Upper Smite Deserted Medieval Settlement

Upper Smite deserted settlement, Combe Fields

Warwickshire County Council

Description of this historic site

The site of the Medieval deserted settlement of Upper Smite. The settlement is known to have existed from documentary evidence. Some traces of it are visible as an earthwork and as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The site is located 100m south of Mobbs Wood.

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Notes about this historic site

1 Dugdale records the depopulation of Upper and Lower Smite during the foundation of Combe Abbey in 1150. The old parish name is preserved in Smite Brook, Smeeton Lane and Smite Hill. The site lay in the fields SE of Mobbs Wood Farm.
2 Medium archaeology – now ploughed (B;P), period of desertion known, but documentary evidence inferior in quantity.
3 Traces of ponds exist (PRN 5703), undulations to the immediate SE probably represent ploughed down steadings.
6 Enclosures and linear features show on air photographs.
8 Management agreement for part of this site renewed in 1989 (see FI file)
9 Roger de Mowbray, between 1145 and 1148, notified Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Coventry, that he had given the churches of Smite and Hampton-in-Arden to the priory of Kenilworth.