Monument record 17 - Chipping Warden

{1} The documentary record for the settlement would however appear to be relatively poor and no historic map has been identified before the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 6” which provides a detailed and comprehensive depiction of the settlement. No significant archaeological survival has been demonstrated in the village nor are significant earthworks known or any other relevant evidence reported in the SMR. For this reason a detailed report on the settlement was not prepared. It should be noted however that there is still a significant area of open ground to the east of the church which might prove to have contained part of the market place or a tenement frontage onto the market, but the absence of good documentary records makes analysis difficult. It is suggested that where there are proposals for development or other significant disturbance in the area in and around the site of the market cross there should be archaeological evaluation to determine if significant archaeological remains survive which might cast valuable light on the character and chronology of the commercial activity in this village in the medieval period.

{2} Several brass rubbings from Chipping Warden - inscription of Richard Stanwix (1556), children of Richard Makepiece and wife (1584), inscription of Richard Makepiece and wife (1584) and Richard Makepiece and his wife (1584); Chipping Warden civil parish includes the deserted village of Trafford that formed a detached part of Byfield parish.
Chipping Warden was enclosed in 1733 and the Award of the new allotments made in 1734. There was no map and the award has been lost since 1964, so no plan can be reconstructed.

{3} It is likely that there was a core of old enclosure around the village and the remainder was open-field land, except at the north. Here there was more old enclosure referred to in the Award in connection with the tithe of farm called Grange and lands called Orchard leys, Red Hill, Leyleas and Sweetleys in East Warden (J. W. Anscomb enclosure notes, NRO). This laid around the present Warden Grange and was the enclosed land of the deserted village of East Warden which had been the property of Old Warden Abbey, Beds. Because of the view from Bedfordshire in the east, East Warden is often called West Warden in documents!
Bridges (1791, I 100-1 & 103) refers to the hamlets of Appletree and West Warden.
In 1701 Aston had the whole tithe of Appletree and West Warden, which was enclosed many years before. Baker (1822 I, 476) also puts West Warden under Aston, describing bounds as though it were a township, saying it lies in several parishes. Some of this old enclosure (148 acres) is mapped on Chipping Warden tithe map (NRO T 160, 1837), and some on Woodford Halse tithe (NRO T9, 40 acres).
Map 3509A, dated from internal evidence to 1760-78, shows 101 acres in several parishes, most of them making up West Warden. A 1550 map (NRO Map 5543 from BL Add MS 63,748) shows these same closes. Data from this map has been related to a sub-directory ‘Chipping Warden c.1770.’
Chipping Warden settlement has been mapped from OS first edition 1:10560 scale map.

{4} Possibly not taken forward to Stage 2 survey and assessment.

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

<2> Brass Rubbings at Ashmolean Museum, (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN41806.

<3> Hall D.N.; Britnell T., 2000?, South Northamptonshire Historic Landscape: Part III, p.9 (unchecked) (Report). SNN103302.

<4> 2011, How War Changed Sleepy Market Town, (checked) (Newspaper cuttings). SNN107627.

Record last edited

Feb 21 2024 2:19PM