Monument record 805/0/19 - Medieval/Post Medieval Closes

Medieval or post-medieval tenement boundaries and other earthworks to the north of Fotheringhay Castle

{1} To the north of the tenements in the central part of the settlement, where the back of the tofts may be indicated by several doglegs in the tenement boundaries in 1716, the rear closes are particularly long and mostly contained ridge and furrow. However a number of rectangular features lay at their northern ends, adjacent to the floodplain, now levelled by ploughing. It is unclear whether these represent structures, ponds or some other features. They are bounded on the north side by the course of the mill dam, the channel feeding the water mill to the east.

{5} Land north of the castle contains earthworks of a terrace, roughly triangular in plan. The top of the terrace is roughly level with the height of the castle baileys, but it is 1–1.5 m higher than the land to the west and 2m higher than the land to the north. Along the foot of the terrace on the north is a series of braided hollow ways (or possibly watercourses. A ramp runs up from these hollow ways towards the present castle entrance – probably a track leading to the castle gate. The top of the terrace contains irregularities that in places resemble the remains of buildings. There is also a small circular mound surrounded by a low bank – possibly the remains of a round or sub-circular structure (the dovecote recorded in documentary sources?)

The terrace could be directly associated with the castle as it is of massive proportions and contrasts with the relatively slight earthworks to the west which relate to Fotheringhay village. It is unlikely that the terrace is a siegework but it may be an outwork – possibly for gun positions overlooking the flat land to the north. The other likely alternative is that it is a garden feature.

{6} Earthworks visible on aerial photographs. Possible medieval, post medieval and modern ditched enclosures and crofts in the paddocks behind houses still existing in 1958. Settlement name: Fotheringhay.

{7} NCCAP: TL0693/026-28.

{8} Medieval or post-medieval tenement boundaries and other earthworks to the north of Fotheringhay Castle is not scheduled for a number of reasons.
The area assessed for scheduling included land to the north and north-east of Garden Farmhouse, as well as the triangle of land between Willow Brook and the outer moat of the castle. A map of 1716 shows tenements to north-east of Main Street, at the south-east end of which is the New Inn, standing immediately to the west of an earlier route of the road to Nassington; this travels north-east and appears to mark the eastern extent of village tenements. Where it reaches the brook it turns to the west, and in the angle between road and brook are two buildings, identifiable with the mill which continued on this site until at least 1804. Opposite the New Inn, on the east side of the road, the map shows a rectangular close containing no structures, bounded on the east by a triangular open space to the north of the castle. To the south side of this triangle of land is the north outer moat of the castle, while the east corner is identified in the Royal Commission for Historical Monuments (RCHME) volume on archaeological monuments in Northamptonshire (1975) as the location of a great pond 'landed up', referred to in a description of the castle of 1625 written shortly before its demolition. However, there is also thought to have been a major route through Fotheringhay from London to the north, which is assumed to have skirted the north side of the castle, although this would seem to be incompatible with the presence of a large pond here.

The north-west half of this area, which lies to the north of Garden Farmhouse, contains three closes and part of another, clearly defined by earthwork boundaries and broadly consistent with property boundaries drawn on the 1716 map and late C19 Historic Ordnance Survey (OS) Maps. That to the north-west is bounded on that side by a slight ditch and is subdivided laterally by a ditch and slight bank. Its south-east boundary is continuous up to the brook. To the south-east of this is a track, which starts at the east wing of Garden Farmhouse, and curving out slightly to the north-west, crosses the brook to continue east across the ploughed field to the north-east, where it is faintly visible as a soil mark. This track post-dates the 1716 map, but is shown on the 1st edition OS map of 1886; it also seems to cross the site of the mill, and so presumably dates to the early to mid C19. To the south-east of this the former route of the road to Nassington appears as a slight depression, forming the north-west side of the close shown on the map of 1716. On the south-east side and parallel with the close is a bank, rising by about 1m to a roughly triangular area, an irregular platform that measures about 50m from north-west to south-east, on the east edge of which a small amount of stonework is partly exposed. To the north-east, a sinuous linear depression represents the original course of Willow Brook, running south-east of and parallel to the straightened course of the stream. To the west of this and south-east of the raised platform is a slight bank running in a straight line parallel to the north castle moat. Above and set against the edge of the bank are two circular mounds, both about 7-8m in diameter, close together and apparently surrounded by a ditch, which also separates them; that to the west is slightly smaller and less well defined.

<1> FOARD G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Fotheringhay (Medieval and Post Medieval), (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100481.

<2> 1696, Fotheringhay 1696, (unchecked) (Map). SNN100483.

<3> 1793, Fotheringhay Inclosure Map 1793, (unchecked) (Map). SNN100484.

<4> Hall D.N., 1960-1999, Rockingham Forest Project: Archaeological Sites Recorded by David Hall, (unchecked) (Database). SNN102279.

<5> Albion Archaeology, 2002, Fotheringhay Castle, 'Little Park' and Adjacent Earthworks, Northamptonshire, p.26 (checked) (Report). SNN102585.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1958, OS 6 Inch Map Series, Provisional Edition (TL09SE), (unchecked) (Map). SNN6118.

<7> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, (unchecked) (Photographs). SNN104822.

<8> English Heritage, Designation Advice Report, Earthworks to the north of Fotheringhay Castle. (Report). SNN113190.

Record last edited

Apr 8 2022 11:01AM