Newnham Medieval Settlement

1 The lost settlement of Newnham is unlocated, there are several likely sites taken from a charter of 1190 and a survey of 1355. The most reliable source, from 1844, records the site to the south of Sweet Knowle in Whitchurch parish.
2 The shape of the site is unusual but it appears to have been a hamlet of 3 or 4 houses. There is both Medieval and Roman pottery lying on the surface, and a good deal of building stone. The documentary evidence from Admington suggests that the site was inhabited in c1200, but deserted by 1355. A Richard de Newnham is mentioned in Whitchurch in 1280. In 1616 the field was called Parson’s Noon.
3 The field – Noon Furlong – still contains well preserved ridge and furrow which ends in a bank running from NW to S, but which is cut by a holloway which probably defined toft boundaries. As they are running in the same direction as the ridge and furrow, it is possible that the site was formed out of part of a former arable field.
4 Plan.