Coton Deserted Medieval Settlement

1 There were six ploughlands here in 1291 and nine yardlands in the time of Richard II. The village appears to have gone when Coton House and Park were made. The Moore-Lee tracts speak of Coton as depopulated in 1656. There are suspicious earthworks surrounding the ‘Castle’.
2 Medium archaelogy, no information on whether the name belongs to more than a manor.
3 1968: There are earthworks centred at the above grid reference that are typical of desertion. No house sites were identified but there is a ‘street’ layout surrounded by ridge and furrow.
4 Plan of earthworks.
5 Coton, antiently a village.
6 1969: The site is immediately adjoining the M1/M6 link. The MOT agreed to avoid the site. The farmer, however, asked sub-contractors to level the site with soil. Many hundreds of tons were dumped on the site, and although further work was stopped ‘the site is no longer worth preserving’.
7 Air photograph shows the DMV during construction of the M6.
8 1970: it was reported that attempts to persuade the farmer to leave one croft for future excavation failed and that the whole site is now levelled and destroyed.
9 Examination of recent air photographs suggests that 8 may be misleading, and that a substantial part of the site survives, possibly buried beneath overburden from construction of the M6.
10 Archaeological evaluation at the site was carried out by Thames Valley Archaeological Services, and examined the village site and its immediate environs. Only very insubstantial building remains survived, generally represented by little more than a single foundation course. The majority of the features uncovered associated with the settlement were pits and ditches.
The extent of the Medieval settlement seems to have been fairly well defined. It is contained largely within the field immediately to the SE of the M6/A462 junction, although the remains of ridge and furrow in a number of trenches indicate that agricultural activity continued into at least the next field to the E.
The two crop marks seen in aerial photographs of the site were examined by trial trenches. Finds suggested that both were Medieval in origin. Trench 24 located a ditch which possibly formed part of the complex of two conjoined dual enclosures, whilst the post holes and ditches seen in trenches 40 and 41 may have formed part of the rectilinear (enclosure ?) feature.
11 Spoil removed to create the M6 was dumped on the site. No coherent earthworks are presently visible. During a site visit it was noted that the soil covering the site contained few artifacts.
12Excavation carried out by Northamptonshire Archaeology as a follow up to the evaluation undertaken by TVAS (see 10). Settlement origininated in the mid 10th century. The features defining this phase can be seen to cluster round the southern and eastern parts of the excavation. Redeveloped in the C12th with the introduction of a series of rectangular tenement plots alongside an exceptionally broad road of ‘green’. Extensive changes during the mid to late C13th.
13 Updated research design.
14 Illustrations for the Northamptonshire excavation report.
15 Geophysical survey was carried out to assist with the location of evaluation trenches.
16 Material relating to a planning application.
17 Plan.
18 Material relating to possible development at the site.
19 Auger survey to establish the effect dumping of topsoil from the M6 had had on the DMV. This showed that some cut features may survive across the area.
20 Fieldwalking undertaken across 13 fileds across the area of Coton Park. The DMV site was included, in fields 1 and 2. An assemblage, perhaps smaller than might be expected, of medieval material was recovered from the site.
21 Archaeological evaluation carried out by Northamptonshire Archaeology revealed medieval ridge and furrow in eight trenches, some of which were found to align in a similar direction to the furrows found during excavation to the north of the site in 2001.