An Archaeology of the East Midlands. Class 5, Beeston Winter 2015

An Archaeology of the
East Midlands
Class 5: The Medieval Countryside of the
East Midlands.
Tutor: Keith Challis
east-midlands-archaeology.blogspot.co.ukBeeston 2015

Recap: Last Week
• Viking Origins
• Scandinavian Settlement in the East
Midlands
• Discussion – Repton and the Vikings

Class Summary
• 850-1100 Shaping the Landscape
• Themes in the Medieval Landscape
• Laxton – a Village and its Landscape

Learning Outcomes
• Identify some of the key themes in the archaeology of
medieval rural settlement in the Midlands
• Understand some of the factors affecting settlement form
and agricultural landscapes
• Recognise some of the physical evidence for medieval
(and other) past landscapes which survive to the present
and how archaeologists deal with these

850-1100 Shaping the Landscape
• By 870s almost total
Danish control of East
Midlands
• Administered and
defenced from the Five
Boroughs
• From late 10th
Century
Saxon Reconquest of
Midlands
• 11th
Century unified
Anglo-Danish Kingdom

• Wholesale changes in landholding and
landscape – but why?
east-midlands-archaeology.blogspot.co.uk
Middle Saxon
• Large “multiple” estates
• Dispersed settlement based on
farmstead
• Infield/Outfield agriculture (?)
• Minster Churches
Late Saxon/Saxo-Norman
• Small estates based on the manor
• Nucleated settlement in villages
• Development of open fields
• Parochial system and churches
• Castles
• Feudal land holding
Beeston 2015

• What causes the changes…?
• Scandinavian settlement..?
• Norman influence..?
• Population growth (competition or
resources..?
• Climate change..?
• Fashion..?

Catholme
South Leverton
Beeston 2015

Section 2: Themes in the
Medieval Landscape

Themes in the Medieval Landscape
• What are The Key Themes?

• 850-1300
• The Manor
• Nucleation of
settlement
• Open fields
• The Parish
• Feudal System
• Castles
• 1300-1485
• Population decline
• Climate
deterioration
• Economic troubles
• Settlement
desertion
• Feudal collapse
Beeston 2015

• Rural Settlement
• In E Mids predominance of
nucleated settlement.
• Excavation evidence for origins rare
and equivocal
• Eg. Barton Blount – tofts and crofts
from 11th
century
• Re-imaging of nucleated
settlements in 13th
century into
regulated plan forms (eg
Rockingham 1270s)
• But – areas of distinctive
dispersed settlement, eg
Charnwood, North Derbyshire,
Sherwood, The Coal Measures

• Rural Settlement
• The Manor (manorium) basic unit of
lordly landholding
• Fundamental to feudal land holding,
but with pre-conquest origins
• Manors may include one or many
settlement in any form – the manor
and the village are not equal
• Excavations of manorial
complexes show use of sites
bridging conquest (eg at Goltho)
• Some manorial sites become sites
for castles
• Abandoned manorial complexes
may be confused with deserted
villages

• Agriculture
• Champion landscape of
communal open fields cropped
under two or three year rotation
• Evidence suggests pre-
Conquest origin but little
archaeology
• Some documents (eg Southwell
AD956) but most are post-
Conquest
• Open fields and nucleated
settlements appear to be part of
a single system of rural
landscape organisation

• Agriculture
• Areas with no open
fields poorly
understood
• Possibly infield/outfield
systems in uplands
• Extensive Assarting in
Sherwood and other
forest areas

• Feudal
Appurtenances
• Castles
• Early post-Conquest castles at
Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester,
Duffield
• Networks of smaller earthwork
castles – eg along Trent and
associated with major estate
centres
• Some short-lived castles
associated with Anarchy (1135-
54 eg Derby)
Duffield Reconstructed
Beeston 2015

• Feudal
Appurtenances
• Deer Parks, Gardens,
Mills, Warrens, Fish-
Ponds
• All significant features
with persistent impact
on landscape and
significant earthwork
remains
Speed 1610.
Beeston 2015

Laxton

Laxton
Open Field Farming Survives
Beeston 2015

Mark Pierce’s Map of 1625
Beeston 2015

Laxton
Beeston 2015

Laxton Top Lane
• Excavation of two tofts vacant since 1635
• Mid-Late Saxon pottery (York, Maxey,
Stamford and Lincoln)
• Abundant 13th-14th
Century pottery
• Nothing post c1500
• Pre conquest occupation
• 13th
century regulated plan
• Later medieval abandonment
Beeston 2015

Laxton Old VicarageOld Infants’ School
Isolated
pits/ditches
with 13th
/14th
century
pottery
Beeston 2015

Laxton
Two phase castle
Beeston 2015

Laxton
• Pre-conquest Anglo-Scandinavian
settlement (?dispersed/nucleated)
• At conquest granted to Geoffrey
Alselin, an absent landlord
• c1090s Alselin’s death and manor
to Robert de Caux by marriage
• Caput of de Caux barony: first
castle build near to former
manorial site
• c1100 de Caux appointed “Keeper
of Sherwood Forest”
• Second castle built to
accommodate this role and regular
royal visitors
• Original village form replaced by a
regulated plan two row village in
late 12th
/early 13th
century
• Development of Open Field at
same time (Mill 1189/West 1232)
• Freed from forest law in 1227 –
agriculture expansion and
population growth
• 1230s manor to de Everinghams
Beeston 2015

Laxton
• Original village form replaced by a
regulated plan two row village in late
12th
/early 13th
century
• Development of Open Field at same
time (Mill 1189/West 1232)
• Freed from forest law in 1227 –
agriculture expansion and population
growth
• 1230s manor to de Everinghams
• 1286 Robert imprisoned and loss of
office but further expansion and town
like wealth
• 14th
century IPM show decline in
Demense – castle abandoned
• Pre and post Black Death decline and
abandonment of tofts
Adam de Everingham (died 1336) and his wives
Beeston 2015

Further Study
Assignment 5: Medieval Nottingham
• Take a look at Maurice Barley’s seminal 1969 historical
summary of Nottingham and the more recent taster paper
by David Knight et al on excavations revealing the origins
of the town. You might like to supplement this with your
own reading – local studies libraries are bursting with
Nottingham material.
• We will discuss Nottingham as an example of the
development of a great Midland’s town in the Middle Ages
– come prepared!

An Archaeology of the East Midlands. Class 5, Beeston Winter 2015

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