'Middle Saxon' settlement and society : the changing rural communities of central and eastern England

This book explores the experiences of rural communities who lived between the seventh and ninth centuries in central and eastern England. Combining archaeology with documentary, place-name and topographic evidences, it shows the way in which the settlements in which people lived provide a unique insight into social, economic and political conditions in ‘Middle Saxon’ England. The material derived from excavations within currently-occupied rural settlements represents a particularly informative dataset, and when combined with other evidence illustrates that the seventh to ninth centuries was a period of fundamental social change that impacted rural communities in significant and lasting ways. The transformation of settlement character was part of a more widespread process of landscape investment during the ‘Middle Saxon’ period, as rapidly stratifying social institutions began to manifest power and influence through new means. Such an analysis represents a significant departure from the prevailing scholarly outlook of the early medieval landscape, which continues to posit that the countryside of England remained largely unchanged until the development of historic villages from the ninth century onward. In this regard, the evidence presented by this book from currently-occupied rural settlements provides substantial backing to the idea that many historic villages emerged as part of a two-stage process which began during the ‘Middle Saxon’ period. Whilst it was only following subsequent change that recognisable later village plans began to take shape, key developments between the seventh and ninth centuries helped articulate the form and identity of rural centres, features that in many instances persisted throughout the medieval period and into the present day. Table of Contents Chapter I: Introducing Middle Saxon Settlement Chapter II: Approaches and Methods Chapter III: Northamptonshire Chapter IV: Oxfordshire Chapter V: Wiltshire Chapter VI: Cambridgeshire Chapter VII: Norfolk Chapter VIII: Discussion Chapter IX: Conclusion This book explores the experiences of rural communities who lived between the seventh and ninth centuries in central and eastern England. Combining archaeology with documentary, place-name and topographic evidence, it shows the settlements in which people lived provide a unique insight into social, economic and political conditions in ‘Middle Saxon’ England. The material derived from excavations within currently-occupied rural settlements represents a particularly informative dataset, and when combined with other evidence illustrates that the seventh to ninth centuries was a period of fundamental social change that impacted rural communities in significant and lasting ways. The transformation of settlement character was part of a more widespread process of landscape investment during the ‘Middle Saxon’ period, as rapidly stratifying social institutions began to manifest power and influence through new means. Such an analysis represents a significant departure from the prevailing scholarly outlook of the early medieval landscape, which continues to posit that the countryside of England remained largely unchanged until the development of historic villages from the ninth century onward. In this regard, the evidence presented by this book from currently-occupied rural settlements provides substantial backing to the idea that many historic villages emerged as part of a two-stage process which began during the ‘Middle Saxon’ period. Whilst it was only following subsequent change that recognisable later village plans began to take shape, key developments between the seventh and ninth centuries helped articulate the form and identity of rural centres, features that in many instances persisted throughout the medieval period and into the present day. Cover 1 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Contents 5 List of Figures 6 List of Tables 8 Acknowledgements 9 Chapter I: Introducing Middle Saxon Settlement 11 Chapter II Approaches and Methods 20 Figure 2.1: The five counties that comprise the study area and their location within the southern Britain (inset). Source for mapping: Historic Parishes of England and Wales Online 21 FIGURE 2.2: The OS First Edition of Tasburgh, Norfolk. The two zones surrounding the parish church (cross) and historic village centre ensures that settlement development at both locations is classed as ‘currently-occupied’ 22 FIGURE 2.3: The OS First Edition of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, with the locations of test pits dug as part of the HEFA project marked as dots. Although in the modern landscape all of the test-pits are located in ‘currently-occupied’ areas, when plott 25 Chapter III Northamptonshire 27 FIGURE 3.1: The pays and major rivers of Northamptonshire and the location of the county within southern Britain (inset). Source for mapping: Historic Parishes of England and Wales Online 29 FIGURE 3.2: The Roman roads (lines) and towns (squares), against the pays of Northamptonshire. Note the density of major settlements in the Nene Valley, a pattern that continued in the early medieval period (after Tayor and Flitcroft 2004, fig 3). Source 32 Table 3.1: Of the archaeological interventions undertaken within ‘CORS’ in Northamptonshire, a significant quantity have located potential evidence for occupation dated between the seventh and ninth centuries. 37 FIGURE 3.3: Locations of places mentioned in the text. Several villages and towns in the county have yielded evidence for ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement. Source for mapping: Historic Parishes of England and Wales Online 38 FIGURE 3.4: Ordnance Survey First Edition of the town of Brackley, with the location of excavations mentioned in the text (circles), and partial oval of St Peter’s churchyard (shaded). Note that the ‘Middle Saxon’ activity identified around the church is 39 FIGURE 3.5: Location of archaeological interventions in Oundle that have recovered early medieval settlement remains. The ’Early Saxon’ occupation detected south-west of the town is of significantly different character than that identified by excavation a 40 FIGURE 3.6: OS First Edition of Brixworth showing All Saints Church (cross) and, to the west, the excavated area (shaded). Again, note that the ‘Middle Saxon’ focus is slightly removed from the historic village core (based on Everson 1977, fig 1) 41 FIGURE 3.7: OS First Edition of Warmington (centre) and Eaglethorpe (top), showing the site of the Peterborough Road excavation (shaded) and St. Mary’s Church (cross). Investigation at the site revealed a remarkable sequence of early medieval settlement ( 43 FIGURE 3.8: The excavated sequence at Peterborough Road, Warmington (derived from NN0791043). 44 FIGURE 3.9: OS First Edition of Whittlebury with the negative anomaly detected by the magnetometer survey (dashed line). The feature almost certainly represents the ditch of the hillfort, and it appears the enclosure was reused during the ‘Middle Saxon’ p 45 FIGURE 3.10: OS First Edition of Daventry, showing the locations of the St. John’s Square excavation (top), the former-Cluniac College excavation, and Holy Cross Church (cross). Excavations appear to show a shift in occupation focus from the St. John’s Sq 47 FIGURE 3.11: Ordnance Survey First Edition of Daventry. The northern part of triangular street plan in the centre of the picture is formed by the ‘Middle Saxon’ enclosure ditch (solid line). 48 FIGURE 3.12: Reconstruction of the ‘Middle Saxon’ enclosure excavated at Higham Ferrers. The feature likely acted as a stock-pen, as part of a tribute centre within a ‘Middle Saxon’ estate centred on nearby Irthlingborough (Hardy et al. 2007, fig 3.3) 50 Chapter IV Oxfordshire 52 FIGURE 4.1: The study area, which is represented by the modern extents of the county of Oxfordshire (hereafter ‘Oxfordshire’), and its location within southern Britain (inset). Adopting parishes which were previously part of historic Berkshire provides a 54 FIGURE 4.2: The pays and major rivers of Oxfordshire. The county is characterised by a series of hills and clay vales, separated by the expansive drainage basin of the Thames Valley. Source for mapping: Historic Parishes of England and Wales Online 55 FIGURE 4.3: The key roads and settlements of Roman Oxfordshire. Communications were central in shaping the settlement pattern but communities also emerged away from major roads. The labelled sites are those mentioned in the text (after Booth 2010, fig 1). 57 FIGURE 4.4: Roman belt fitting found in 1874 at Dyke Hills, immediately south of Dorchester on Thames. The association of such artefacts with ‘Germanic’ style objects in graves has been traditionally seen as indicating the presence of continental foederat 59 FIGURE: 4.6: The Asthall Barrow under excavation between 1923-4. The princely burial contained a cremation and grave goods, probably dating to the early seventh century (Ashmolean Museum Webpage). 62 Table 4.1: Although Oxfordshire is not considered part of the ‘village landscape’, a significant minority of CORS excavations have recovered occupation material dated between the seventh and ninth centuries. 63 FIGURE 4.7: Location of high-status centres mentioned in the text, against the pays of Oxfordshire. John Blair (2010a) identifies nearly all of the sites as early minsters, but whilst all were important church centres by the end of the early medieval peri 64 FIGURE: 4.8: Location of excavations undertaken in Dorchester-on-Thames. Collating the results from such investigations, it may tentatively suggested that the town continued as an elite focus from the early seventh century. The solid rectangular feature m 67 FIGURE: 4.9: OD First Edition Revision of Eynsham showing the plan of the Late Saxon (solid line) and medieval (dotted line) precincts. The area of the most extensive archaeological excavation to date, which identified ‘Middle Saxon’ activity is hachured 68 FIGURE 4.10: OS First Edition of Oxford showing the excavated sites of Oxford Castle (top left) and St. Aldate’s Church (centre). This part of the Thames Valley is likely to have been well-populated in the ‘Middle Saxon’ period, but the ‘Oxen ford’ was cl 70 FIGURE 4.11: OS First Edition Revision map of Abingdon, with the conjectured location of ramparts belonging to the Iron Age hillfort (double line). Reuse of earlier enclosures by early monastic communities appears to have been relatively commonplace, with 71 FIGURE 4.12: The circular field boundaries north of Prescote Manor, near Cropredy. It has been suggested that the hedgerow alignment preserves a church enclosure, an idea supported by the field-name ‘Ankers Field’. Recent fieldwork has also identified ear 72 FIGURE: 4.13: Location of excavations in Wantage that have uncovered early medieval settlement activity. An ‘Early Saxon’ focus identified to the west of the current town was succeeded in the eighth century by settlement south-west of the present parish c 73 FIGURE: 4.14: Plan of excavated features at the St. Mary’s School site, Wantage. Eighth century occupation was located at the school site, but not at St Gabriel’ during the same project, suggesting that the former investigation identified the southernmost 74 FIGURE 4.15: Locations of rural sites mentioned in the text in Oxfordshire. ‘Middle Saxon’ occupation remains have largely been recovered from the Thames Valley. Source for mapping: Historic Parishes of England and Wales Online. 77 FIGURE 4.16: Plan of areas investigated by the Yarnton-Cassington investigation project. The multi-faceted character of the project revealed activity spanning the entire early medieval period (after Hey 2004). 78 FIGURE 4.17: Early medieval features identified at Yarnton. The eighth century phase (Phase 3) of occupation was marked by a move towards a more structured settlement character, which coincided with intensification and diversification of the agricultural 79 FIGURE 4.18: The orientation of the ‘Middle Saxon’ features at Waterperry. The ditches are aligned perpendicular to the historic street-plan, suggesting that fundamental structural elements of the village came into existence at around this time (after Wea 80 FIGURE 4.19: Iron Age to ‘Late Saxon’ features identified at Waterperry House. The ‘Middle Saxon’ occupation on the site, most likely dated to the eighth century, may relate to the development of an early permanent settlement (Weaver and Hull 2000, fig 3 81 Chapter V Wiltshire 83 FIGURE 5.1: The pays and major rivers of Wiltshire. The distinctive chalkland landscapes of the county are represented by the Marlborough Downs and Salisbury Plain and South Wiltshire pays. Source for mapping: Historic Parishes of England and Wales Online 85 FIGURE 5.2: Locations mentioned in the text, together with the area that approximately represents the region from which seventh-century ‘Germanic’ material culture has been identified (shaded). Based primarily on grave-goods, there appears to be a cessati 88 FIGURE 5.3: Key sites mentioned in the text against the pays of Wiltshire. The lack of ‘Middle Saxon’ evidence from some pays is unlikely to represent an actual lack of activity in the period, but is instead indicative of a lack of archaeological investig 93 FIGURE 5.4: OS First Edition of Malmesbury. The town is located on a promontory above two branches of the Bristol Avon. The solid line denotes the location of the medieval town wall, excavation of which has revealed that it is located on the earthwork ban 94 FIGURE 5.5: Locations of archaeological investigation and areas of postulated ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement in Malmesbury. The find of an eighth-century sceatta near the south of the cable route supports the idea that ‘Middle Saxon’ extramural settlement was 95 FIGURE: 5.6: The location of Cowage Farm, Bremilham in relation to the town of Malmesbury. The close geographical relationship of the two sites suggests that Bremilham may have been a ‘grange’ type farm on Malmesbury’s inland estate (Faith 1995, 15-8 Blai 97 FIGURE 5.7: Plan of features at Cowage Farm, Bremilham based on aerial photographs and the results of geophysical survey. The form of structure A, located in the eastern part of the complex, strongly suggests a church building. After Hinchliffe 1986, fig 98 FIGURE 5.8: Areas of excavated areas in Swindon mentioned in the text. The Church of the Holy Rood, located in ‘The Lawn’ to the east of the town centre, is marked with a cross. 99 FIGURE 5.9: OS First Edition of Ramsbury, showing the excavated area in which the ‘Middle Saxon’ industrial centre was found, situated 150m west of the Holy Cross Church. Late eighth-century carving has been identified in the church, supporting the possib 101 FIGURE 5.10: Elliptical street-plans of burh places in the Wessex region: Ramsbury and Tilshead in Wiltshire and Kentbury in Berkshire. Note the location of the parish churches in or adjacent to the enclosure formed by the street-plan. Although ‘Middle Sa 102 FIGURE 5.11: OS First Edition of Avebury with excavated areas (shaded) and parish church of St James’ (cross). The ‘Early Saxon’ occupation in the Southern Car Park was succeeded in the eighth or ninth century by relocation further north. ‘Middle Saxon’ s 103 FIGURE 5.12: The village of Avebury with locations of excavations that have identified ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement remains (shaded), the parish church of St James (cross) and the likely route of the long-distance herepað (solid line). The route, which runs 104 FIGURE 5.13: OS First Edition showing the excavated Settlement and Cemetery Areas at Collingbourne Ducis/Cadley. Note close proximity between ‘Middle Saxon’ cemetery and settlement, and the parish church located to the south-west. The re-focussing of Coll 106 FIGURE 5.14 OS First Edition of Collingbourne Ducis, demonstrating the dispersed character of the historic settlement pattern. The modern village actually comprises the historic centres of Cadley, Sunton and Collingbourne. 107 FIGURE 5.15: Examples of ‘bury’ locations within polyfocal settlement patterns in Wiltshire. Bourton Farm in Shrewton (top), the church enclosure known as ‘the bury’ at Codford St Peter (middle), and the postulated enclosure at Bourton, near Bishops Canni 109 INSERT FIGURE 5.16: Areas of excavation at Market Lavington, situated along the northern edge of Salisbury Plain. Note the close proximity to St. Mary’s Church, immediately south of Excavation Area A, where the ‘Middle Saxon’ focus is potentially located 110 FIGURE 5.17: OS First Edition of the Market Lavington, with ‘Late Saxon’ ditches marked as broad solid lines. Note how the alignment of the excavated features broadly corresponds with the orientation of the nineteenth century pattern of property boundarie 111 FIGURE 5.18: OS First Edition illustrating the topography of Wilton, with the area of a possible shaded (after Draper 2011). Despite the ‘Kingsbury Square’ name in the south-west part of the enclosure, the recovery of an ‘Early Saxon’ hanging bowl remains 112 Table 5.1: Only seventeen ‘CORS’ excavations have been undertaken in Wiltshire, although of this figure six investigations identified some form of ‘Middle Saxon’ activity. Collingbourne Ducis and Market Lavington represent two of the three excavations tha 113 Chapter VI Cambridgeshire 115 FIGURE 6.1: The pays and major rivers of Cambridgeshire. The major fen-islands are represented by the stippled shading. The division of the county into four topographical zones better-suits Cambridgeshire’s topographical variation than a bipartite approac 117 FIGURE 6.2: The extent of Roberts and Wrathmell’s ‘central province’ in Cambridgeshire (shaded) (from EH Atlas of Rural Settlement Online 2011). The limit of the ‘central province’ is clearly defined by the Peat Fen in the northern part of the county, but 119 FIGURE 6.3: Fieldwalking coverage of the Fenland Project in Cambridgeshire (shaded). Very little fieldwalking survey has been undertaken in Cambridgeshire outside of the lowlands, and therefore archaeologists are more reliant on excavated data for insight 121 FIGURE 6.4: Location of the ten ‘CORS’ in Cambridgeshire investigated by the HEFA project. The scheme has found little ‘co-location’ between ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement archaeology and later villages (Lewis 2010, 103). 123 FIGURE 6.5: Locations of places mentioned in the text. The lack of fieldwalking survey outside of the fenlands means that the evidence from excavations is central to reconstructing the ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement landscape of Cambridgeshire. Source for mapp 125 FIGURE 6.6 OS First Edition of Cottenham showing the crooked High Street with All Saints church (cross) at its northern end. Excavations in the southern core of Cottenham suggest the village plan was developed after a ‘Late Saxon’ restructuring of an earl 127 FIGURE 6.7: OS Modern Edition of central Cottenham, with areas of archaeological excavation. The activity found by the investigations at Telegraph Street/High Street and Denmark was ‘Late Saxon’, and only the intervention at Lordship Lane located ‘Middle 128 FIGURE 6.8: Excavated features of Phase I, Lordship Lane, Cottenham. The largest enclosure defined the extents of most concentrated activity, including post-built structures which probably represent domestic halls (Mortimer 2000, fig. 7). 129 FIGURE 6.9: Excavated features of Phase II, Lordship Lane, Cottenham. During the eighth or early ninth century, the settlement at Cottenham underwent a major change with the construction of a ‘toft’-like arrangement, apparently defining individual propert 129 FIGURE 6.10: Richard Mortimer’s reconstruction of the Phase II settlement arrangement at Lordship Lane, Cottenham. Although ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement was structured and semi-permanent, it is clear that it was only after ‘Late Saxon’ re-ordering that the h 130 FIGURE 6.11: Ordnance Survey First Edition of central Cottenham. The excavated site is located immediately south of Crowlands Moat (centre) which is in the ‘Church Hill’ area of the village. Combined with the field name, the identification of human remain 131 FIGURE 6.12: OS First Edition of Willingham. The historic village plan was focussed around two main routeways; Church Street running west to east, and High Street orientated north to south. The parish church of All Saints (cross) is situated near the axis 132 FIGURE 6.13: OS First Edition of Willingham with the areas investigated by excavation in 1997 and 2008. The ‘Late Saxon’ relocation of settlement to the north and west from the existing ‘Middle Saxon’ focus is likely reflective of a ‘two-stage’ process of 133 FIGURE 6.14: OS First Edition of Fordham with the locations of excavations cited in the text (shaded), and St. Peter’s Church (cross). Note the similarity of the street plan to that of Willingham (above), with tenements arranged around an west-east orient 135 FIGURE 6.15: The sixth to ninth century phases at Fordham, Cambridgeshire. A pre-existing settlement underwent a drastic reordering, probably in the eighth century, when a newly regular and apparently planned series of enclosures was established (Patrick 137 FIGURE 6.16: OS First Edition of Fordham, displaying the enclosure network revealed by the Hillside Meadow excavation. Whilst the historic street-plan undoubtedly emerged after a ‘Late Saxon’ restructuring, the earlier enclosures are of a strikingly simil 138 FIGURE 6.17: OS First Edition of Ely, showing the excavated sites at West Fen Road, 1km north-west of the existing cathedral and town centre. Given the proximity of the ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement at West Fen Road to the minster at Ely, it seems very likely 139 FIGURE 6.18: Reconstruction of the early eighth to mid ninth-century settlement features excavated at the Ashwell Site of the West Fen Road settlement, Ely. The network of enclosures and structures were arranged around a spinal trackway that ran through t 140 FIGURE 6.19: OS Modern Edition showing the location of the two West Fen Road excavations in detail. The investigations provide an insight into the form and function of a monastic inland unparalleled in England. 142 Table 6.1: Of the archaeological interventions undertaken within ‘CORS’ in Cambridgeshire, almost half have located potential evidence for occupation datable to the ‘Middle Saxon’ period. 143 FIGURE 6.20: Roberts and Wrathmell’s (2002) ‘central province (shaded) and ‘Middle Saxon’ settlements mentioned in the text. The lack of juxtaposition between the ‘central province’ of ‘nucleated’ settlements and common fields, and ‘Middle Saxon’ sites, e 146 Chapter VII Norfolk 148 FIGURE 7.1: The pays and major rivers of Norfolk. Source: Historic parishes of England and Wales online. 150 FIGURE 7.2: Distribution of Ipswich Ware finds shows that the southern boundary of the kingdom of the East Angles is likely to have shifted (after Blinkhorn 2009). Test-pitting at Gaywood in north-west Norfolk is the largest concentration of the ceramic o 154 FIGURE 7.3: Map of fieldwalked parishes in Norfolk. Although surveys rarely cover an entire, or even the majority of a parish, it has been estimated that ten percent of Norfolk’s landscape has been fieldwalked. Source for mapping: Historic Parishes of Eng 155 FIGURE 7.4: The nineteen parishes surveyed by the Launditch Hundred Project and the postulated date of church foundations, based on ceramic scatters in their environs (after Hoggett 2007, fig 32). 156 FIGURE 7.5: Distribution of ‘Middle Saxon’ and ‘Late Saxon’ pottery scatters around churches and villages in Launditch Hundred. Such survey suggests variation in early medieval settlement development, a theme paralleled by other archaeological evidence (a 158 FIGURE 7.6: Parishes surveyed by the Fenland Project. The extent of Peat Fen is shaded, and the silt fen is indicated with a ‘marsh’ symbol. Fieldwalking in Marshland identified several ‘Middle Saxon’ sites, but the other regions were apparently not as in 159 FIGURE 7.7: OS First Edition of Wormegay showing the area above the 3m contour (shaded), the concentration of ‘Middle Saxon’ Ipswich Ware (hachured), and the parish church of St Michael (cross). The focus of occupation relocated from the ‘Middle Saxon’ ch 160 FIGURE 7.8: Distribution of ‘Middle Saxon’ sites identified by the Fenland Project, with the exceptional sites of Hay Green and West Walton labelled. The equal spacing of the sites, almost one to a parish, suggests a degree of settlement planning perhaps 161 FIGURE 7.9: Location of ‘productive sites’ identified by Rogerson (circles) and further possible examples as suggested by Pestell (triangles) (Rogerson 2003; Pestell 2003). The possible sites have been far less rich in metalwork but interestingly still di 163 FIGURE 7.11: Location of excavated sites mentioned in the text and the pays of Norfolk. ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement evidence is particularly well represented in the Good Sands and Central-southern Claylands pays. Source for mapping: Historic Parishes of Eng 166 FIGURE 7.12: OS First Edition of Sedgeford illustrating the area known as the Boneyard. Excavation here has located a ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement and cemetery focus. The site appears to have been abandoned in the ‘Late Saxon’ period, and focus shifted north 167 FIGURE 7.13: Modern and First Edition OS maps showing the excavated area at Great Bircham (shaded). The ‘Middle Saxon’ evidence was found during in-filling of an enclosure formed by the historic street pattern, framed to the south-east by St. Mary’s churc 168 FIGURE 7.14: OS First Edition showing the ruined church of St Andrew’s in Bircham (cross), the Ipswich Ware from which suggests the presence of a polyfocal ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement pattern in Great Bircham. 169 FIGURE 7.15: OS Modern and First Edition Maps of Gaywood, showing the locations of test-pits that recovered large amounts of Ipswich Ware (circled) and the site of the medieval parish church (cross). Two further test pits (squared) to the east of Wootton 170 FIGURE 7.16: OS First Edition Revision of Thetford. Investigation at Red Castle Furze and Brandon Road located ‘Middle Saxon’ settlement deposits. The ‘Late Saxon’ town, however, developed on the northern side of the river. 171 FIGURE 7.17: Aerial photograph of North Elmham, showing the excavated area around the Park Lodge (top), ‘Late Saxon’ cathedral ruins (centre) and medieval parish church (top left). The existing church is probably the site of Bishop de Losinga’s (1091-1119 172 FIGURE 7.18: OS First Edition showing the excavated area at North Elmham Park (shaded), situated 50m south-west of the earthworks of the Norman cathedral. The phases excavated at North Elmham strongly suggest that this is the site of the historically-atte 173 FIGURE 7.19: Aerial photograph of Tasburgh, showing the large enclosure (centre) preserved by field boundaries but also visible as cropmarks (right centre). The parish church is visible in the centre-left of the image. The exact origin of the enclosure is 174 FIGURE 7.20: OS First Edition of Tasburgh. The recovery of ‘Middle Saxon’ sherds through excavation (shaded and boxed) in close vicinity to the church likely indicates that it was inserted into the southern part of the enclosure at this time. Settlement a 175 FIGURE 7.21: OS First Edition of Whissonsett, illustrating the area of excavation (shaded), located immediately north of the parish churchyard. ‘Middle Saxon’ activity detected in the northern part of the excavation was followed by a shift of focus southw 176 FIGURE 7.22: ‘Middle Saxon’ phases excavated at Whissonsett. Activity, which included a cemetery and settlement, was concentrated to the north of the double-ditched enclosure. Source: NHER 40453 177 FIGURE 7.23: OS First Edition of Shipdham. The two excavated areas at Church Close are shaded. Settlement intensified during the ‘Late Saxon’ period but was concentrated in the northern part of the excavations, suggesting that the present village form was 178 Table 7.1: Of the archaeological interventions undertaken within ‘CORS’ in Norfolk, almost half have located potential evidence for occupation datable to the ‘Middle Saxon’ period. 178 Chapter VIII Discussion 183 Table 8.1: Cumulative totals of the AIP ‘CORS’ assessment, demonstrating that where archaeological deposits have been detected within existing villages in the study area, ‘Middle Saxon’ activity has been located on over a third of sites, on average. 192 Chapter IX Conclusion 196 References 197 Middle Saxon,medieval settlement,Saxon society