Offord Deserted Medieval Settlement

Description of this historic site

The site of a deserted settlement at Offord, dating to the Medieval period. Parts of the settlement are still visible as earthworks. It is situated 1km north east of Little Alne.

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Notes about this historic site

1 This Domesday vill had nine persons taxed in 1332. Dugdale writes of a vanished manor house and calls it a depopulated place. The vestiges of the manor, he says, can be seen in the mill grounds (near Pennyford).
2 Location unknown (U), excellent evidence for village’s former existence, but period of desertion not known (2).
3 No visible evidence for desertion at the published site, nor are there early extant remains in the area of Pennyford.
4 A start was made surveying a Deserted Medieval Village which is thought to represent Offord. It has been cut through by the Birmingham-Stratford railway line. In one field a group of at least five building platforms was found fronting onto both sides of a well-formed hollow way, with several lesser hollow ways in the same area. Beyond the settlement there is considerable evidence for Medieval cultivation.
5 Find recorded with a metal detector: a cast bronze/copper object, schematic representation probably of a bull’s head. Possibly Medieval.
6 Correspondence from 1972.
7Some earthwork remains of this settlement show on lidar imagery adjacent to the river.