Monument record 1742/4/1 - Probable domestic ranges of medieval manor (AD 1250-1450), West Cotton

Earthwork: Good quality photography. Well-preserved earthworks of medieval buildings.

{2} West of the lane are the earthwork remains of two small building complexes, with indeterminate banks, wall footings and scarps. The northernmost set of buildings (marked 'a' on the earthwork plan), consist of a series of rectangular platforms, bounded by low scarps and banks, some of which are made of limestone rubble, now nowhere more than 0.5m high. Fig.90.

{4} This area was not part of the 1985-9 excavations but is likely to be a medieval tenement (Tenement F in the report; AD 1250-1450). It is suggested that these buildings formed the domestic buildings of the new manor house (of which the ancillary buildings were excavated). Geophysical survey indicates that a central courtyard may have originally opened directly onto Cotton Lane and it was flanked to the west by a range with two or more rooms and to the north by a second range of similar length. Along the southern side there was a boundary wall and possibly a further, detached building to the east.

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

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.81-3 Site 20 (checked) (Series). SNN77379.

<3> FOARD G.; WINDELL D., 1983, Unpublished Earthwork Plan, (unchecked) (Plan). SNN59106.

<4> Chapman A., 2011, West Cotton, Raunds: A Study of Medieval Settlement Dynamics AD450 - 1450 (Excavation of a Deserted Medieval Hamlet in Northamptonshire, 1985-89), p. 152-155, 182-184 (Book). SNN107508.

Record last edited

Jul 9 2020 10:30AM