Monument record 1301/4 - Burystead Manorial Farm

Part of the wider Burystead excavations. During the late Saxon period the area was dominated by a series of boundary ditches defining a series of plots. Some minor buildings were identified but the western part of the site was dominated by quarry pits. From c1200, the boundary ditches were replaced by stone walls and a series of manorial farm buildings were erected in the southern plot. Buildings included a malting oven, circular dovecote and possibly the village pound. The dovecote was completely rebuilt twice; the latest structure, built no earlier than the end of the C14, was square. It appears to have been demolished by the C18.

{2} There is some correlation between the earthworks and the post medieval buildings known from the maps but it is apparent that some of the platforms represent additional buildings of potentially medieval date. Plan. It is probable that the anomalies shown by the geophysical survey represent major ditches or concentrations of ditches/ festures filled with organic soil. The sheer complexity of the plots is indicative of intense multi-period occupation.

{3} In the early C19th buildings were still standing at Burystead.

{4} Buildings were demolished in the C19th.

{5} Summary of documentary evidence.

{6} Manorial descent presented.

{7} Manorial buildings and closes shown in 1798. Copy in supplementary file.

{8} Late Saxon activity, with medieval and later settlement, excavation by M Audouy.

{10} Located on the eastern side of the valley, two distinct sites were investigated, the aim being to locate the alleged 'manorial' site which lay immediately to the north of the parish church. Although occupation of the site began during the early- middle saxon period, little structural evidence was found. Features which were identified include a waterhole, a scatter of postholes and a few short gullies, all contained pottery of the general period. The size of the pottery assemblage suggests the proximity of major domestic activity.

The late Saxon/ Saxo-Norman period was characterised by a series of ditches which divided the area into a number of plots which otherwise appear to have been devoted to agricultural use. However there is evidence for considerable quarrying of this site associated with the time of construction for the adjacent church. On the Midland Road frontage there is evidence for some activity, pottery was recovered from features but its fragmentary nature precludes detailed characterisation. There was a series of gullies or shallow ditches which may represent the continuation of boundaries akin to those in the northern area of Burystead.

Some form of medieval activity at Burystead maybe denoted by the fragmentary remains of stone founded structures and boundary walls which separate the buildings from an area in the north. A series of pits were scattered around the surviving buildings: a dovecote, a malting oven, a possible village pound and one other unidentified structure. Much of the southern half of the lower walls of a cicular dovecote survived, with the remainder defined by a shallow robber trench. It had an internal diameter of 7.0m. A pit in the centre of the building might have held a post supporting the rotating ladder, the potence. There is no secure date for this building, but a dovecote is first mentioned in the documentary evidence in 1298. The first building was levelled and then totally rebuilt on the same site but to a slightly smaller internal
diameter of 5.8m. No nesting boxes survived, but there were guano stains on some of the facing
stones. This dovecote was also replaced, probably in the 14th century, by a square dovecote.

The oven abutted the plot boundary wall. The structure was 5m long by 4.30m wide, with inner and outer facings in courses of roughly squared limestone. The grain from this oven was mainly wheat, though there was also some barley. There was a large weed assemblage. While the oven structure had survived there was no trace of any associated malting house, although some evidence may have been lost in the later digging of a large stone-lined pit. Given the presence of the adjacent boundary wall, the malting house may have comprised a simple lean-to structure set against the wall.

There is little domestic activity on this site suggested by the pottery assemblage during the late Saxon period. On the Midland Road frontage the fragmentary remains of three superimposed phases of stone founded buildings were recorded, together with associated pits and drains. Occupation appears to have been after AD 1300, until which recognisable activity is in the form of a few pits and gullies with no recognisable boundaries.

The boundaries survived and evolved throughout the medieval period. There is evidence that the first stone structures may have built as early as the 13th century, however, there is less evidence to support the presence of a 'manorial' status complex until the 17th or 18th century. The construction of a dovecote in the 14th or 15th century, represents the first archaeological indication of the manorial status of the site. Structural activity continued at the Midland Road site until the 17th or 18th century where alterations were made to the existing buildings. Other stone stone structures may have been added at the rear where pit-digging also continued.

{12} Finds made in the garden of a house immediately north of the church. Medieval pot sherds and a post medieval Nuremberg Jetton c.1580-1610. Ficticious Lombardic lettering. Rev: orb and sceptre or cross; Obv: Lion of Venice.

{13} Trial excavation of 1982 by G. Foard. Trench 6m x 2m. Postholes, ditches and pits revealed along with early-middle Saxon and late Saxon and Medieval pot sherds.

{14} Excavation of 1986-7 by M. Audouy. Burystead. C9th-10th network of long, narrow ditches, laid out in rectilinear plots of land. Possibly the origins of the medieval tenements. No significant timber buildings within, but stone quarrying of the same period. Medieval occupation was probably essentially agricultural. Features include pig burials, clay pits and a boundary wall. No buildings identified. Post medieval agricultural activity. Erection of small brick buildings and abandonment of old boundaries in the C18th/19th. Remains of a dovecote, drying oven and a few stone floors scattered abouth the area, all robbed pre C19th.

Description from record 1301/4/0:
{1} Finds made in the garden of a house immediately north of the church. Medieval pot sherds and a post medieval Nuremberg Jetton c.1580-1610. Ficticious Lombardic lettering. Rev: orb and sceptre or cross; Obv: Lion of Venice.

Description from record 1301/4/5:
{1} Trial excavation of 1982 by G. Foard. Trench 6m x 2m. Postholes, ditches and pits revealed along with early-middle Saxon and late Saxon and Medieval pot sherds.

{2} Of the remaining features, only a flat-bottomed and near vertically sided slot (with traces of a possible rectangular post set in its eastern end) could be assigned with certainty to the medieval period. Two gullies and one other feature contsined early-middle and late Saxon pottery; the remaining features produced on pottery but their stratigraphic position indicates a likely pre-conquest date.

Description from record 1301/4/9:
{1} Excavation of 1986-7 by M.Audouy. Burystead. Medieval occupation was probably essentially agricultural. Features include pig burials, clay pits and a boundary wall. No buildings identified.

Description from record 1301/4/2:
{1} Excavation of 1986-7 by M. Audouy. Burystead. Post medieval agricultural activity. Erection of small brick buildings and abandonment of old boundaries in the C18th/19th. Remains of a dovecote, drying oven and a few stone floors scattered abouth the area, all robbed pre C19th.

Description from record 1301/4/8:
{1} Excavation of 1986-7 by M.Audouy. Burystead. C9th-10th network of long, narrow ditches, laid out in rectilinear plots of land. Possibly the origins of the medieval tenements. No significant timber buildings within, but stone quarrying of the same period.

Description from record 1301/4/7:
{1} Excavation of 1986-7 by M. Audouy. Burystead. Post medieval agricultural activity. Remains of a dovecote were robbed during the C19th.

{2} Much of the southern half of the lower walls of a cicular dovecote survived, with the remainder defined by a shallow robber trench. It had an internal diameter of 7.0m. A pit in the centre of the building might have held a post supporting the rotating ladder, the potence. There is no secure date for this building, but a dovecote is first mentioned in the documentary evidence in 1298.
The first building was levelled and then totally rebuilt on the same site but to a slightly smaller internal diameter of 5.8m. No nesting boxes survived, but there were guano stains on some of the facing stones. This dovecote was also replaced, probably in the 14th century, by a square dovecote.

Description from record 1301/4/10:
{1} The square dovecote was 4.0m square internally. The transition from the circular to the square dovecote cannot be dated with any precision, but probably occurred no earlier than the late 14th century. Exactly the same sequence, with a square dovecote replacing a circular dovecote in the late medieval or early post-medieval period, was excavated at Bradwell Bury, a moated medieval house at Milton keynes.

Description from record 1301/4/11:
{1} The oven abutted the plot boundary wall. The structure was 5m long by 4.30m wide, with inner and outer facings in courses of roughly squared limestone. The grain from this oven was mainly wheat, though there was also some barley. There was a large weed assemblage. While the oven structure had survived there was no trace of any associated malting house, although some evidence may have been lost in the later digging of a large stone-lined pit. Given the presence of the adjacent boundary wall, the malting house may have comprised a simple lean-to structure set against the wall.

Description from record 1301/4/1:
{1} There is some correlation between the earthworks and the post medieval buildings known from the maps but it is apparent that some of the platforms represent additional buildings of potentially medieval date. Plan.
It is probable that the anomalies shown by the geophysical survey represent major ditches or concentrations of ditches/ festures filled with organic soil. The sheer complexity of the plots is indicative of intense multi-period occupation.

Historic England, Undated, Raunds, Burystead Midland Road Photographs (Archive). SNN116388.

<1> Windell D., 1982, Raunds Burystead Area 2: Trial Trenching (Note). SNN109224.

<2> 1982, Raunds, Burystead: The Archaeological Implications of Development, (unchecked) (Report). SNN68996.

<3> SJA Bundle 21, (unchecked) (Map). SNN5517.

<4> NRO Map 649, (unchecked) (Map). SNN5516.

<5> 1982, /34D, /34D (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN5512.

<6> Salzman L.F.(ed), 1937, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.29 (part checked) (Series). SNN100371.

<7> 1798, Raunds Enclosure Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN5429.

<8> Dix B., 1992, Recent Work in Northamptonshire Archaeology, p.123 (checked) (Article). SNN104441.

<9> Audouy M.; Chapman A., 2009, Raunds, The Origin and Growth of A Midland Village, AD 450-1500 (Excavations in North Raunds 1997-87) (Report). SNN106414.

<10> Audouy M.; Chapman A., 2009, Raunds, The Origin and Growth of A Midland Village, AD 450-1500 (Part 3: Finds), (unchecked) (Report). SNN106415.

<12> FOARD G.R., 1981, Oral Report to SMR, (checked) (Oral Report). SNN51192.

<13> FOARD G.R., 1982, Oral Report to SMR, (checked) (Oral Report). SNN51048.

<14> AUDOUY M., 1988, Raunds Burystead: Project updates, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN50306.

Record last edited

Feb 10 2025 8:01PM