Monument record 1406 - Easton Maudit

Shrunken village; some of the depopulation is noted to have occurred after enclosure in the 17th century

{2} The village, situated towards the north of the parish, has slight remains of former house-sites within and around it. Though these are typical of earthworks associated with many Northamptonshire villages they are of particular interest as they may relate to the known decrease of population in the 17th century.
Settlement remains (SP 887586-891581) formerly part of Easton Maudit village, lie partly on the W side of the existing N-S street on limestone at 76 m. above OD. In 1840 there was another lane at the W, parallel to the present street. By that time the sites had already been abandoned, except for the houses which still survive today.The N part was then known as Burnt Yard. Part of the old lane still exists as a shallow hollow-way and between it and the street are the fragmentary remains of a series of embanked and ditched closes with traces of house-sites at their E ends. On the W side of the village street, in modern arable land (SP 889584), is a series of patches of stone rubble containing post-medieval pottery and animal bones. Immediately E of the present village, and S of the site of the Manor House (SP 892587) stone rubble, traces of a road, and pottery of the C12th-C14th, have been found in the arable land.
Some of these remains may be the result of relatively recent depopulation, for in the early C18th Bridges noted that the populationof the village had decreased considerably since enclosure in the early C17th.

{3} The population, which was only 192 in 1871, had in 1931 sunk to 129. But there are indications that Easton Maudit once housed a considerably larger number of inhabitants. It is said that there were once a number of weavers' shops here, and Bridges wrote that in his day the parish had been considerably depopulated since it had been inclosed by Sir Christopher Yelverton in the time of Charles I.

<1> Hall, D, Easton Maudit Parish Survey Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN54808.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 43 (Series). SNN77380.

<3> Salzman L.F.(ed), 1937, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p. 12-14 (Series). SNN100371.

<4> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p. 163 (Book). SNN77326.

<5> Foster, Rev AJ, 1879, Easton Maudit (Article). SNN112946.

<6> 1840, Easton Maudit Tithe Map (Map). SNN29932.

<7> Hall D.N., 1966, Sites on the North Bedfordshire and South Northamptonshire border (Article). SNN37934.

<8> Aerial Photograph, A/P (CUAP 70-LIN 1791-61) (Photographs). SNN112974.

<9> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, A/P (RAF VAP CPE/UK/1926, 4004-5) (Photographs). SNN104890.

Record last edited

Feb 12 2024 12:39PM