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GOLTHO MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT EARTHWORK AND CROPMARK SITE

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Early medieval settlement , motte and bailey, and medieval village consisting of a moat, and crofts with buildings, seen as cropmarks and earthworks. Excavation revealed an early medieval ringwork and medieval motte and tower. Roman features have been recorded separately (TF 17 NW 37). The motte and bailey has been levelled and the site cultivated

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[TF 11617742] MOAT [G.T.] (1)

Goltho was not separately assessed in 1334. In 1563 eight families remained. A very clear site. (2)

Air photographs show the moat and sunken roads with adjoining crofts (3). [See illustrations card.]
Scheduled (4).

A strongly fortified work (possibly a castle mound). An adjacent street and field system, centred at TF 114776, appears contemporary although later drainage is also evident. Published survey (25") revised. (5)

Goltho DMV - part preserved and part ploughed. Finds from the
ploughed areas to the north and south include Stamford and other medieval wares and also some RB greyware. (6-7)

The entire site has now been ploughed. Excavations were carried out by Beresford last year and a further season is proposed this. Report not yet available. (8)

Excavated in 1970 when the village was found to comprise about 36 crofts, a moated manor and a 16th c. chapel on the site of an earlier parish church. Excavation of one whole croft and partial excavation of two others revealed an almost complete sequence of mud and stud houses dating from the Saxo-Norman period until desertion in the first half of the 15th century. The croft completely excavated (see plan) was c.160 ft square and situated 120 yards from the church, the presumed settlement centre. Finds indicated that Goltho was a prosperous community. They included enamelled and gilded bronze pendants and many other bronze artefacts of superior craftsmanship. (9)

The streets and peasant tofts of the village were levelled by bulldozing and deep ploughing in the winter of 1970-1. The manorial site was excavated and was found to be a small, Late Saxon enclosure which was turned into a ringwork in the 11th c. The centre was filled in in the 12th c. to make a high platform on which to build a timber aisled hall. The site was deliberately slighted when the manor was moved to its present position half a mile to the South of the church.
Complete excavation of the site is planned for 1972. (10)

Village remains now ploughed over. Major archaeological excavation of moated enclosure now taking place which will eventually result in total destruction of earthworks. Not included on field document. The village earthworks, ploughed out, are now under grass crop; slight undulations now visible form no coherent plan and cannot be classified as "remains". Scientific excavation of the moated ringwork was commenced by Guy Beresford in 1970 on behalf of the DOE, and the site, having been de-scheduled is again to be farmed when the excavation is complete.
Excavation for this year (1973) was completed this week. No interim report has, or will be published, but the main features and periods as indicated on the ground are as follows:

Phase 1: A Late Saxon sub circular enclosure indicated by a slight ditch.
Phase 2. A small early Norman motte holding a timber (later stone) tower. During this period the original Saxon ditch was traversed by a wide and deep ditched defence (not a bailey) which enclosed a smaller area than the AS work.
Phase 3. A mid 12th century Hall surrounded by a strong defensive ditch, on the same lines as the original Norman work. In places the ditch was cut to a depth of 28ft. Supporting revetment timbers were found at this depth.

Post holes which give a complete Hall plan have been exposed and cleared, and extensive excavation has recently been under way on four auxiliary buildings adjoining the Hall. Much pottery (Stamford/Lincoln ware. Nottingham ware. Shell pot etc) from a large domestic range has been found together with bone gaming counters and coins of Canute and Stephen. Terminal date of occupation not yet established. The published work has now been completely removed and the ditch mainly infilled. Continuation of excavation is scheduled for 1974.
AM survey (1:2500) 1964 revised. (11)

Field report April 1971. (12)

Excavations at Goltho revealed the plan of the Medieval village. (13a). Some of these features were visible as earthworks and cropmarks and mapped from good quality air photographs.

A main N-S aligned hollow way, 680m in length, centred at TF 1138 7755, has croft enclosures flanking it. There was only evidence for two buildings associated with the crofts, at TF 1146 7735 and TF 1139 7750, in contrast to the 26 shown on the
excavation plan.

To the east of the hollow way, centred at TF 1159 7750, a series of hollow ways have crofts associated with them. They lie adjacent to a moat, centred at TF 1161 7742, which is the site of a manor.

All the earthworks except the moat have been levelled.

This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
(13-13a)

The Late Saxon settlement at TF 116 774 comprised 2 houses possibly built with clay and straw walls and post hole or "stud" construction, and 5 more identified only from floors (14-15).

The medieval motte and bailey castle dates from the late 11th century, when it was constructed over the remains of an eariler manorial enclosure, and was abandoned in the middle of the 12th century.

The chronology of the site has been given as follows: A Romano-British settlement of late 1st and 2nd century date, including a substantial Roman building. An unenclosed settlement of middle Saxon date, including timber and clay buildings, predated the development of a serise of fortified enclosures. A stave-built hall, bower, kitchen and weaving shed were constructed around 850, surrounded by a defensive rampart and ditch. A sequence of rebuildings was followed by a replanning in the period around 1000-1080 within a larger enclosure, again surrounded by a rampart and ditch. Around 1080 a motte and bailey castle was constructed.

The motte lay in the north east of a rectangular earthwork enclosed with a gatehouse and a bridge located to the east side. Two succesive single-aisled halls of clay with vertical posts provided domestic accomodation. In the mid 12th century the bailey banks were pulled in to create a flat-topped mound for a timber aisled hall and ancillary buildings which was adandoned shortly afterwards. By the mid-12th century the manor is believed to have been in the hands of the Kyme family.

Aerial photographs show the site both before and after it was levelled with the dich showing as a cropmark following the destruction of the site. The site of the motte and bailey was formerly contained within a scheduled area insluding the earthwork remians of the medieval settlement. The whole site was descheduled in 1982. (16)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1956

( 2) Maurice Beresford 1983 Lost villages of England

Page(s)360-361, 363-364

( 3) Aerial photograph

APS (RAF 541/185/3098 4098 Oct 1948)

( 4) Ancient Monuments Boards for England, Scotland and Wales annual reports

1961 Page(s)64

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 BHS 27-JUL-64

( 6) General reference

Early Medieval Archaeol Bull 8 1965 15 & 23 (R Russell)

( 7) General reference

Early Medieval Archaeol Bull 9 1966 15 & 21 (R Russell).

( 8) Field Investigators Comments

F2 BHS 01-APR-71

( 9) Medieval Village Research Group annual report

18, 1970 Page(s)19

(10) Medieval Village Research Group annual report

Page(s)23, 29

(11) Field Investigators Comments

F3 FDC 02-OCT-73

(12) Field Investigators Comments

F4 FDC 02-OCT-1973

(13) Field Investigators Comments

Yvonne Boutwood/19-JUL-1994/RCHME: Lincolnshire NMP

(13a) by Guy Beresford 1975 The medieval clay-land village : excavations at Goltho [Lincolnshire] and Barton Blount [Derbyshire]

The Society for Medieval Archaeology monograph series1 (1966) - 6 Page(s)8

(14) by Guy Beresford ... [et al]; edited by J Geddes 1987 Goltho : the development of an early medieval manor c 850-1150

English Heritage archaeological reportsNo.1 (1985) - no.24 (1994) no.4

(15) edited by David M Wilson 1976 The archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England

(16) English Heritage Alternative Action Report

Drury, D. 14-SEP-1998

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MONUMENT NO. 1154631
GOLTHO

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Traces of Romano-British settlement discovered during excavations at Goltho during the early 1970s. Evidence comprised three circular houses ranging b...

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