Caldcote Shrunken Medieval Settlement

1 This site was located and reported as a clear one with the usual mounds and ditches. Rous reports it as depopulated. Dugdale calls it ‘long since depopulated’. It does not appear in the 1517 Inquiry, which suggests that it was abandoned before 1485. There were poor-rate disputes in 1659 and 1680, and in 1698 it is tithed as part of Grandborough.
2 Very good pattern of roads and crofts, but no house-sites visible (A), excellent documentary evidence for former existence with period of desertion known (1*).
3 The site is pasture and occupied by extant earthworks typical of desertion.
4 The W area was ploughed some years ago and is no longer surveyable. There are the usual hollow ways and croft boundaries on the site.
5 In the Lay Subsidy Roll of 1332 Caldecote had ten taxable inhabitants. In 1332 Caldecote was a flourishing hamlet. The field is crossed by a deep hollow way with other roads and features standing out. A possible fishpond exists in the S of the field (PRN 5667).
6 The small field adjacent, called Calves Close, also has features.
7 1983: The entire field had been ploughed and planted with crops. In Calves Close a new barn has been erected over half of the field and the other half has been disturbed by heavy machinery and infill.
9 An aerial photograph also shows an extension of the village to the NE.
10 Correspondence from 1991.