1106622. Cite this using datacite

Title:

A Medieval Moated Enclosure in Tempsford Park

Series:

Bedfordshire Archaeology Monograph Series

Volume:

Downloads:

BedsArchMono5.pdf (35 MB) :

Download

Licence Type:

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International Licence

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5284/1106622

Publication Type:

Monograph (in Series)

Abstract:

Open area excavation was carried out on the site of a medieval moated enclosure within the grounds of Tempsford Park in advance of a new highway. There was limited evidence for prehistoric and Roman activity. More intensive occupation began in the middle Saxon period, with a series of enclosures. The late Saxon period saw the formation of an organised landscape, with ditched boundaries defining a series of rectilinear plots. Finds of pottery and other domestic artefacts indicate the nearby presence of occupied tenements. The boundary ditches were recta and realigned during two hundred years of use and, in the late 12th century, a timber aisled hall was constructed together with a possible detached kitchen range. In the early 13th century a large moated enclosure containing a timber manor house was imposed onto the existing settlement pattern. The manor house comprised a hall with a parlour/ solar range to the north and a service wing to the south, and it is presumed that the ancillary buildings lay to the east, beyond the excavated area. The building was extended and refurbished in the 14th century, and the pottery assemblage indicates that it was abandoned in the early to mid-I5th century. The buildings appear to have been systematically dismantled, and small amounts of pottery dating to the late 15th to early 16th century may relate either to picking over of the debris or continuing occupation on nearby plots. In the late 18th century the moated enclosure was taken into the parkland of Tempsford Hall, and was landscaped. At the end of the 19th century it was partially filled with brushwood, soil and domestic debris from the house.

Author:

Anthony Maull
Andy Chapman

Publisher:

Bedfordshire County Council, Planning Department Conservation and Archaeology Section
Northamptonshire County Council

Other Person/Org:

Council for British Archaeology, South Midlands Group (Responsible body)

Year of Publication:

2005

ISBN:

978-0-9531531-2-1

Locations:

Location - Auto Detected:	Tempsford Park
Location - Auto Detected:	Tempsford Hall

Subjects / Periods:

early 13th century (Auto Detected Temporal)
late 12th century (Auto Detected Temporal)
medieval (Auto Detected Temporal)
14th century (Auto Detected Temporal)
mid-I5th century (Auto Detected Temporal)
19th century (Auto Detected Temporal)
Roman (Auto Detected Temporal)
late Saxon (Auto Detected Temporal)
late 18th century (Auto Detected Temporal)
prehistoric (Auto Detected Temporal)
Medieval (Auto Detected Temporal)
middle Saxon (Auto Detected Temporal)
late 15th to early 16th century (Auto Detected Temporal)
boundary ditches (Auto Detected Subject)
artefacts (Auto Detected Subject)
moated enclosure (Auto Detected Subject)
ditched boundaries (Auto Detected Subject)
timber manor house (Auto Detected Subject)
	MOLLUSCA REMAINS (Object England)
enclosures (Auto Detected Subject)
pottery (Auto Detected Subject)
	POLLEN (Object England)
	Human Bone (Object England)
	PLANT REMAINS (Object England)
domestic debris (Auto Detected Subject)
	ANIMAL REMAINS (Object England)
	Moated Manor House (Monument Type England)
timber aisled hall (Auto Detected Subject)
Moated Enclosure (Auto Detected Subject)

Source:

ADS Library (ADS Library)

Relations:

Created Date:

26 Apr 2023