Monument record 384 - Upper Charwelton

Medieval settlement remains, seen as earthworks, suggest that the village was formerly aligned north west to south east along the Cherwell bank. First recorded in Domesday, but depopulated by 1491, and then recovered by 1673.

{1} Most national taxation records combine Upper and Church Charwelton, so it is difficult to assess the size of the village at any period. It was recorded in 1086. Presumably part of the village was removed as a result of enclosure for sheep in the C15th or early C16th. By the late C17th however it had recovered for the 1673 Hearth Tax Returns lists 27 houses in the parish, most of which are unlikely to have been medieval in date.
The remains suggest that the village was once aligned on a NW-SE axis along the River Cherwell and then either moved to or was resettled along the main Daventry-Banbury road which crosses the river at right angles. The earthworks are in poor condition having been damaged by quarrying, and by the construction of Charwelton station yard in 1896.

{3} In 1491 it was recorded by John Rous that the village had been completely depopulated.

{4} The village had suffered in the C15th from the depredations of the soldiers and was in danger of being wholly destroyed.

{7} Brass rubbing of Thomas Andrew (1490); Thomas Andrewes and wife Agnes (1541).

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.46 site 3 (checked) (Series). SNN77381.

<2> Thorn F.; Thorn C., 1979, Domesday Book: A Survey of The Counties of England, (unchecked) (Series). SNN1170.

<3> HEARNE T., 1745, Historia Regum Angliae, p.122-3 (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN9565.

<4> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.36 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77325.

<5> 1673, Hearth Tax Returns, (unchecked) (Document). SNN104887.

<6> 1847, Charwelton Tithe Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN9559.

<7> Brass Rubbings at Ashmolean Museum, (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN41806.

<8> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, CPE/UK/1994, 3147-8, CUCAP AMS24-7 AZV78 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<9> PRO series E179, E179 254 14 (Document). SNN115882.

<10> RCHME, Undated, RCHME Inventory: Northamptonshire II (Central), 889595 (Archive). SNN112900.

Record last edited

Feb 5 2025 7:45PM