More information : TL 478120. Harlowbury, deserted Medieval village. Visible earthworks. (1)
TL 477120. Harlowbury, deserted Medieval village - scheduled 171. (2)
Disturbed ground centred TL 477120 forming irregular platforms suggests Medieval desertion though no coherent pattern is visible. (3)
Scheduled listing. (4)
Well defined but ultimately amorphous earthworks lie in the fields to the south and west of Harlowbury House [see TL 41 SE 47] and chapel [see TL 41 SE 16]. The most recent features are those built as part of a landscape garden, presumably by the owners of Harlowbury House.
A circular tree plantation containing, amongst others, Pine and Lebanon Cedar, is situated 150m to the south-west of the house and clearly cuts through earlier earthworks. The dominant earthwork feature is that of a raised causeway that leads from the gate in the north-western corner of the site towards the chapel. Thereafter it follows a sinuous course to the south truncating a number of earlier features. Notable amongst these is a hollow way 0.6m deep and up to 7.5m wide which extends northwards from the south-west corner of the field before turning sharply north-east and leading into a larger shallow, sub-square depression circa 50m in width. Within this is a more sharply defined rectilinear hollow c40m by 25m around the upper edge of which are very slight and amorphous earthworks suggestive of the former presence of sub-rectilinear buildings or, alternatively, surface digging. Other linear scarps cluster around this smaller central hollow. An isolated group of earthworks immediately to the south of the house and consisting principally of one large rectilinear hollow may be the remnants of medieval settlement but the likelihood that they belonged to a later phase of quarrying should not be discounted. The earthworks are bounded on the south by an intermittent bank and on the east by a prominent scarp. The large scarp that flanks the modern road along the western side of the survey area is the single surviving element of its precursor. (5)
The pasture area was surveyed by students working out of Harlow Museum in the early 1970s. The original sxheduling followed soon after using the survey as a principle reference. There is some supporting documentary evidence fro the settlement. The Manor of Harlowbury was first mentioned by that name in 1351. Earlier references suggest the site was part of the manor given to Bury St Edmund's abbey in 1042.
The main difficulty is the identification of the earthworks in the pasture as medieval settlement remains. There are no clear platforms and the majority of the earthworks appear to have resulted from shallow excavations and trackway erosion. Excavations within the chapel area show the earthworks to be comparatively recent sand and gravel extraction. The site does sit on a cap of light aggregates.
Such is the uncertainty surrounding the earthworks that further evaluation is recommended. (6)
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