Monument record 3112 - Knuston

Remains of the deserted medieval village of Knuston. South of a realigned road is an area identified as being of wartime military origin and intermingled ancient earthworks. The village was first mentioned in the Domesday Book as a dependent chapelry of Irchester. Depopulated between 1775 and 1791 to create parkland. Pottery found during roadworks include a Saxon sherd, 12th to 14th century and post medieval wares.

{2} The deserted village of Knuston lies immediately north and north-west of Knuston Hall. It was first mentioned at Domesday with a recorded population of twelve. It is impossible to determine the size of the village before the C18th because the village was a dependent chapelry of Irchester so taxation records include both places. Moreover, as Knuston was divided into two separate manors there are no total population statistics in the manorial records. However 33 tenants are listed under the larger manor just prior to 1345. There is some evidence of enclosure and depopulation at Knuston in the early C16th, and by 1720 Bridges records twenty families in the village. This suggests a considerable decrease in population in the late medieval or early post medieval period. A possible enclosure map of 1769 shows five farms and about a dozen cottages arranged around a group of lanes north of the hall. By this time the hall had acquired a small formal park around it. In 1775 the Knuston estate was sold to Benjamin Kidney, and in 1791 to Joseph Culstone. The documents recording these transactions show the final clearance of the village and its replacement by parkland. By 1786 at least two farms and four cottages had been bought up and were without tenants. At least one other farm was used only as a barn and dovehouse. By 1791 all but one of the buildings south of the existing road had been demolished and the land emparked.

{3} Land of William Peverel: In Knuston (Cnutestone) 1 hide and 1 1/2 virgates of land. Land for 2 ploughs. 5 freemen have them there. A mill at 20s; meadow, 6 acres. Also mentioned in Land of Gunfrid of Choques.

{7} About 1500. 8 Houses in "Irchester and Knuston" destroyed and 13 1/2 virgates and 72a enclosed and converted to pasture. …. Described as a hamlet c 1720.

{8} Knuston comprises the remains of a hamlet which can be traced to Domesday when it was called Cnutestone or Cnut’s Farm, implying Danish influence. Little remains today, possibly because of private enclosure predating the 1769 parliamentary enclosure. The medieval history of the hamlet has been set out by John Bridges writing in the 1720s, and summarised in the 1937 VCH.

{9} The site of the deserted village described above was viewed on an extensive range of aerial photographs and lidar imagery as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project. Earthworks were visible on lidary imagery to the north of Knuston Hall and to the northeast of Home Farm were mapped as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project, though they are not clearly indicative of desertion. The land around Knuston Hall has also been landscaped and later used as a Second World War military camp so it’s difficult to interpret the features as definitely belonging to the deserted settlement. Surviving blocks of ridge and furrow were also visible and were mapped.

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP96NW4 (checked) (Index). SNN443.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.96-97 site 9 (checked) (Series). SNN77380.

<3> Thorn F.; Thorn C., 1979, Domesday Book: A Survey of The Counties of England, chapters 35,1d and 48,12 (checked) (Series). SNN1170.

<4> 1769, Knuston Inclosure Map (NRO Map 832), (unchecked) (Map). SNN48685.

<5> 1791, Map of Knuston (NRO Map Y2 8056), (unchecked) (Map). SNN48449.

<6> Brown A.E.; Taylor C.C., 1975, Four Deserted Settlements in Northamptonshire, 5/188-92 (unchecked) (Article). SNN75848.

<7> Allison K.J.; Beresford M.W.; Hurst J.G. et al, 1966, The Deserted Villages of Northamptonshire, p.42 (checked) (Report). SNN39628.

<8> Soden I., 2012, Archaeological Building Record of a Listed Former Barn at Knuston Home Farm, Knuston, Northamptonshire, p.2-3 (checked) (Report). SNN109630.

<9> Environment Agency, LIDAR Composite DTM - 1m (Digital Plots). SNN111710.

<10> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire (Book). SNN100366.

<11> Historic England, Undated, Knuston (Photographs) (Archive). SNN116277.

Record last edited

Feb 7 2025 2:35PM