Monument record 1156/0/4 - Medieval/Post Medieval Hollow Ways

Earthwork: Good quality photography. Possible Medieval Park Pale

{1} Earthworks of a possible medieval hollow way and the banks of closes. NCCAP:SP8263/008.

{2} To the east of the south end of the existing street and roughly parallel to it are two hollow ways (at SP830633 and SP832633 respectively). Both are 10m wide x up to 2m deep and are cut at their north ends by the ha ha bounding the gardens of the hall.
The easternmost hollow way is lined along its west side by rectangular closes. The western hollow way has no obvious house sites or closes alongside it, perhaps because the land has been ploughed and returned to grass. There are however, some very slight depressions and scarps which may indicate that this hollow way too was once lined with buildings.

{5} Further east, within the former parkland surrounding Ecton Hall, two completely abandoned roads still survive as deep hollow ways. These were once also streets within the medieval village, for a charter written in the mid C14th (NRO E(S)154) records the grant of ‘one messuage in Myddul street situated between the messuage of John Farindyhs on the south and the king’s highway on the north, and between the messuage of Walter of Grendon on the east and the other king’s highway on the west. The house must have stood at the corner of Middle Street and Church Street in the area now occupied by the garden of the Hall, but all trace has been removed by C18th landscaping. Though the 1703 map shows no houses along it, Middle Street itself does appear, running beside an enclosed field or close called Great Ground and later known as Middle Street Close. There is no clear archaeological evidence of occupation along the southern part of Middle Street, only traces of ditches which define former closes. However on the ground several slight terraces are visible adjacent to the hollow way and these might represent the sites of former houses. The absence of ridge and furrow over much of the area west of the road suggests that there may have been post medieval cultivation which could have removed the surface indications of settlement.
The other hollow way is similarly mentioned in a medieval charter of 1342, which records a messuage in Estrete (NRO E(S)155). East Street can be seen to the east of Great Ground in 1703. The absence of houses in this are on the map is not because they did not exist, it is because the village itself was not of interest to the cartographer, or his client, so the area was left blank. East Street, then known as Little Ecton, was mapped in 1759. At this time the buildings remained only on the eastern side of the road, but very distinct earthworks are visible from the ground in the parkland to the west of the hollow way. They represent stone houses and embanked or walled gardens which may in part overlie ridge and furrow. East Street was once therefore built up on both sides over most of its length.
As population levels recovered (from famine and plague) in the C16th and C17th the increase at Ecton was presumably accommodated in the area that is now Ecton village, not in Middle Street or East Street. The final phase of desertion of these two streets was however as a result of C18th emparking.

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, Used with NMR & CUCAP collections (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1982, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.198 Site 27 (checked) (Series). SNN77382.

<3> 1342, Charter (NRO E(S)155), (unchecked) (Document). SNN108764.

<4> 1350 (circa), Charter (NRO E(S)154), (unchecked) (Document). SNN108763.

<5> Foard G., 1993, Ecton: Its Lost Village and Landscape Park, p.335-6+339-40 (checked) (Article). SNN54811.

<6> Cole J., 1825, The History and Antiquities of Ecton (Book). SNN47349.

<7> 1759, Ecton Inclosure Award (NRO Map 2121) (Map). SNN22595.

Record last edited

Apr 24 2024 2:47PM