MONUMENT NO. 77534

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Possible site of a deserted medieval village revealed by excavation. Documents suggest it was abandoned by 1467. The central hollow way and two possible back lanes survive as earthworks. Scheduled.

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(SJ 904 222). Earthworks comprising terraces, platforms and hollow-ways suggesting the site of a deserted medieval village enclosure with bank and ditch defences were noted in 1978 lying between the outer bailey of Stafford Castle (SJ 92 SW 2) and St Mary's Church (SJ 92 SW 41). Trial excavation in 1979 along the crest of the main hollow-way (that leading from the outer bailey entrance to the vicarage garden) showed four main periods of land use. The two latest periods of use were as pasture for the last century and probably ploughland in the 17th and 18th centuries. Two underlying medieval layers were revealed showing the latest occupation in the 13th/14th century and then its abandonment by the mid 15th century. The medieval occupation level included a pebble trackway about 2m wide running along the shoulder of the main hollow-way; adjacent and parallel to the trackway ran a large V-shaped drain which cut the earliest feature - a shallow, roughly oval pit filled with a layer of burnt material. Beneath, the pit floor was cut by numerous post and stake holes. There were indications of a timber building aligned diagonally to the hollow-way, trackway and drain.

The site has been recommended for scheduling as an ancient monument. (No features visible on available APs). (1-2)

Excavation evidence indicates that this site was established in the 12th/13th centuries and continued until the mid 15th century. The village is represented by a series of streets and buildings of varying techniques of construction and alignment. Following the abandonment of the site, the area was used for agricultural purposes. (3-6)

SJ 9045 2218 (FCE). The two fields in which the site lies were surveyed by the RCHME in 1996-7. Although the area is now pasture, traces of degraded ridge and furrow indicate that it has been ploughed in the past. Earthwork survival is consequently poor, with the exception of a well-defined hollow way (averaging 13m wide by 2m deep) leading away south-east from the entrance into the castle's outer bailey, flanked by two lesser, linear depressions, parallel to, but some way from, it. Whilst the plan of these visible features is superficially suggestive of a central village street flanked by back lanes, close inspection of the earthwork form of the putative 'lanes' raises several problems. First, the linear depression north-east of the central hollow way is very broad and flat-bottomed, measuring c 18m across but only 0.5-0.8m deep, and is most untypical of a hollow way even if ploughed-down, whilst that to the south-west is far slighter, being no more than 10m wide by 0.3m deep. Secondly, the north-west ends of both features now connect with, respectively, a large marl pit and the outer bailey ditch. The possibility must be considered, therefore, that these two depressions are not medieval roadways at all (although it must be admitted convincing alternative explanations do not come readily to mind). There is little evidence for the other earthworks - the terraces and platforms - mentioned by authorities 1 and 2, and certainly not for anything that can be interpreted as house sites or croft boundaries aligned on the main hollow way. Although the excavated evidence for medieval activity in this area cannot be dismissed, the earthwork evidence for this being the site of a village is, at best, ambiguous.

There is no evidence for the 'bank and ditch defences' mentioned by authorities 1 and 2. An east-west 'ditch' to the south of the site seems rather to be another hollow way (SJ 92 SW 108) heading towards St Mary's Church.

The site has been equated with the documented 'vill of the castle', first mentioned in the late 13th century but which had been abandoned by 1467 (7a), which other documents suggest stood 'in front of the castle entrances' (7b). It has also been equated with the lost Domesday settlement of Monetvile (7c), conventionally thought to lie somewhere in Castle Church township (7d). However, whereas it seems to have been assumed that the castle entrance referred to is that leading into the outer bailey from the south-east, the RCHME survey has identified the sites of two other, previously unsuspected, castle gates - one on the north side of the outer bailey, the other where the modern approach road to the keep passes into the inner bailey. The village referred to in the documents could therefore be alongside either or both of these approaches. Certainly excavations carried out in advance of the construction of the modern Castle Visitor Centre at SJ 9031 2208, adjacent to the approach to the latter entrance, revealed a succession of agricultural and settlement/industrial activity dating from the 12th to 14th centuries, followed by reversion to arable (7e).

The site is included within the area of SAM Staffs 44/RSM 21559. (7f)

The earthworks were surveyed at 1:1000 scale as part of the RCHME Stafford Castle Survey. See report (7g) and plans in the NMR for more details. (7)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) General reference

Md Vill Res Gp Ann Rep 28 1980 15 (M M Hill)

( 2) General reference

Md Arch 25 1981 202 (C Hill)

( 3) General reference

Med Sett Res Grp Ann Rep 33 1985 19-21 (C Hill)

( 4) General reference

Med Sett Res Grp Ann Rep 33 1985 121-22

( 5) General reference

Medieval Archaeol 29 1985 198 ( S M Youngs et al)

( 6) General reference

W Midlands Archaeol 28 1985 15-18 ( W D Klemperer)

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

Marcus Jecock/07-FEB-1997/RCHME: Stafford Castle Survey

( 7A) General reference

Stafford Borough Council, nd. Stafford Castle: a brief history

( 7B) General reference

Staffordshire Education, 1993. Stafford Castle (Local History Source Book L2), 4-5

( 7C) General reference

C.Moffett, H.White and R.Barnes, 1984. Stafford Castle: past work and recent progress, 13 (Stafford Borough Council unpublished report)

( 7D) General reference

J P Oakden, 1984. The place-names of Staffordshire, 74-5

( 7E) General reference

Med Archaeol, 36, 1992, 261

( 7F) General reference

English Heritage SAM Amendment, 27 Aug 1993

( 7G) General reference

RCHME 1997. Stafford Castle, Staffordshire. An Archaeological and Architectural Survey Report

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