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Summary - not yet available

Monument Type(s):

• SHRUNKEN VILLAGE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HOUSE PLATFORM (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HOLLOW WAY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• POND (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• BARROW (Undated)

Associated Events:

• Surveys at Sawtry SAM 172
• Geophysical survey at Sawtry, 1997

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument 1006817: Sawtry moat and shrunken medieval village

Full description

S1, Between and around the moat and Toft Hill is considerable evidence of a shrunken Medieval village in the form of house platforms and banks. The NE of the site almost certainly overlaps the Roman settlement partly uncovered in re-aligning the A1 road. Earthworks standing approximately 1m in some instances. Well marked sunken way running E - W across site S of moat and apparently aligning with deserted church site E of A1. Many earthworks apparent in fields to the W of scheduled area. Moat marked on OS appears more like a bell barrow.
R1, Fenland Project Field Survey. "Ro earthwork" near the A1 looked Med. The shrunken village earthworks at Sawtry were sketch planned and the open field pattern recorded on the forms studied.
O3, Pond associated with earthworks in the process of being infilled with church and garden rubbish, material previously stored on the area of improved land associated with the extended graveyard (creation of which has destroyed the earthworks in this area).
R2, Further ridge and furrow shows as cropmarks/soilmarks to N of area marked as earthworks on overlay to N of village and W of A1. Headland boundaries also show as banks. All area to N of Toft Hill is now arable. (BRC --/08/1994).
R3. A combined resistivity and magnetometer survey was carried out to define and characterise any archaeological remains that might be present in advance of a planned extension of the church cemetery. Both surveys recorded a complex of probable building remains and land divisions in the northern of the two fields. A network of linear anomalies is probably associated with the DMV remains. A second group of more ephemeral responses on a different alignment may also related to the former medieval village, or could be earlier. Archaeological anomalies were also recorded in the southern field, although these were weaker, suggesting the remains were less substantial. A series of linear anomalies appears to be associated with the moated site immediately to the S of the survey area.

6. Among the earthworks that survive on Tort Hill are a series of low banks forming a large square 'enclosure' approximately 100m across within which sits a sub-rectangular platform 10m by 19m with a circular surrounding bank c.39m in diameter.

Following their excavation in 1965 of earthworks on Tort Hill, Tebbutt and Rudd (see TL 18 SE 23) interpreted the square outer banks (in which they found sherds of Roman pottery) and the circular inner bank (in which 13th century pottery was uncovered) as being parts of the same feature. "The earthwork itself comprises an approximately circular bank... enclosed, at some distance, by a square bank and ditch, of which the south-east corner was destroyed by the road cutting." "The evidence from the excavation would seem to show that this complex of earthworks, which appear to be homogeneous, cannot be earlier than the thirteenth century".

That these two earthworks are not part of the same feature was suggested by Taylor in 1974 (TL 18 SE 23). From earthwork survey he concluded that the outer 'enclosure' infact comprised a series of banks associated with an abandoned field system and was unrelated to the central embanked platform which he interpreted as a mid-17th century Civil War gun battery. And secondly, that both the central and outer earthworks overlie, and therefore post-date, medieval ridge and furrow.

The central embanked platform does indeed overlie medieval ridge-and-furrow but this cannot be said of the larger square feature. Ridge-and-furrow instead appear to overlie the southern bank, indicating that at least part of the feature pre-dates the ridge-and-furrow. Given this, it is not unlikely that the field system has components that are considerably earlier in origin, possibly representing a linear alignment of boundaries or field system associated with the adjacent Roman settlement. Further Roman land plots were also discovered to the north of here during excavation in 1995 at TL 1726 8487 [TL 18 SE 30]

3. Further earthworks adjacent to the moat representing numerous small building platforms appear, from their layout and alignment, to be contemporary with the moat itself and may be interpreted as associated out-buildings or satellite dwellings. A hollow way runs to the south of the moat on an east-west alignment which is thought to lead in the direction of a former church, no longer extant, situated to the east of the A1. Some 170m to the north west of the moat is a circular windmill mound c.24m in diameter, the south west corner of which has been cut by a later platform.

This platform with associated terrace, measuring a total of c.175m by 60m, lies to the north of the moated enclosure on a slightly differing alignment. As well as truncating the windmill mound the platform also cuts into earthworks adjacent to the moat indicating that it post-dates both, indeed this feature has been interpreted as a manorial residence with gardens that superceeded the moated enclosure [see TL 18 SE 32].

Broad ridge and furrow, evidence of a former field system is visible within the adjacent modern fields. At a constant width of 6.5m the ridge and furrow is oriented on a NNW-SSE alignment or perpendicular to that, similar to the moat and hollow ways, suggesting that it may also be contemporary with the features described above.

In the north-east of the surveyed site is a recilinear earthwork feature comprising low earthwork banks overlain by medieval ridge-and-furrow, and is probably the remnants an earlier (perhaps Roman) field system [see TL 18 SE 1]. Within this stands an embanked platform which has been interpreted as a 17th century gun battery [see TL 18 SE 23]. (4)

Resistivity and gradiometry surveys of the Scheduled area carried out by Geophysical Surveys of Bradford in 1997 at the request of English Heritage

7. A bell barrow lying within Sawtry moat and shrunken medieval village Scheduled Ancient Monument 172.

Silvester, R.J. (ed.), 1984, Fenland Research No. 1. Fieldwork and Excavation in the Fens of Eastern England 1983-4, 5 (DN Hall) (Serial). SCB13948.

Untitled Source (Aerial Photograph). SCB9198.

Shiel, D., 1997, Report on Geophysical Survey: Sawtry Cambridgeshire (Unpublished report). SCB19749.

<4> RCHM, 1999, Surveys at Sawtry SAM172 (Unpublished report). SCB19343.

<5> 1995, Monuments Protection Programme Database (printout for SMV's) (Digital archive). SCB17573.

<6> David McOmish, Cathy Tuck/13-JAN-1999/English Heritage: SAMs Pilot Project (Verbal communication). SCB63221.

<7> English Heritage, n.d, English Heritage Alternative Action Report (Unknown reference type). SCB60693.

Sources and further reading

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