More information : In 2007-8, English Heritage's Archaeological Survey and Investigation Team led a multidisciplinary investigation of Thornton Abbey in North Lincolnshire. In addition to a Level 3 analytical field survey at 1:1 000 scale, covering 6.8 hectares between the church and the gatehouse, the project also comprised rapid examination of the remainder of the precinct and its environs, documentary research, rapid architectural investigation of the standing remains, analysis of Lidar imagery and aerial survey of a plough-levelled portion of the site.
A set of medieval fishponds apparently lie immediately outside the precinct of Thornton Abbey. One long rectangular fishpond and three short ones are contained within a roughly square moat, all well-preserved as earthworks, but becoming overgrown with scrub. Until the onset of ploughing in the mid-20th century, extensive water meadow earthworks were well preserved in the surrounding field, but the fishponds appear to lie outside the abbey's southern precinct boundary. A full report, part of the Research Department Report Series, is available from the NMR, reference RDRS XX/2009. |