Monument record 1133 - Chilcotes Deserted settlement

Remains of two fragmentry fishponds and a dam. Possibly connected with the lost medieval settlement of Chilcote.

{1} Field name: Great and Little Chilcotes.

{2} The site of the deserted village of Chilcote cannot be traced exactly within the lands known to belong to it but it has been tentatively located. Almost nothing is known of its history but it is clear that the long narrow south-western projection of Thornby parish was once the land of Chilcote. The small south-flowing stream between this land and the rest of the parish still formed a major property boundary as late as 1840.Three fields just west of the assumed site of the settlement are called Great and Little Chilcotes.
The name Chilcote, 'the young people's cottages' suggests that it was a late secondary settlement. The first reference to it is in Domesday Book where it is described as a manor gelding for only one virgate with a population of 2. By the 13th century the manor belonged to Pipewell Abbey. By the early 19th century Grange Farm and a group of cottages existed to the north of the site and in the early 19th century a large mill and a mill cottage, now abandoned, were built near the medieval settlement.

{6} The Chilcotes would seem to have fallen in the parish of Cold Ashby at the time of the Domesday Book. The precise location of the site was unknown in 1981, it was claimed that they lay under Chilcote Grange. Chilcote occurs on the tithe map of 1840 as a western tongue of Thornby parish as four adjacent fields.

<1> 1840, Thornby Tithe Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN12588.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 187 site 2 (checked) (Series). SNN77381.

<3> Gover J.E.B.; Mawer A.; Stenton F.M. (Eds.), 1933, The Place-names of Northamptonshire, p.65 (unchecked) (Series). SNN5881.

<4> Ryland, W, Adkins, D, and Serjeantson, R M, 1902, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.327 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100368.

<5> 1257, Calendar of Charter Rolls, 206-7 (unchecked) (Document). SNN106197.

<6> Hall, D and Martin, P, 1981, Thornby Parish Survey, p. 37 (Article). SNN112439.

<7> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, A/P (RAF VAP 541/15 4388-9) (Photographs). SNN104890.

<8> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire (Book). SNN100366.

<9> RCHME, Undated, RCHME Inventory: Northamptonshire II (Central), 889344 (Archive). SNN112900.

Record last edited

Jan 31 2025 3:06PM