Stretton Baskerville Deserted Medieval Settlement

Description of this historic site

The site of Stretton Baskerville Medieval deserted settlement. The settlement is visible as an earthwork and has been partially excavated. It is situated 1km south west of Sketchley.

Notes about this historic site

1 The 1517 Inquiry records that there had been a substantial settlement. The site lies just N of its fishponds in a field known as Town Field. Dugdale’s 2nd edition mentions a ground called the Township in which the extent of the old town with its lanes, streets, churchyard and the site of the manor house is clearly to be seen. A church existed on the site (PRN 5340). An excavation in 1947-8 revealed that the houses were marked by shallow saucer-shaped pits and were built of timber. Pottery was also found. One house was left standing when the others were demolished and may have been used by shepherds. This house was demolished in 1647. In 1489 seven houses were demolished. In 1494 twelve houses were abandoned and eighty people evicted.
2 Medium archaeology (B), excellent documentary evidence for the former existence of the village with its period of desertion known (1*).
3 The Medieval township constituted a group of twelve or so houses on a ridge which runs parallel with the stream near the SE corner of the parish. The track which formed the village street was cobbled and led to a small plateau on the W, the site of the church. A belt of elms divides this field, ‘Little Township’, from the field to the E, `The Township’, where a series of depressions yielding pottery mark the sites of insubstantial cottages of timber and clay.
5 Earthworks of village surveyed.
8 A medium-quality site with irregular bumps and hollows over it, not making very much sense but obviously a typical site with the usual sunken roads and house platforms.
9 Correspondence from 1972.
10 Correspondence from 1985.
11 Scheduling revision from 1986.
12 This revision is not shown on the EH current map: the yellow area has not been de-scheduled.

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