More information : Site derived from OS 1st edition map (1). Scheduled. (2)
SE 1074 8630. This site was visited by English Heritage field investigators in June 1999 during the course of the National SAMs Survey Pilot Project. Measured survey was not undertaken because the hay crop had not been harvested from part of the site while, in the fields which were being grazed, the grass was still too long to permit the understanding and recording of the slighter earthworks. However, apart from the area under hay, a perambulation of the fields around the abbey was undertaken. This showed that the abbey was part of a more extensive landscape, elements of which also require survey - preferably at 1:1000 scale.
At about SE 1067 8628,the OS 6" map shows an enclosure, triangular in plan, described as 'Foundations'. This still survives as an earthwork. It consists of a platform defined by a combination of scarps, irregular mounding and ditching. The plan is peculiar but all the contributory features may not be contemporary and its original shape could have been much more rectangular; it might be the site of a large former building. Very slight earthworks, probably defining further enclosures or boundaries, are visible outside this earthwork, especially on the E. Their full extent and form could not be gauged due to the length of the grass. Further east, in the rest of the field containing these earthworks, linear features reduced by cultivation survive; some look like meandering former water channels.
The long fishpond (also shown on the OS 6" 1st edition map) in the NW part of this field, at SE 1072 8636, has suffered from the expansion of the farm buildings and infilling. Indeed, without a new survey it is difficult to know whether the rather amorphous earthworks, visible immediately beyond the farm buildings, are the last vestiges of the pond or simply recent creations.
The field (centered SE 1045 8628) west of the triangular earthwork could not be investigated due to the hay crop, however, a few earthworks are certainly present. The most prominent comprises a broad, linear hollow which may be a former course of the river. (3) |