More information : SE 1013 8642. Enclosures (presumably yards/paddocks) and the sites of at least two former buildings survive as well-preserved earthworks in pasture on top of an old river terrace above, and some 450m WNW, of Coverham Abbey ruins. The parish church (SE 18 NW 24) lies 250m to the ESE. The site was visited during the perambulation of the fields around Coverham Abbey by English Heritage field investigators in June 1999 as part of the National SAMs Survey Pilot Project.
The sides of the easternmost of the two former buildings are pierced by a pair of opposed entrances suggesting that the structure may be the remnants of a large barn. The remains of a dovecote (SE 18 NW 5) are shown in this area at SE 1018 8643 on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of 1893 (1). A rectilinear pond, now dry, lies to the NE. The pond is separated from the main earthwork complex by a stream which has recently been canalised causing some damage to the earthworks in its immediate vicinity; large blocks of stone have been exposed.
The earthworks may be those of a deserted farmstead, whose principal components (dovecote, barn and yard(s)) are reminiscent of those of The Priory, Stoke-Sub-Hamdon, Somerset (2). The date of the former and its association with other elements in the neighbourhood is at present uncertain. There are, however, at least three possibilities: first that the site was related to secular settlement near the parish church; second that - in view of the close proximity to Coverham Abbey - it was a monastic home grange; and third that it was a farm connected with Cotescue Park (SE 18 NW 28); the latter seems to have been formed during the mid-15th century.
Two parcels of ridge-and-furrow cultivation, reduced by more recent ploughing, are visible in the field (centered SE 1032 8656) situated immediately NE of the one containing the earthworks described above. The ridges of the northern block are aligned NNW-SSE whereas those which constitute the southern parcel have the same alignement as Coverham Lane which bounds the field on the south. Further ridge-and-furrow cultivation, with ridges oriented approximately ENE-WSW, is visible in the fields (centered SE 1035 8642 and SE 1054 8650) on the southern side of the lane; later ploughing has again almost levelled the ridges. (3)
The features described by the above authorities are visible as earthworks on the latest 2007 specialist oblique photography.
(4) |