More information : TF 073764. Settlement remains of Newball surround
the two farms making up the modern hamlet and lie at 14m above OD
on a low hill of Boulder Clay/Till on the E side of the Barlings
Eau or Langworth River.
The modern civil parish was only a township within Stainton-
by-Langworth parish in the medieval period and the settlement
never acquired a parish church. A manorial chapel was licensed
in 1331 for the manor of John de Bayeux here. As a result of
subinfeudation of the Earl of Chester's 11th-and 12th-century
manor, the Bayeux family held a demesne manor in Newball in the
later 13th and 14th centuries, which by 1428 had evidently come
into the hands of the abbot of Barlings. A second manor at this
time was held by the family of Gumbold or Gobaud: when Guy
Guband was captured by Henry III in 1264-5 his house and land at
Newball were extended at 66/8. It may be this manor that by the
later 15th century Hamond Sutton of Burton had.(a) In neither
case did a manorial residence survive for obvious identification.
For most administrative purposes, Newball was returned with
Reasby as a member, commonly unnamed, of Stainton and little idea
of its population level can be gleaned. Despite being by far
the larger of the three in area, the extent of managed woodland
that still in 1839 approached half the total of the township
probably meant that it was never large and that there may have
been outlying dwellings associated with the woodland. The only
figures available are a minimum recorded population of 15 in
1086, 10 households in 1563, 17 in 1841 and 21 (including
Coldstead) in 1901.(b) Yet 18th and early 19th century estate
maps and later OS sheets actually show the gradual abandonment of
dwellings on the village site at this time and its reduction to
the present two farms. To what extent the settlement shared in
the 'great depopulations' and enclosure documented for Stainton
by the 1607 survey is unclear: enclosure of all but the Common
had taken place by 1735 when the manor comprising the whole
township was held by the duke of Kingston.
The earthworks fall into two distinct groups, with those W
of Manor Farm probably earlier. They are associated with an
abandoned street now surviving as a hollow-way in places more
than 1m deep and with shallow gullies on either side of its base
similar to those recorded elsewhere on clayland sites, such as
Coates (Stow (6)) and Rand. At its S end, this takes up the
line of the modern road from the SE before turning N and curving
along the W side of Manor Farm. Its line is continued by a farm
track, formerly with cottages along its W side, which swings
sharply back to the modern road, though the earlier alignment may
have continued a few metres further N before turning E, as estate
maps of 1735 and 1824 appear to show. This was a road in use at
least until 1735 but marked only by a hedgeline in 1824. The
remarkable loop that it makes may have been taking account of a
demesne manor on the site of Manor Farm. Slighter hollow-ways
spring at right angles off its W side serving a group of squarish
property plots and at the NW giving access to the river down the
steep natural scarp. Several of the plots show slight
irregularities presumably marking sites of former buildings, but
at 'a' are the rectangular stone foundations of a large building
set alongside a deeply hollowed yard. On a clay site this might
be presumed to be a post-medieval feature, yet it is not depicted
on the map of 1735 or any later maps. A building is shown
approximately at 'b' that was gone by 1824.(d)
The medieval settlement was more extensive. The field-name
Town Closes is applied c.1750 both to these earthworks and the
ploughed land immediately to their S. Fieldwalking here during
investigation in 1977 produced a scatter of later Medieval
pottery, including Lincoln, Bolingbroke and Midland Purple types,
some post-Medieval and especially 17th-century sherds and 2 Roman
sherds. Large hollows in the ploughland E of Manor Farm, too,
are associated with stone and tile scatters perhaps indicating
house sites, and produced 13th-century Lincoln and shelly wares
and late Medieval types, and 17th-century sherds.(e)
A picture of gradual, largely post-medieval, abandonment of
these parts of the settlement may be balanced by the evidence of
the second group of earthworks situated NW of Walk Farm. These
form a series of long enclosures separated by narrow ditches.
Former buildings lay at their southern ends. At 'c', and on the
site of Walk Farm, structures are shown on both estate maps and
at 'd' there are the earthworks of a former building and yard.
In addition the 1735 map depicts a house at 'e'. This part of
Newball appears to have been laid out on top of old arable
represented by ridge-and-furrow visible in the back of the
enclosures. Both maps also mark buildings at Manor Farm and at
The Cottage and the later map has additional structures at 'f'
and 'g'. This occupation at The Cottage may similarly overlie
earlier arable and be contemporary with the Walk Farm remains; a
long low mound at 'h' is probably a battered plough ridge, and
supports this interpretation.
Perhaps contemporary with the second group of earthworks is
the modern road which runs through the village parallel to the
enclosure ditches. It is probably of no great age as it is
level with the surrounding fields. The same is true of the
track to Walk Farm which may once have served the former
buildings at 'c' and 'd'.
The 'tumuli' marked on the 1824 map lie on the N edge of the
settlement at 'i' and 'j':(f) the latter lay on a local crest and
it is possible that both were mill mounds, recorded in TF 07 NE 24.
(1-2)
Earthwork remains of the Medieval and Post Medieval settlement at
Newball, described by authorities 1-2, were surveyed by RCHME (2)
and mapped from good quality air photographs.
(Morph No. LI.540.12.1-6)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
(3) |