Information for record number MWA2778:
Coton Deserted Medieval Settlement

Summary The site of the Medieval deserted settlement of Coton. The site is known from documentary evidence. Some areas of the site are visible as earthworks. The site was excavated and recorded prior to redevelopment. The deserted settlement is situated 1km north west of Newton.
What Is It?  
Type: Deserted Settlement
Period: Medieval (1066 AD - 1539 AD)
Where Is It?  
Parish: Churchover
District: Rugby, Warwickshire
Grid Reference: SP 51 78
(Data represented on this map shows the current selected record as a single point, this is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent an accurate or complete representation of archaeological sites or features)
Level of Protection National - Old SMR PrefRef (Grade: )
Sites & Monuments Record
Description

  
Source Number  

1 There were six ploughlands here in 1291 and nine yardlands in the time of Richard II. The village appears to have gone when Coton House and Park were made. The Moore-Lee tracts speak of Coton as depopulated in 1656. There are suspicious earthworks surrounding the 'Castle'.
2 Medium archaelogy, no information on whether the name belongs to more than a manor.
3 1968: There are earthworks centred at the above grid reference that are typical of desertion. No House sites were identified but there is a 'street' layout surrounded by ridge and furrow.
4 Plan of earthworks.
5 Coton, antiently a village.
6 1969: The site is immediately adjoining the M1/M6 link. The MOT agreed to avoid the site. The farmer, however, asked sub-contractors to level the site with soil. Many hundreds of tons were dumped on the site, and although further work was stopped 'the site is no longer worth preserving'.
7 Air photograph shows the DMV during construction of the M6.
8 1970: it was reported that attempts to persuade the farmer to leave one croft for future excavation failed and that the whole site is now levelled and destroyed.
9 Examination of recent air photographs suggests that
8 may be misleading, and that a substantial part of the site survives, possibly buried beneath overburden from construction of the M6.
10 Archaeological evaluation at the site was carried out by Thames Valley Archaeological Services, and examined the village site and its immediate environs. Only very insubstantial building remains survived, generally represented by little more than a single foundation course. The majority of the features uncovered associated with the settlement were pits and ditches. The extent of the Medieval settlement seems to have been fairly well defined. It is contained largely within the field immediately to the SE of the M6/A462 junction, although the remains of ridge and furrow in a number of trenches indicate that agricultural activity continued into at least the next field to the E. The two crop marks seen in aerial photographs of the site were examined by trial trenches. Finds suggested that both were Medieval in origin. trench 24 located a ditch which possibly formed part of the complex of two conjoined dual enclosures, whilst the post holes and ditches seen in trenches 40 and 41 may have formed part of the rectilinear (enclosure ?) feature.
11 Spoil removed to create the M6 was dumped on the site. No coherent earthworks are presently visible. During a site visit it was noted that the soil covering the site contained few artifacts.
12excavation carried out by Northamptonshire Archaeology as a follow up to the evaluation undertaken by TVAS (see
10). settlement origininated in the mid 10th century. The features defining this phase can be seen to cluster round the southern and eastern parts of the excavation. Redeveloped in the C12th with the introduction of a series of rectangular tenement plots alongside an exceptionally broad road of 'green'. Extensive changes during the mid to late C13th.
13 Updated research design.
14 Illustrations for the Northamptonshire excavation report.
15 Geophysical survey was carried out to assist with the location of evaluation trenches.
16 Material relating to a planning application.
17 Plan.
18 Material relating to possible development at the site.
19 Auger survey to establish the effect dumping of topsoil from the M6 had had on the DMV. This showed that some cut features may survive across the area.
20 fieldwalking undertaken across 13 fileds across the area of Coton Park. The DMV site was included, in fields 1 and 2. An assemblage, perhaps smaller than might be expected, of Medieval material was recovered from the site.
21 Archaeological evaluation carried out by Northamptonshire Archaeology revealed Medieval ridge and furrow in eight trenches, some of which were found to align in a similar direction to the furrows found during excavation to the north of the site in 2001.
 
Sources
Source No: 7
Source Type: Aerial Photograph
Title: SP4664
Author/originator: CUCAP
Date: 1969
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet: SP4664A
   
Source No: 9
Source Type: Aerial Photograph
Title: SP4270
Author/originator: WM
Date: 1990
Page Number: T
Volume/Sheet: SP4270
   
Source No: 19
Source Type: Archaeological Report
Title: Coton Park, Rugby, Warwickshire: Archaeological Auger Survey
Author/originator: D Farwell
Date: 1995
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 12
Source Type: Archaeological Report
Title: Excavation of the Deserted Medieval Village of Coton at Coton Park, Rugby
Author/originator: Maull, A
Date: 2001
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 14
Source Type: Archaeological Report
Title: Excavation of the DMV of Coton: Illustrations and Appendices
Author/originator: Maull, A
Date: 2001
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 13
Source Type: Archaeological Report
Title: Excavation of the DMV at Coton Park: Assessment Report and Updated Research Design
Author/originator: Maull, A
Date: 2000
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 5
Source Type: Bibliographic reference
Title: Antiquities of Warwickshire
Author/originator: Dugdale W
Date: 1730
Page Number: 1056
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 8
Source Type: Bibliographic reference
Title: DMVRG vol 18 1970
Author/originator:
Date: 1970
Page Number: 18
Volume/Sheet: 18
   
Source No: 6
Source Type: Bibliographic reference
Title: DMVRG vol 17 1969
Author/originator:
Date: 1969
Page Number: 21
Volume/Sheet: 17
   
Source No: 16
Source Type: Correspondence
Title: Coton, Rugby
Author/originator: Various
Date: 1978-9
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 18
Source Type: Correspondence
Title: Coton, Rugby
Author/originator: Wilson Bowden Properties et al
Date: 1989 -1992
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 11
Source Type: Desk Top Study
Title: Coton Park, Rugby, Warwickshire: Archaeological Desk Based Assessment
Author/originator: Andrew Hutcheson
Date: 1995
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 20
Source Type: Evaluation Report
Title: Fieldwalking Evaluation of Land at Coton Park, Nr Rugby, Warwickshire
Author/originator: Dr Colin Hayfield
Date: 1996
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 10
Source Type: Evaluation Report
Title: Coton Park Rugby:An Archaeological Evaluation
Author/originator: J Saunders
Date: 1997
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 21
Source Type: Evaluation Report
Title: Archaeological Trial Trench evaluation at Pro Logis Site, Coton Park, Rugby, Warwickshire, August and September 2011
Author/originator: Wolframm-Murray Y
Date: 2011
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet: 11/195
   
Source No:
Source Type: Evaluation Report
Title: Archaeological Evaluation at Field 13, Coton Park: Pottery Assessment Report
Author/originator: S Ratkai
Date: 1997
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 15
Source Type: Geophysical Survey Report
Title: Coton Park, Rugby, geophysical survey report 96/98
Author/originator: Shiel and Stephens
Date: 1996
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet: 96/98
   
Source No: 17
Source Type: Plan
Title: Coton, Rugby: M6 Industrial Site Layout
Author/originator: Borough Surveyor, Rugby
Date: 1979
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 4
Source Type: Plan
Title: OS Card, 35NE5
Author/originator: Ordnance Survey
Date: 1968
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet: 35NE5
   
Source No: 3
Source Type: Record Card/Form
Title: OS Card 25NE6
Author/originator: Ordnance Survey
Date: 1968
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 1
Source Type: Serial
Title: TBAS vol 66
Author/originator: Beresford M W
Date: 1945
Page Number: 99
Volume/Sheet: 66
   
Source No: 2
Source Type: Serial
Title: DMVRG vol 6 1958
Author/originator:
Date: 1958
Page Number: Appendix B
Volume/Sheet: 6
   
Images:  
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Glossary

 
Word or Phrase
Description  
source OS Card Ordnance Survey Record Card. Before the 1970s the Ordnance Survey (OS) were responsible for recording archaeological monuments during mapping exercises. This helped the Ordnance Survey to decide which monuments to publish on maps. During these exercises the details of the monuments were written down on record cards. Copies of some of the cards are kept at the Warwickshire Sites and Monuments Record. The responsibility for recording archaeological monuments later passed to the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments. back
source TBAS Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society is a journal produced by the society annually. It contains articles about archaeological field work that has taken place in Birmingham and Warwickshire in previous years. Copies of the journal are kept by the Warwickshire Sites and Monuments Record. back
technique Documentary Evidence Documentary evidence is another name for written records. The first written records in Britain date back to the Roman period. Documentary evidence can take many different forms, including maps, charters, letters and written accounts. When archaeologists are researching a site, they often start by looking at documentary evidence to see if there are clues that will help them understand what they might find. Documentary evidence can help archaeologists understand sites that are discovered during an excavation, field survey or aerial survey. back
technique Geophysical Survey The measuring and recording of electrical resistivity or magnetism in order to determine the existence and outline of buried features such as walls and ditches. Geophysical techniques include resistivity survey, magnetometer survey and ground penetrating radar. View Image back
technique Earthwork Earthworks can take the form of banks, ditches and mounds. They are usually created for a specific purpose. A bank, for example, might be the remains of a boundary between two or more fields. Some earthworks may be all that remains of a collapsed building, for example, the grassed-over remains of building foundations.

In the winter, when the sun is lower in the sky than during the other seasons, earthworks have larger shadows. From the air, archaeologists are able to see the patterns of the earthworks more easily. Earthworks can sometimes be confusing when viewed at ground level, but from above, the general plan is much clearer.

Archaeologists often carry out an aerial survey or an earthwork survey to help them understand the lumps and bumps they can see on the ground.
 		back
technique excavation Archaeologists excavate sites so that they can find information and recover archaeological materials before they are destroyed by erosion, construction or changes in land-use.

Depending on how complicated and widespread the archaeological deposits are, excavation can be done by hand or with heavy machinery. Archaeologists may excavate a site in a number of ways; either by open area excavation, by digging a test pit or a trial trench.
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technique Trial Trench A small regular hole that is usually square or rectangular in shape. Archaeologists dig trial trenches to discover if there are any archaeological remains at a particular location. See also excavation. back
technique Aerial Photograph Aerial photographs are taken during an aerial survey, which involves looking at the ground from above. It is usually easier to see cropmarks and earthworks when they are viewed from above. Aerial photographs help archaeologists to record what they see and to identify new sites. There are two kinds of aerial photographs; oblique and vertical. back
period Medieval 1066 AD to 1539 AD (the 11th century AD to the 16th century AD)

The medieval period comes after the Saxon period and before the post medieval period.

The Medieval period begins in 1066 AD.
This was the year that the Normans, led by William the Conqueror (1066 – 1087), invaded England and defeated Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in East Sussex.
The Medieval period includes the first half of the Tudor period (1485 – 1603 AD), when the Tudor family reigned in England and eventually in Scotland too.

The end of the Medieval period is marked by Henry VIII’s (1509 – 1547) order for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the years running up to 1539 AD. The whole of this period is sometimes called the Middle Ages.
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monument HOUSE * A building for human habitation, especially a dwelling place. Use more specific type where known. back
monument VILLAGE * A collection of dwelling-houses and other buildings, usually larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a simpler organisation and administration than the latter. back
monument SITE * Unclassifiable site with minimal information. Specify site type wherever possible. back
monument SETTLEMENT * A small concentration of dwellings. back
monument BUILDING * A structure with a roof to provide shelter from the weather for occupants or contents. Use specific type where known. back
monument RIDGE AND FURROW * A series of long, raised ridges separated by ditches used to prepare the ground for arable cultivation. This was a technique, characteristic of the medieval period. back
monument PARK * An enclosed piece of land, generally large in area, used for hunting, the cultivation of trees, for grazing sheep and cattle or visual enjoyment. Use more specific type where known. back
monument FEATURE * Areas of indeterminate function. back
monument ROAD * A way between different places, used by horses, travellers on foot and vehicles. back
monument CASTLE * A fortress and dwelling, usually medieval in origin, and often consisting of a keep, curtain wall and towers etc. back
monument PIT * A hole or cavity in the ground, either natural or the result of excavation. Use more specific type where known. back
monument DESERTED SETTLEMENT * An abandoned settlement, usually of the Medieval period, often visible only as earthworks or on aerial photographs. back
monument WELL * A shaft or pit dug in the ground over a supply of spring-water. back
monument TENEMENT * A parcel of land. back
monument FIELD * An area of land, often enclosed, used for cultivation or the grazing of livestock. back
monument ENCLOSURE * An area of land enclosed by a boundary ditch, bank, wall, palisade or other similar barrier. Use specific type where known. back
monument MANOR * An area of land consisting of the lord's demesne and of lands from whose holders he may exact certain fees, etc. back
monument TRENCH * An excavation used as a means of concealment, protection or both. back
monument DITCH * A long and narrow hollow or trench dug in the ground, often used to carry water though it may be dry for much of the year. back
monument CROFT * An enclosed piece of land adjoining a house. back
monument INDUSTRIAL SITE * An area or defined space believed to have been used for trades and/or manufacturing activity. Only use when evidence for more specific site type is lacking. back
monument ROUND * A small, Iron Age/Romano-British enclosed settlement found in South West England. back
monument POST HOLE * A hole dug to provide a firm base for an upright post, often with stone packing. Use broader monument type where known. back
monument EARTHWORK * A bank or mound of earth used as a rampart or fortification. back

* Copyright of English Heritage (1999)

English Heritage National Monuments Record