peeled for any unusual looking lumps and bumps in the landscape and you may find yourself walking within what used to be a medieval village!
Stamper. P, 2011, Medieval Settlements, Historic England Introduction to Heritage Assets
White. G. J, 2011, The landscape of rural settlement, In The Medieval English Landscape (1000-1540, London: Bloomsbury, 55-99