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Summary

Earthworks interpreted as a deserted medieval village

Monument Type(s):

• DESERTED SETTLEMENT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• POND (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HOLLOW WAY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• RIDGE AND FURROW (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• BANK (EARTHWORK) (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• FIELD SYSTEM (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• FEATURE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HOUSE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• QUARRY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• MILL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• ROAD (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• BOUNDARY WALL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Finds:

• SHERD (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Events:

• Excavation of Saint Mary's Church, Clopton DMV, 1960-64
• Excavations at Clopton Bury manor, Croydon in 1933

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument 1006883: Deserted village of Clapton (site of) N of Croydon House

Full description

R1, Medieval village of Clopton (site of) (NR).

R2, Deserted medieval village, ridge and furrow. (A Spedding 06/10/1983 CUCAP AP BMA 80 used for DMV).

R4. Village originally consisted of manor and church and houses for 21 inhabitants. A market was reported to operate there every Wednesday in the medieval period. Enclosed in the 16th century.

R11, The shrunken parish of Clopton ... may stand as typical of those whose falling revenue from fees was making them unattractive to incumbents in the late C16.

R12, There was ... disagreement between incumbents and Lord of the Manor at Clopton ... depopulated by John Fisher between 1500 and 1518. The encloser had bought out and ejected the occupiers of the common arable strips, but there remained the glebe strips, scattered among them. This enabled him to put the parson in a double difficulty: the petition (...) to Wolsey explains this: "the said glebe he can in no wise occupy in tillage ... as the residue of the said lands in the fields be laid to pasture, and if he should sow the glebe lands it would have been destroyed by cattle, and if he put in any cattle on his glebe lands they not abide upon it because there are hedges, and no defence made between the grounds of your said orator and the ground of the farmers, for the fields have always time out of mind laid open." The 'farmers' were Robt Morgan and Robt Brockwell to whom Fisher had leased the pastures. There had been a similar dispute about 1500 between Fisher and the previous incumbent, and it is not possible to say whether the whole depopulating enclosure had taken place so early. (An Inquisition of1511 into the lands of Fisher's son names a number of messuages, but in the fashion of Inquisitions post mortem of that century does not make clear whether the messuages lay in Clopton or in the neighbouring villages where he also held property.) Fisher was a London lawyer who had bought the parish from the Clopton family in1489 and then followed his advantage.

R14. d(15) DESERTED MEDIAEVAL VILLAGE (N.G. TL 301487, not on O.S.; Plate 73). The site, 1 m. S.W. of Croydon, is a steep S. scarp of chalk marl with boulder clay at the top and gault clay at the foot; it varies in elevation between 100 ft. and 225 ft. above O.D. and is a good example of a spring-line location: The main earthworks are in pasture, but on the W. a part of the village, probably nearly half its extent of some 33 acres, has been destroyed by ploughing. Quarries have affected their N. end; he largest, with a curving face 200 ft. wide and 25 ft. high, is the most noticeable feature of the hillside. Coprolite digging and military exercises have also caused damage.

The remains are those of the village of Clopton, well documented from 1086 until its enclosure for sheep by John Fisher from c. 1495. In 1356 we learn that manor house and rectory were on opposite sides of the road; the personal name of John atte Dam, occurring in the same year, suggests a mill. The names of several messuages are recorded for 1511. The benefice was united with Croydon in 1561. (W. M. Palmer, 'A History of Clopton, Cambridgeshire', C.A.S. Procs., XXXIII (1933), 3-60, includes a plan of Clapton Dairy Farm, covering the site in 1750; the original is in Downing College.)

The remains are connected by four roads (a)-(d). Apart from the two moated sites separately listed, Monuments (16) and (17), the principal sites are of the church (e), and the mill (f). In addition there are fish ponds (g), and a number of house sites (h). (Medieval Archaeology, V (1962), 33-4; VI-VII (1964), 341; D.M.V. Research Group, 12th Report (1964), 13-14.)

(a), the main E. to W. road, still followed by a footpath and formerly the route from Arrington to Tadlow, runs just below the crest of the scarp; it is a lyncheted track 20 ft. wide with a scarp 3 ft. to 4 ft. high to the N. and the steep natural slope on the S. The large quarry, already mentioned, cuts into this track; slight scarps on the N. show that its line has varied slightly. At the W. end it becomes a hollow-way
with a platform to the S. 2 ft. high.

(b), a hollow-way, branches from (a) at the N.E. corner of the village remains and sweeps S. in a wide curve; it is 40 ft. to 50 ft. wide, 3 ft. to 4 1/2 ft. deep and 20 ft. to 25 ft. wide across the bottom. As it crosses more level ground the scarps diminish in height and it finally curves S.W. to meet the causeway across the N. side of the moat of Monument (17).

(c), the first of two more irregular and rutted hollow-ways running S.E. from (a) between the quarry and the W. hedge, is 35 ft. wide, 2 ft. to 3 ft. deep and 20 ft. wide across the bottom; after 130 ft. it is blocked by an E. scarp, although it apparently continued to join (b).

(d), to the W. of (c), is 60 ft. wide and 6 ins. to 9 ins. deep at the N. end but gradually narrows to a width of 35 ft. and deepens to 2 ft. After running for 120 ft. it is blocked by a S. scarp belonging to a building platform.

(e), probably the church site, although not that marked on O.S. maps, consists of a platform W. of (b), a rectangular depression to the S. and an enclosing ditch and scarps. Excavation in 1963-4 showed that on the platform, now level within scarps 1 ft. to 2 ft. high, a large E.-W. ditch had been cut into a ground surface with Roman pottery on it, and had in turn been cut by a N.E.-S.W. ditch, both apparently of the Anglo-Saxon period. The depression, orientated E.N.E.-W.S.W., and measuring 80 ft. by 40 ft. with scarps 1 1/2 ft. high on the N. and W., apparently indicates the nave of the church; in 1964 two parallel wall footings, 20 ft. apart and lined by a cross wall, were found at its E. end. The building had had a tiled floor and roof, and glazed windows; it was probably destroyed in the late 17th century. To the S.E. were found four successive layers of mediaeval graves, and there were others on the platform to the N. The scarps and ditch to the S. and W. seem to mark the line of a robbed wall round the churchyard.

(f), probably the mill site, lies in flat ground 350 ft. S.E. of (e), with ridge and furrow running up to it on the S. A sunken and marshy oblong, water-filled at the deeper N.E. end, gave the field in which it is situated its 18th-century name of 'Canal Close'.

The remains, consisting of two parallel depressions 450 ft. long separated by a bank, are best explained in terms of a mill standing on the N.E. end of the bank, the water being held back in the long depressions to the S.W. The N.W. depression is 50 ft. wide and 9 ins. deep at the S.W. end, and 65 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep at the N.E. end. The S.E. depression is 30 ft. wide and gradually deepens from 9 ins. at the S.W. end to 3 ft. at the N.E. end. At the S.W. end these depressions join in a curve, while towards the N.E. end both drop 2 ft. to 3 ft. into the wet portion. The dividing bank is 30 ft. wide and 1 ft. to 3 ft. high. A channel bringing water from the springs to the N. moat enters the N.W. depression near the N.E. end.

(g)fish ponds: slight boggy hollows to the W. of Monument (17) are perhaps to be so interpreted.

(h) house sites, falling into three groups: (i). To the N. of road (a) is a near-rectangular enclosure orientated N.E. and S.W. measuring 230 ft. N.W. by 170 ft. N.E.; it is bounded on three sides by a ditch 12 ft. to 15 ft. wide and 1 ft. deep, with traces of an internal bank. The interior is largely occupied by two quarries and their spoil heaps. To the N. of the S. quarry is a platform 50 ft. square cut back into the hillside. To the W. of the same quarry is a similar platform 35 ft. square and to the E. is a rectangular platform measuring 80 ft. E. To W. by 60 ft., with scarps 2 ft. to 3 1/2 ft. high on the N. and E. A notch in the N. scarp may indicate that two buildings stood here.

(ii). In the angle between the S. side of road (a) and the W. side of hollow-way (b) platforms may indicate house sites. On the W. side of the N. to S. hollow-way (d) is a sub-rectangular area measuring 70 ft. by 30 ft.; a trench dug here in 1960 produced many cobbles and some 14th-century pottery with a pit 2 ft. deep below. Below these platforms many scarps 3 ft. to 4 ft. high, running N.E. and S.W. along the slope, belong to platforms or terraces cut into one another in no regular pattern, and seem to be the results of successive buildings. Trenches cut across the platform, the N. scarp of which blocks (d), revealed mediaeval pottery overlying Roman pits.

(iii). These platforms continued towards the W. into a field where ploughing has obliterated all but the largest scarps. Slight scoops and scarps, of which the most prominent runs N.E. and S.W. for 280 ft. and is 2 ft. to 4 ft. high, can be distinguished; areas of cobbles and pottery are most noticeable in the N. part of the field. In the field to the N. there are some larger spreads of cobbles and much pottery, including Roman, late Saxon, 13th- and 16th-century sherds.

R16 Clopton, mentioned in Domesday book ... and 1517.

O3, The earthworks of the village survive much as shown by RCHM (R14) but, as this is a reduction of a much larger original, it contains more fine detail than the AO 25in survey. Within the large quarry is a short bank and ditch, the remains of a machine-gun range target, and trenches. The field to the immediate W although now permanent pasture, was ploughed during the 1939 - 1945 war, spreading the profiles of the earthwork therein and rendering them unsurveyable. Description of remains by R14 correct.

O5, The S part of the site lies in a flattish area to N of Croydon House, climbing steeply to the N across the 76m contour line. The whole site is under pasture, with the exception of the SW projection which is under arable. Earthworks are extensive, presenting features in many cases over 1m in height. These are difficult to interpret, as village was presumably terraced into the hillside. Several ponds or depressions noted. To SW a pond filled with old tree roots and N of this a strong rectangular moated site, interior platform approx 32m by 25m with a 1m deep ditch 2m wide. Manor House? (See RN 01216b) A short bank runs from W - E across SE area, wet area fringed with old willows. A dry stream or hollow way leads into this wet area from the N. To the S of the scheduled area, ridge and furrow is fairly well preserved with strong S curve against a low bank, possibly the village boundary bank.

O7, Site houses the largest badger set in Cambridgeshire, however it appears that this is situated in a C19 coprolite mine in the centre of the site. See R14 for details.
See also RN 01216a - chapel, RN 01216b - moat, RN 01216c - moat, RN 01216d - pillow mound, RN 01216e - pottery (Ro), RN 01216f - pottery (Medieval), RN 01216g - pottery (AS), RN 01216h - pottery (Post Medieval), RN 01216i - earthworks (Mod).

A terrier of 1546 gives the names 'West', 'North' and 'Middle' Fields for Croydon, also many names of access ways and furlongs.
None corresponds with those recorded in 1750 when estate plans were made for Sir Jacob Downing and Thomas Gape; by that time
most of the present field divisions already existed.

Clopton seems to have had two fields in the 13th century and was enclosed c. 1495 by John Fisher.

(Ref: terrier of strips 1546; plans of Gape estates 1747 (C.R.O.); plans of Downing estates 1750 (Downing College); tithe map 1839 (T.R.C.); W. M. Palmer, C.A.S. Procs., XXXIII (1933), 3-60; W. E. Tate, C.A.S. Procs., XL (1944), 58; air photographs: 106G/UK/1635/3490-3; CPR/UK/1993/4115-9; CPE/UK/2024/3018; 3057-61; 3083-5; 4102-4.)

5, 7, 8, 19. Excavations on a small scale in 1960-4, directed by J. Alexander, showed that there was also Roman and pagan Anglo-Saxon occupation in the area. See PRN 01216e for more details.

1995, Monuments Protection Programme Database (printout for SMV's) (Digital archive). SCB17573.

Wilson, S., 2010, Aerial photograph of Clopton deserted medieval settlement. (Aerial Photograph). SCB21831.

Alexander, J.A., 1968, Clopton: the life-cycle of a Cambridgeshire village. In East Anglian studies, Munby, LM (ed), 48-70 (Article in monograph). SCB571.

Untitled Source (Aerial Photograph). SCB4610.

Untitled Source (Aerial Photograph). SCB4617.

Elrington, C.R (ed.), 1982, The Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Volume 8, 30, 34 ff (Bibliographic reference). SCB15283.

Palmer, W., 1933, A History of Clopton, Cambridgeshire. PCAS 33: 3-60 (Article in serial). SCB10133.

Wilson, D.M. and Hurst, D.G., 1961, Medieval Britain in 1960: Med Arch 5: 309-39, p. 334 (Article in serial). SCB7368.

Wilson, D.M. and Hurst, D.G., 1962, Medieval Britain in 1961: Med Arch 6-7: 306-49, p. 341 (Article in serial). SCB7315.

Hurst, D.G., 1965, Medieval Britain in 1964. II. Post-Conquest. Med Arch 9: 179-220, p. 170, 208 (Article in serial). SCB15699.

Beresford, M. and Hurst, J.G., 1971, Deserted Medieval Villages, 151, 184 (Bibliographic reference). SCB1426.

Untitled Source (Aerial Photograph). SCB9898.

Beresford, M., 1954, The Lost Villages of England, p. 310 - 1 (Bibliographic reference). SCB1451.

Beresford, M., 1954, The Lost Villages of England, p. 325 - 6 (Bibliographic reference). SCB1451.

DMV Research Group 12 (Bibliographic reference). SCB4957.

RCHM, 1968, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire. Volume I. West Cambridgeshire, 71 - 79 (ill) (Bibliographic reference). SCB18049.

Ordnance Survey, 1960, OS 6 inch map (Map). SCB9012.

Oosthuizen, S., 1985, Lost, deserted and shifted settlements in South Cambridgeshire c 1000 - 1850 AD: A Gazetteer (Bibliographic reference). SCB8680.

Beresford, M., 1954, The Lost Villages of England, p, 343 - 4 (Bibliographic reference). SCB1451.

<19> Alexander, J., 1961, Clopton, Cambs, 1960 & 1961 (Unpublished document). SCB21505.

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