Monument record 4351 - Haselbech

The buried and earthwork remains of the medieval settlement at Haselbech. The village name is first recorded in 1086 as a single manor with a population of 19 working plough teams. The lack of medieval records for the settlement suggests that it remained small. In around 1559 over 700 acres of common field were enclosed and some 60 people were evicted. The earthwork remains of the settlement survive up to 0.5 metres in height, and include a broad hollow way measuring up to 1 metre deep. The hollow way crosses the siite from north to south and appears to have acted as a back lane to the settlement. To the east of the hollow way are the remains of earthen building platforms set within embanked crofts. At its southern end the hollow way meets a second hollow way aligned east to west. This appears to have acted as a route to the common fields surrounding the settlement. To the south of the second lane is a large square enclosure, measuring 80 metres across, formed by a deep ditch which measures up to 1.5 metres deep and 3 metres wide. This may represent the location of a high status dwelling, or farmstead. The remains of at least four other building platforms are arranged in an irregular grid and separated by a shallow hollow way to the south west of the large enclosure. These remains are partly overlain by medieval ridge and furrow cultivation remains. Scheduled.

{1} The village of Haselbech was probably always small. No national taxation figures survive to give an accurate estimate of the populations in the medieval period after 1086. In Domesday it is listed as a single manor with a recorded population of 19. By the late C16th much of the parish had come into the hands of the Tresham family and around 1598 the common fields were enclosed and converted to pasture, largely at the behest of Sir Thomas Tresham. A map of that date shows the village with an entirely different layout to the present; in addition to the existing roads there was at that time another street to the east of the church. A lane also ran west from the sharp bend south-west of the church, giving access to the adjacent fields and a isolated farmstead. With the exception of the latter lane, houses lay along all the streets and about 25 separate farmsteads, houses or cottages are depicted. Five empty crofts lay on the east side of the street, east of the church, and another two at the north-east end of the village, on the north side of the Kelmarsh Road. Tresham’s enclosure involved the removal of some 700 acres of land which had previously belonged to seven houses in the village. This, and his consequent policy of raising rents led effectively to the eviction of some 60 people who could not, or would not, pay. The other landowners in the parish may also have evicted tenants. It is not clear whether the 1598 map depicts the situation pre or post eviction.
Little is known of the changes in the village during the C17th except that Haselbech Hall was built just before 1678 for the Wyke family. This was followed by further alterations in the next century. In 1673 31 householders paid Hearth Tax and in about 1720 Bridges reported that there were 24 houses in the parish. Sometime before 1773 the present park around the hall was laid out. This involved stopping up the road east of the church and the removal of all the remaining houses and empty crofts along it. In addition all the houses along the road west of the church, as well as some along the south side of the Naseby Road were demolished to provide a clear vista from the hall in a south-west direction. By 1773 only four buildings stood south of the church, two to the north, and three along the north side of the Naseby Road. In the C19th those north of the church and two to the south were removed.
Includes village plans and a reproduction of the 1598 map of the village.

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.100-102 (part checked) (Series). SNN77381.

<2> 1598, Map of Haselbech, (unchecked) (Map). SNN16671.

<3> 1773, MAP, (unchecked) (Map). SNN16670.

<4> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.35 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77326.

<5> Serjeantson R.M.; Ryland W. (Editors), 1906, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.323 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100369.

<6> Dyer C. (editor), 1974, Medieval Village Research Group (Vol.22), p. 9 (Annual Report). SNN62318.

<7> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, A/P (RAF VAP 106G/UK/636 3184-5; CPE/UK/1994 2457-6) (Photographs). SNN104890.

<8> RCHME, Undated, RCHME Inventory: Northamptonshire II (Central), 889176/889181 (Archive). SNN112900.

Record last edited

Feb 7 2025 2:58PM