Monument record 4156/0/2 - Shrunken settlement earthworks, Rockingham

Shrunken settlement earthworks situated to the north and northeast of Rockingham Castle. This are was occupied by houses in 1615, when the road to Corby ran up a narrow valley southeast of the castle. This road was blocked in 1618 and replaced by the present road further east. The houses were removed at this time or a little later. Pottery ranging in date from the 12th to 17th century has been recovered from this area. Additional building platforms, deserted by 1615, suggest occupation also west of the church

{1} Settlement remains (centred SP 867915), N and NE of the castle [SP 89 SE 13] in an area shown occupied by houses in 1615. The road to Corby at this time ran up a narrow valley just SE of the castle.
This road was blocked in 1618 and replaced by the present road further E. The houses were removed at this time or a little later. Pottery of the 12th to 17th century has come from this area. Further buidling platforms deserted by 1615 suggest occupation W of the church [SP 89 SE 15].

{5} Banks and ditches of building platforms and small enclosures.

{6} The topography of the village appears to have been determined by a major furlong boundary running east-west, parallel to the scarp, and close to the bottom of the main slope of the valley side. It also forms the northern boundary of the tenement row which existed in 1615 to the north of the church and which appears from earthworks to have extended yet further to the west along the hollow way which is likely to represent the medieval the road leading towards Cottingham. It is possible that this east-west road and tenement rows, which contain the church, may represent the village which accompanied the castle in the 12th and earlier 13th centuries. Small quantities of pottery of 12th - 17th century date have been recovered from this southern half of the settlement. At their western end these earthworks, in the form of enclosures bounded by low banks and scarps are cut by the hollow way to the north and overlain by the defensive earthworks outside the castle ditch on the south.

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.128/Site 7 (unchecked) (Series). SNN77380.

<2> 1615, Map of Rockingham 1615, (unchecked) (Map). SNN100477.

<3> BROWN A.E.; TAYLOR C.C., 1974, The Earthworks of Rockingham and its Neighbourhood, p.75 (unchecked) (Article). SNN40063.

<4> WILLARD, p.433 (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN55115.

<5> English Heritage, 1992, English Heritage Scheduling Notification, (part checked) (Report). SNN47128.

<6> FOARD G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Rockingham (Medieval and Post Medieval), (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100473.

<7> BERESFORD; FINBERG, Handlist of Medieval Boroughs, (unchecked) (Document). SNN33700.

Record last edited

Mar 4 2022 2:17PM