Monument record 297 - Stuchbury deserted medieval village

Deserted medieval village remains. Moat or possible fishponds. Also possible church site. Scheduled Monument. Summary from record 297/1/1: Possible site of medieval church

SP 569 441: Stuchbury village belonged to St Andrew's Priory, Northampton and by the Dissolution it was already depopulated, probably due to enclosure. A Hall and farm remain. Desertion circa 1350 to 1450. Remains in good condition except for the absence of clear remains of houses.

{3} St John's Church Stotesbury remembered in a piece of ground called the 'Church-yard', was recorded as early as the reign of Henry II and last recorded in 1560. The site of the church not ascertained. The name church-yard is not known locally and Northamptonshire Records Office do not hold a survey of field names for this parish.

{4} 1st noted in Domesday of 1086 as having 1 manor and a population of 13; 21 people paid the lay subsidy in 1301; the village is mentioned in 1316; 59 people paid poll tax in 1377; desertion of village occurred between 1350-1450; by 1547 1000 sheep were grazin on the village land; in 1674 only 4 people paid the hearth tax; there were 4 houses in the village in 1720; 30 people lived in the general area by 1801; the village was held by St Andrew's Priory, Northampton until the Dissolution; Stutchbury was once an independent parish with the church dedicated to St John;Around the north end of the main hollow way are numerous large depressions of no particular form. Local tradition asserts that the parish church stood here; Medieval pottery of 13th and 14th century date has been found in a modern drain at the north end of the site and more is said to have been discovered during earlier drainage work in the south east corner. Saxon pottery has been recovered somewhere in the area.field names: West Field and Town Field.

{6} St John's Church Stotesbury remembered in a piece of ground called the 'Church-yard', was recorded as early as the reign of Henry II and last recorded in 1560.

{10} Stuchbury is included in the civil parish of Greatworth. It was enclosed before 1540 (Allison et al 1966, 46). This date is consistent with enclosed field names listed during 1583-1684 (CA1671-84 & 1905).

{12} Stutchbury is first mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086 when it is recorded as a single manor with a recorded population of 13. Twenty-one people paid the Lay Subsidy of 1301 and in 1377 fifty-nine people over the age of 14 paid Poll Tax. The village was held by St. Andrew’s Priory in Northampton until the Dissolution and it is thought likely that the Priory cleared the village for sheep pasture after 1377 causing the depopulation; in 1547, a thousand sheep were being grazed there. The Hearth Tax returns of 1674 record payment by 4 householders and Bridges noted in his ‘History of Northants’ (1791) that there were only four houses left, three of which were probably the farms of Stutchbury Manor, Stutchbury Lodge and Stutchbury Hall. The buildings of the Lodge and Hall remain and are post-medieval in date. Some carved stone fragments, possibly from the former parish church or manor, are incorporated into the Hall’s fabric. The RCHME conducted an earthwork survey of the remains, but there have been no formal archaeological excavations on the site, although it is understood that some small-scale trenching took part on the field formerly known as Weston’s Piece in the mid-C20. Medieval pottery of the C13 and C14, early to late medieval metal artefacts and a fragment of carved stone reredos have been retrieved from the locality.

The settlement remains are arranged around a broadly ‘t’ shaped system of principal hollow ways, the main street being the bridleway (with open access to all vehicles) running southwards from Stutchbury Hall which, until recently, had a stone cobbled surface. The earthwork remains of the banks of the hollow ways approaching from the east, west and north are apparent to the north of the main drive to the Hall, in the field to the north-east known as Weston’s Piece and at the north boundary of the field immediately east of the main street. Earthworks of enclosures and building platforms survive up to approximately 1.5m in Weston’s Piece; this field is reputed locally to be the site of the parish Church of St John and it is from near here that the fragment of carved reredos was discovered. However, aerial photographic evidence of buried archaeological deposits apparent as cropmarks indicate a large enclosure with a centrally positioned east-west aligned structure further to the east of house sites on the east side of the main lane; it is possible that these represent the site of the church.
To the east of the main street are slighter earthworks approximately 0.5m high marking the position of tofts (buildings) and crofts (gardens), the archaeological remains of which will also survive below ground.
Immediately to the south of Stutchbury Hall and its farmyard, the earthwork of one arm and the return of a possible moat, perhaps associated with the earlier Manor, survive particularly well. To the south lie earthworks of hollow ways, building platforms and ponds on a spring line, linked by possible drainage channels to a sequence of two or possibly three fish ponds which lie further south, adjacent to a small watercourse. It is likely that these are contemporary with the village. The west pond has a dam which consists of a bank 1m high with a shallow ditch on its west side from which the material to construct the dam was obtained. The central pond is better defined with low scarps and a low bank or dam at its east end. Within this pond are two raised platforms joined by low banks; these may have been islands but if so they would have been very close to the water level. There may have been a third pond to the east again bounded by low scarps and a possible dam. The latter is now only a slight limestone-rubble bank and may have been an embanked track rather than a dam. A C20 drainage channel crosses the centre of the fishponds from east to west.
The area of protection includes the field to the north-east of Stutchbury Hall known as Weston's Piece and the field immediately to its south. At the boundary with the ploughed field further to the south, the area of protection heads west to the bridleway, following its eastern side southwards until it meets with the stream.
The area of protection then heads west, following the northern bank of the stream so that it includes the fish ponds, before heading north at the western extent of the fishpond earthworks, skirting around the eastern boundary of the former osiery bed until it meets with the southern edge of the farmyard. The area of protection follows the yard's boundary eastwards until it meets with the bridleway, when it heads northwards following the western boundary of the bridleway and continues following the western boundary of the farm track, crossing the track at the southern boundary of the field to the south of Stutchbury Lodge, continuing eastwards until it meets with the south-west boundary of Weston's Piece.

{14} Site of DMV clearly visible round Stuchbury Hall and Stuchbury Lodge.

{15} The site of the village centres SP 570 440 and surviving earthworks comprise a hollow road running north to south and bounded by hedgerows, still utilised as a modern farm road and fragmentary remains of another running east from this. No remains of any buildings could be seen but much of the higher part of the site has been turned to near quagmire by underground springs.

A moated site to the south west at SP 5685 4382 is in the form of an island set to the north side of a fairly large embayed pond. See 25" survey.

The site of the church was not ascertained. The name "church-yard" is not known locally and Northamptonshire Records Office do not hold a survey of field names for this parish.

The pond-bay has banks with a maximum height of 1.4 metres on the south and west. The island is in the form of two square platforms 0.5 metres - 1 metre high, co-joined by causeways on the north and south. The moat is now dug and wholly under pasture, no buildings can be traced. At the north-east corner of the moat, higher up the slope, is a rectangular fishpond scooped from the hillside. It has a maximum depth of 1.3 metres with a feeder ditch at the north and an outlet ditch to the moat.

{16} No change since report of 25-FEB-1971. Survey of 1971 correct, transferred to 1:2500 MSD.

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP54SE1 (unchecked) (Index). SNN443.

<2> Allison K.J.; Beresford M.W.; Hurst J.G. et al, 1966, The Deserted Villages of Northamptonshire, p.46 (unchecked) (Report). SNN39628.

<3> Ryland, W, Adkins, D, and Serjeantson, R M, 1902, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.344 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100368.

<4> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1982, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.66/Site 10 (unchecked) (Series). SNN77382.

<5> NOTES ON MAPS RELATING TO THE AREA, (unchecked) (Notes). SNN54329.

<6> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.201 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77325.

<7> 1634, MAP, (unchecked) (Map). SNN8700.

<8> 1845, MAP, (unchecked) (Map). SNN8703.

<9> 1316, Nomina Villarum, (unchecked) (Document). SNN8783.

<10> Hall D.N.; Britnell T., 2000?, South Northamptonshire Historic Landscape: Part III, p.14 (unchecked) (Report). SNN103302.

<11> Billington V., 2000, Woad-Growing in Northamptonshire, p.59-70 (unchecked) (Article). SNN102516.

<12> Historic England, 2015, Site of medieval village of Stutchbury, (unchecked) (Designation Advice Report). SNN110145.

<13> 1976, CBA GROUP 9 NEWSLETTER, 6/29 (unchecked) (Newsletter). SNN60007.

<14> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, APs (R A F CPE/UK/1926 1216 and 1217 6.1.47) (Photographs). SNN104890.

<15> Seaman, B H, 1971, Field Investigator's Comments, F1 BHS 25-FEB-1971 (Notes). SNN114116.

<16> Tittensor, A J, 1977, Field Investigators Comments, F2 AJT 04-MAY-1977 (Notes). SNN115541.

<17> Aerial Photograph, APs (OS/74 257/123-24) (Photographs). SNN112974.

<18> Aerial Photograph, A/P (CUAP SA 31-2, AGV28) (Photographs). SNN112974.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:18PM