More information : "Marwood Market: Wednesday" (c.3 miles NNW of Barnard Castle
(NZ 01 NW 2)). (1)
NZ 0409 1902. A deserted Medieval village is indicated by a regular
series of banks, overgrown foundations, with average width 2 m and
maximum height 0.4 m. In plan they reveal steadings and enclosures
similar to other proved deserted Medieval villages in Durham and
North Yorks. Two roads approach the site, one from the northwest, the
other from directly south. Nettle weed is thick on this side of the
site. Quarrying has taken place in the immediate neighbourhood, but
whether contemporary with occupation of the village is impossible to
say.
The chapel referred to by Hadcock (a), using Speed's map and
Greenwood's 1819 map, was not located, and field names could not be
traced from tithe maps, terriers or local enquiries. (2)
Surveyed at 1:2500. Surface quarrying has destroyed the majority of
building sites and the village is represented in the main by their
associated crofts. There are indications of limited extensions beyond
the area surveyed, both to the northwest and southeast, but the
inroads of quarrying and cultivation are such that they form no
coherent pattern that can be linked to the main nucleation. A turf-
covered mound of scoriae at NZ 0414 8970 testifies to some iron
smelting being undertaken here. (3)
Visible on APs. (4)
Existing survey revised by RCHME during a project on scheduled
monuments in County Durham.
The remains of this site are located upon an exposed limestone
escarpment which has several quarries cut into it, one of which is
overlain by a modern field wall which might suggest that some of the
quarrying may be associated with the Medieval site. Many shallow
surface quarries ranging in size from 2 m to 6 m in diameter and
averaging 0.7 m deep pock mark the site.
Ridge-and-furrow cultivation survives in the fields adjacent to the
site. To the north of the site ridge-and-furrow can be seen to
overlie the trackway which follows a NW course from the village. The
village earthworks are much reduced; they rarely exceed a height of
0.8 m. Little evidence of settlement can be identified, only three
possible house sites can be found [1-3 on RCHME plan], and that to
the north [1] is the most convincing.
Considering that this site is typified by a series of rectilinear
enclosures, few house sites, and the fact that Thomas Kitchen's map
of 1775 (see Authority 1, illustration card) shows Marwood Market
operating on Wednesdays, this site may have functioned as a
market - presumably for cattle and sheep - which would explain the
enclosures and the fact that there are few houses. The mound of iron
slag noted by Authority 3 is as described, perhaps the residue from
a smithy linked to the postulated market. (5)
NZ 041 190. Deserted village. Scheduled No DU/100. (6)
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