Monument record 4287/4 - Medieval croft (Croft 29), Faxton

In 1966, the southernmost croft on the east side of the green was excavated (Croft 29). The main occupation area was found to be at the west end adjoining the green. Further east was a backyard and beyond, down the slope, was the kitchen garden or rubbish dump. Four periods of occupation were found.

{1} Period 1, 1200-1250. A long-house orientated east - west was constructed on a built-up clay platform. The house was made of mud walls, and postholes for timber were found. A contemporary barn lay to the north of the house. Further east, down the slope, was the kitchen garden or rubbish dump.
Period II, 1250-1300. A bigger long-house orientated north - south was erected, with opposed doors, clay side walls and stone sleeper walls at the ends. Later the side walls were given stone footings. To the South of the house, in the yard, a circular oven for baking and in the yard, a lined water trough. The house was reduced to a barn when a new house was built to the north in the period 1300-1350.
Period III, 1300-1350. A new house was built at the north end of the previous house and the latter was reduced to a barn. The new house, also orientated north-south, was similar in construction to the earlier one, with opposed doors, clay side walls with stone footings and stone sleeper walls at the ends. A second water-trough and several sheds also dated from this phase.
Period IV, 1350-1400. The Period III house was enlarged to the north and west and divided into three rooms. The farm buildings were improved and a new building, possibly a byre, was erected, as well as an oven or kiln for drying corn and peas.


{2} Period 1 began around 1200 when a clay platform was built and a long house (14ft by ?30ft) was constructed running east - west. Its construction was crude with mud walls and post holes for the timbers. They had a barn, built on the north side of the croft. The area beyond sometimes rose to the heights of being a kitchen garden but often sank to being a mere rubbish dump. The actual croft was delimited by ditches in Phase 1, 1200-1250, the boundary was marked by only shallow ditches except on the south where a ditch 3ft deep separated the croft from the road.
Around 1250 a new house was built, bigger (40ft by 17ft) and better with stone sleeper walls at the gable ends. Later the long lateral walls were given stone footings with mus or clay above. The internal arrangements suggested a clean sleeping area at the north end and a working are with heat supplied by braziers and opposing doors on the long walls near the south end. To the east of the house was a circular bake oven on the south of the inner yard. The rubbish area to the east was gradually filled.

In the early 14th century, a new house was built further up the clope. It was 40ft by 15 internally and used as its south wall the north wall of the preceding house. Its construction was similar for sleeper trences were found packed with clay and faced with ironstone blocks; on this would be placed a timber or mud building with a thatched roof. At one stage the thatched roof caught fire and the remains were dumped in the garden. Several sheds, indicated only by post settings of stone packed in clay, were erected in the rubbish area. New ditches were cut along the southern margin of the inner yard and garden area.

In the final period, c.1350, the croft seems to have been the resident of persons of substance. This period saw the enlargement of the house on the north and west and it was divided into three rooms: the north room was perhaps a bedchamber or private room, the middle room was the living room with a central hearth and a bake oven in the south east corner, and the south room may have had a cross passage although there is no evidence that it was used as a byre. The original oven had fallen into disuse but a new oven was built and this was used as a kiln for drying corn, peas and seeds. The farm buildings were improved. In the front yard a new building, possibly a byre, was added with stone foundations, and in the backyard the barn in the north remained in use while a new barn was built on the south incorporating the remains of the oven which had fallen into disuse.

The fourth house continued in use until shortly after 1400 when the croft was abandoned, possibly for another site in the village with a better water supply.

Finds from the site include: bronze rings, buckles, strap ends, a foot of a tripod pitcher and three sheep bells, three knives and two spurs, and one horseshoe. Bone objects include a weaving slide, decorated knife handles and three rosary beads. Whetstones were of mica-schist and gritstone and fragments of Rhineland lava millstones were used as a building material.

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.122 site 15 (checked) (Series). SNN77381.

<2> Butler L., 1967, Faxton, 2/48-50 (checked) (Article). SNN26723.

<3> 1967, Medieval Archaeology (11), 11/307-309 (checked) (Journal). SNN26755.

<4> Butler, L, and Gerrard, C, 2020, Faxton: Excavations in a deserted Northamptonshire village 1966–68, p. 61-92 (Monograph). SNN112494.

Record last edited

Aug 31 2023 2:22PM