Possible Site of Early Medieval Settlement at Burton Dassett

Description of this historic site

The possible site of an Early Medieval settlement at Burton Dassett. The remains of a substantial enclosure suggest that a settlement may have existed here before the Norman Conquest.

Notes about this historic site

1 The name ‘Burton’ implies some kind of fortified centre, which is likely to have been on the high ground near the church. The Medieval earthworks around the church (PRN 656) are indeed enclosed on the S and E by a modest boundary dyke. The location of the church, on the uppermost margin of Medieval cultivation on such an inconveniently steep slope, strongly suggests a pre-conquest site (the Domesday account includes mention of a priest). It also lies very asymmetrically within the present parish and only 0.6km from the Avon Dassett boundary to the E. Its position may derive from a time when the whole Dassett estate still possessed some unity, being located midway between its two principal settlements.
2 Plan drawn in 1973.

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