Deserted Medieval Settlement at Dassett Southend

1 Excavation in advance of destruction by the M40. The main part of the excavation covers a row of buildings along the N side of a street, running E-W on the line of the modern road. The name of the street may have been ‘Newlands’. The properties on which the buildings sat were a series of regular N-S strips each c20M wide. Parts of 5 properties have been examined so far and in each case occupation seems to begin in the later 13th century. This, combined with the street name, suggests that this was a planned development associated with the establishment of the market. Moving E towards the chapel the density of buildings increases. Each property contained a building and a number of these properties also had barns. The excavation has produced large quantities of pottery, animal bone, roof tiles and many other objects including strap-ends, belt buckles, decorative studs etc, knives, spoons, keys, thimbles, pins, whetstones, millstones.
2 Plan.
3 Interim excavation report.
4 Fieldwalking in the area to the north-west of the Medieval settlement produced Medieval finds ranging in date from the late 13th to early 16th centuries.
5 During 1990-1 fieldwalking and trial trenching revealed building rubble, pottery, animal bone and tile indicative of 13th-15th cenutry occupation was discovered.
6 Coins from the 13th to 16th century found at this location: an Edward I halfpenny and penny, another worn silver penny and an Elizabeth I threepence of 1567.
7 A 15th to early 16th century iron horseshoe found at this location.
8 Illustration of 7.
9 A bronze harness(?) ring, possibly Medieval, found at this location.
10 A Medieval bronze strapend hook of the 14th to 15th century found at this location.