Monument record 1933/6 - Finedon Market

This is yet another site with a pre-existing market, lacking a specific foundation grant, which was also a royal hundredal manor in the late Saxon period and centre of a major estate. Its market is first documented in 1292 and was certainly flourishing in the later 13th and early 14th century.

{1}Source also refers to initial summary text.
Brief synopsis of Market history:
1292 market existed
Existed 1301-2
1330 confirmed Thursday
Although most of the settlement has been heavily redeveloped in the later 198th and 20th centuries the area at the western end of he early settlement core largely escaped this and parts are not built up at so offering the potential for archaeological investigation of the area most likely to contain the site of the market.
There is no reference to a market at Finedon in 1086 or in the charters of 1230, 1233 and 1241. In 1247 Finedon was represented as a borough or vill by its own jury at the Eyre. This may in part relate to the fact that the men of Finedon had held the manor at fee farm earlier in the decade. In the 14th century the men of Finedon also successfully claimed freedom from tolls throughout the kingdom as Finedon was ancient demesne. However there is no mention of burgages in any of the medieval extents or on the detailed rental of 1423, making extremely unlikely that specific burgage tenure existed in the village, but there were a large number of sokeman and free tenements in the village, representing a higher than usual level of freedom even without burgage tenure.
The first reference is in 1292, when the market was worth 13/-, in 1293-4 12/- and in 1301-2 13/4d. In 1330 the various holders of the manor claimed the right to hold a market every Thursday. It is uncertain when the market failed, but no reference to it has yet been found later in the 14th century.
A discrete market place existed in the late 13th century for in 1292 the Peterborough manor of Kettering made payment of a fine for oxen straying in Finedon market place. The market place has not however been located. There is reference to a Stocks Well, at the south end of Sibleys Lane in 1739 but this may have no connection with the location of the medieval market place. It is however probable that it lay in the area to the south west of the church, in the former parkland and grounds of the Hall.
It is conceivable that the cross recorded in the late 19th century in the former parkland could have been associated with the site of the market but there may be quite other explanations. Cropmarks at the western end of the former park on both sides of the stream correlate well with the furlong, old enclosure and 1805 road pattern which indicate that they are very likely to be part of the medieval settlement remains. Based on the 1805 map, the cropmarks and the broad topographical pattern of the settlement, a conjectural area of tenement rows can be defined within the area of the 19th century park. This would appear to be confirmed, at least on the south side of the stream by the presence close to the western end of the conjectural tenement rows, of the location of Queen Edith’s Cross on the 1st edition 1:2500 OS map. This land is likely to have been was well within the medieval settlement core, while nowhere else in the village plan is there any clear indicator of an encroached market place, unless Bury Green is the remnant of such a market place, though the absence of tenements fronting on to it renders this unlikely.
Finedon has not been subject to intensive research as it is relatively poorly documented.
It may however hold a fairly good archaeological potential for the archaeological investigation of the market if that can be confirmed as lying within the present parkland. Similarly the Saxon royal manor, if its site can be located is of high research value for its association with the other components of the major royal estate of the middle Saxon period believed to have existed at Irthlingborough.
The significant area includes the area around the churchyard, where there are mainly post medieval buildings. Any substantial disturbance in this area should be the subject of archaeological evaluation, when development or other threats arise, especially in order to identify whether significant remains of the royal Saxon manor. Such investigation may reveal further evidence for the plan form of the westernmost part of the village and may provide evidence as to the location of the market place. If so then significant evidence for the origins and development of the market may be forthcoming.

<1> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Overview, Appendix 2 (checked) (Report). SNN103118.

Record last edited

May 3 2013 12:21PM