Record Details

NHER Number:2730
Type of record:Monument
Name:Site of Sturston Deserted Settlement

Summary

This is the site of the medieval village of Sturston, which was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 and in the Nomina Villorum of 1316. In 1332 nineteen taxpayers were recorded, but in 1597 it is thought that Edward Jermyn, Lord of the Manor, pulled down the houses and enclosed the common land. Survey in 2002 recorded extensive, if slight, earthworks.

Images - none

Location

Grid Reference:TL 8721 9490
Map Sheet:TL89SE
Parish:STURSTON, BRECKLAND, NORFOLK

Full description

Site of village of Sturston, which was a vill in Domesday and in Nomina Villorum 1316.
Depopulated by owners of Hall mid 16th century. (information from R. R. Clarke NCM).
No trace now visible on ground.
A. Rogerson (NAU), January 1976.

19 taxpayers 1332. Edward Jermyn. Lord of Manor, accused in 1597 of pulling down all the houses.
E. Rose (NAU).

Information from NAR Records: extra information bibliography on Deserted Settlement in file.
Compiled by M. D. Leah (NLA), 18 January 1991.

January 2002. Woodland Earthwork Rapid Identification Survey.
Management Unit L2, Site 125:
Area extended and NGR amended from TL 8751 9495.
An extensive area of mostly slight earthworks, comprising ditched enclosures and linear features, including a likely continuation of the road further west. they are mostly in grassland, although a small group is in Sturston Carr, abutting the flood plain. Here a small linear pond, still mapped, has a large near-rectangular depression to its north, around 75m x 25m, with northern and eastern banks enclosing the area. To the northwest of the pond, across an existing mapped field boundary ditch, a small raised platform, 16m x 12m with a higher northwest corner up to 1m high, is approached across rather waterlogged ground by a causeway to its southwest corner. Further west is a U-shaped scarp with an open west end. These features do not readily look like medieval settlement which some of the grassland enclosures represent. A 1781 map shows the woodland features in a field called Dog Kennel Close.
A former common boundary is noted east of the hall (NHER 2779).
The grassland features have not been closely inspected, but their layout is sketch plotted from air photographs.
See report (S1) for further details.
B. Cushion (NLA), February 2002. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 12 May 2015.

Monument Types

  • PLATFORM (Unknown date)
  • DESERTED SETTLEMENT (Medieval to 16th Century - 1066 AD? to 1597 AD?)
  • DRAINAGE DITCH (Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1539 AD?)
  • ENCLOSURE (Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1539 AD?)
  • ROAD (Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1539 AD?)
  • DRAINAGE DITCH (Post Medieval - 1540 AD? to 1900 AD?)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

  • SHINE

Sources and further reading

---Aerial Photograph: RESTRICTED: TL 8794A, B, C..
---Record Card: Ordnance Survey Staff. 1933-1979?. Ordnance Survey Record Cards. TL 89 SE 1 [3].
---Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card.
---Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Medieval. Sturston.
---Secondary File: Secondary File.
<S1>Unpublished Contractor Report: Cushion, B. 2002. STANTA ILMP Woodland Earthwork Rapid Identification Survey. Brian Cushion Archaeological & Cartographical Surveyor.

Related records - none

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