Reasons for Designation
The village, comprising a small group of houses, gardens, yards, streets,
paddocks, often with a green, a manor and a church, and with a community
devoted primarily to agriculture, was a significant component of the rural
landscape in most areas of medieval England, much as it is today. Villages
provided some services to the local community and acted as the main focal
point of ecclesiastical, and often of manorial, administration within each
parish. Although the sites of many of these villages have been occupied
continuously down to the present day, many others declined in size or were
abandoned throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, particularly
during the 14th and 15th centuries. As a result over 2000 deserted medieval
villages are recorded nationally. The reasons for desertion were varied but
often reflected declining economic viability, changes in land use such as
enclosure or emparkment, or population fluctuations as a result of widespread
epidemics such as the Black Death. As a consequence of their abandonment
these villages are frequently undisturbed by later occupation and contain
well-preserved archaeological deposits. Because they are a common and
long-lived monument type in most parts of England, they provide important
information on the diversity of medieval settlement patterns and farming
economy between the regions and through time.
The Tattenhoe deserted medieval village includes an associated moated site and
fishpond complex which survive as earthworks. The moat belongs to a
significant class of medieval monument important for the understanding of the
distribution of wealth and status in the countryside. Many examples provide
conditions favourable to the survival of organic remains. Fishponds often
occur in close association with a moated site and consist of one or more
artificially constructed pools of slow moving or still fresh water for the
purpose of managing stocks of fresh water fish. As with moats, they provide
likely conditions for the survival of organic remains. When considered as a
whole, this monument provides a well preserved example of a medieval rural
settlement, with evidence relating to the wealth and economy of the community
and the landscape in which it existed.
Details
The monument includes a moated site, fishponds and the remains of the deserted
medieval village of Tattenhoe. The rectangular moat lies to the north of St
Giles Church, it has dimensions of 7Om south-west to north-east by 48m
north-west to south-east and remains water filled. The arms of the moat
average 10m wide and 2m deep with well defined and near vertical side walls
which show evidence in places of stone and brick revetting. The level
interior is raised slightly above the surrounding land surface and is linked
to it by a causeway of dry stone construction, which crosses the moat midway
along the south-east side. To the immediate north of the moat is a well
defined rectilinear fishpond 80m long by 10m wide and up to 2m deep. This is
linked to the north-east corner of the moat by a shallow channel 2m wide and
0.2m deep. A short length of water-filled ditch lies immediately adjacent to
the north-east side of the church; it is 23m long, 9m wide and 2.3m deep and
is constructed on the alignment of the southern arm of the moat and separated
from the moat by the main access track, carried here across a second causeway.
The ditch appears to be truncated at its south end where a dry stone blocking
wall has been constructed. To the south-west of the moat are the remains of
further possible fishponds in the form of a tri-armed system of narrow linear
hollows. They are overall some 100m long and vary between 1m and 2m deep and
between 6m and 18m wide. These are believed to have once linked with a second
series of linear hollows which ran south from the north-east corner of the
moat. There is today no surface trace of this linking, though trial
excavation in this area has demonstrated its existence. The eastern linear
earthworks are separated from the moat at its north-east corner by a third
causeway carrying the main access track. They comprise two linked linear
hollows orientated roughly north-south and are overall some 150m long, varying
between 4m and 14m wide, with an average depth of 2m. They may represent
further fishponds or may be the remains of a once more extensive system of
hollow ways. Of the deserted medieval village of Tattenhoe little survives as
visible earthworks, however some traces do survive in the vicinity of the
moated site and the church. Disturbed and disjointed, they are today
difficult to interpret appearing as rather amorphous surface undulations. The
no-longer-active graveyard is included within the scheduling. The church, all
boundary features, modern structures and metalled surfaces are excluded from
the scheduling but the ground beneath each is included.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
