Series: Wessex Archaeology Occasional Paper

Excavations in advance of housing development at Longforth Farm, Wellington revealed limited evidence for late prehistoric settlement, but the principal discovery was the remains of a previously unknown high status medieval building complex. This is thought to have been a manor house and though heavily robbed, key elements identified include a hall, solar with garderobe and service wing. A forecourt lay to the north and a service yard with at least one ancillary building and a possible detached kitchen to the south. To the east was a complex of pits, enclosure and field ditches and a pond. ere was a restricted range and number of medieval finds, but together these suggest that occupation spanned the late 11th or 12th century to probably the 14th century. There was a notable group of medieval floor tiles and roof furniture, but documentary research has failed to identify the owners and any records relating specifically to this important building. One possibility is that it belonged to the Provost of Wells cathedral, and was perhaps abandoned in the 14th century when the Bishops may have established their court within the nearby and then relatively new market town of Wellington.

A number of significant sites and areas of past human activity and inhabitation from the Iron Age, the Romano-British period, the medieval and early post-medieval periods have been recorded. The results follow broad regional patterns seen in the Severn Estuary Levels, with the more regularly planned farming landscapes and permanent settlement evidence from the Romano-British period onwards, developing from seasonal, episodic exploitation of this resource-rich salt-marsh landscape. It has also highlighted extensive continuities within the Steart Point landscape of land divisions and drainage patterns which have their inception at least as far back as the early medieval period and possibly the Romano-British period.