Monument Type(s):

• (Former Type) SHRUNKEN VILLAGE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)
• FIELD SYSTEM (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1901 AD)
• RIDGE AND FURROW (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1901 AD)

Summary

Earthwork remains of a field system and ridge of furrow of both medieval and post-medieval date associated with the earthwork settlement remains at Holdgate. Earthworks lies partially within the complex of earthworks scheduled as Holdgate Castle and associated garden remains.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA2613 - 1981 survey
• ESA2614 - 1986 survey of Holdgate DMV by the NMR
• ESA2615 - 1979 field observation by the Ordnance Survey

Description

In two large pasture fields S and SE of the church (SA 11390) at Holdgate are earthworks representing probably Medieval desertion. They comprise seven possible building platforms, together with holloways and fields, covering approximately 8 hect. The slopes are generally 0.8m in height. OS FI 1979 <1>

The earthworks at Holdgate were surveyed during a one week field archaeology course …directed by Trevor Rowley and James Bond and interpreted entirely as settlement remains.<2>

Surveyed by the RCHME in 1986: ->

-> "[The field N of the church] seems to have encompassed an earlier ridge-and-furrow furlong. At its N end a broad low bank, 12m in width and probably a headland, is topped by a narrow bank representing a hedgerow. It is overploughed by straight ridge-and-furrow of 5m width that is traceable over much of the field. To the E these rigs are themselves encroached on by a block of similar narrow rigs aligned NNW-SSE. ->

-> To the S of the modern road the complex pattern of earthworks has been taken en bloc as village remains: they are far from being so straightforward…[Many of the] earthworks appear to be made up of removed hedgelines from a series of fields, closes or paddocks, marked by narrow banks, ditches or scarps or combinations of these…Many of these closes contain traces of narrow ridge-and-furrow…Beneath this late pattern there are hints of earlier features, perhaps belonging to the layout of the medieval settlement, though difficult in their present state to assess with confidence.". <3><4>

<01> Ordnance Survey, 1979, Ordnance Survey Record Card SO58NE7 (Card index). SSA7438.

<02> Anon, 1981, Report of the Medieval Village Research Group (Volume). SSA7437.

<03> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1986, Reports on Holdgate Castle, Formal Garden Remains and Settlement Remains, p.3-4 (Field survey report). SSA952.

<04> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1986, Measured Survey of formal garden remains at Holdgate (Measured survey drawing). SSA10271.

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.