Scheduled Monument: Medieval Village and Field System Remains Immediately South of Bradley Hall (1016527)

EXTRACT FROM ENGLISH HERITAGE'S RECORD OF SCHEDULED MONUMENTS MONUMENT: Medieval village and field system remains immediately south of Bradley Hall PARISH: BRADLEY DISTRICT: CHESTER COUNTY: CHESHIRE NATIONAL MONUMENT NO: 30390 NATIONAL GRID REFERENCE(S): SJ50604585 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT The monument includes the earthwork remains of a medieval settlement and a part of the original field system in the field immediately south of Bradley Hall Farm. Some of the present farm buildings are Victorian but there is a strong presumption that this was the site of an older hall which formed part of a village complex, first recorded in 1259. The earthwork remains lie to the north of a small stream and consist of seven platforms for houses aligned beside a trackway which runs north east-south west through the village. To the west of these house platforms there is an area of ridge and furrow cultivation which has been somewhat flattened by later land use. This was a small part of the open fields connected to this settlement. Other remains of the original field system were visible at Bradley Bridge and around Milmoor Farm to the north of the hall in aerial photographs taken in 1947. Post and wire fences and a wooden fence around the southern edge of the bungalow garden are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included. ASSESSMENT OF IMPORTANCE Medieval rural settlements in England were marked by great regional diversity in form, size and type, and the protection of their archaeological remains needs to take these differences into account. To do this, England has been divided into three broad Provinces on the basis of each area's distinctive mixture of nucleated and dispersed settlements. These can be further divided into sub-Provinces and local regions, possessing characteristics which have gradually evolved during the past 1500 years or more. This monument lies in the Cheshire Plain sub-Province of the Northern and Western Province, a gently rolling plain of red marl covered by ice-carried clays, sands and gravels. It is diversified by occasional sandstone escarpments, notably the Central Cheshire Ridge east of the Dee valley. It has lower densities of nucleated settlements than surrounding areas, and high concentrations of dispersed farmsteads and small hamlets. In the Wirral and the lower Dee and Weaver valleys, the settlement mix is different, with low and medium densities of dispersed farmsteads intermixed with more frequent villages. Domesday Book records a thin scatter of settlement in the Wirral, the Dee lowlands and the central and southern plain in 1086, with much woodland. Medieval villages were organised agricultural communities, sited at the centre of a parish or township, that shared resources such as arable land, meadow and woodland. Village plans varied enormously, but when they survive as earthworks their most distinguishing features include roads and minor tracks, platforms on which stood houses and other buildings such as barns, enclosed crofts and small enclosed paddocks. They frequently included the parish church within their boundaries, and as part of the manorial system most villages included one or more manorial centres which may also survive as visible remains as well as below ground deposits. In the central province of England, villages were the most distinctive aspect of medieval life, and their archaeological remains are one of the most important sources of understanding about rural life in the five or more centuries following the Norman Conquest. Medieval villages were supported by a communal system of agriculture based on large unenclosed open arable fields. These large fields were subdivided into strips (known as lands) which were allocated to individual tenants. The cultivation of these strips with heavy ploughs pulled by oxen produced long wide ridges and the resultant `ridge and furrow' where it survives is the most obvious indication of an open field system. Individual strips or lands were laid out in groups known as furlongs defined by terminal headlands at the plough turning points and lateral grass balks. Furlongs were in turn grouped into large open fields. Well-preserved ridge and furrow, especially in its original context next to village earthworks, is both an important source of information about medieval agrarian life and a distinctive contribution to the character of the historic landscape. It is usually now covered by the hedges and walls of subsequent field enclosure. The medieval village at Bradley Hall together with a section of open field cultivation remains are an important survival of an abandoned settlement in west Cheshire where few such remains survive. There is some waterlogging on the south side of the site which will preserve timber remains and other organic materials which will provide information on the way of life and economy of the former inhabitants. MONUMENT INCLUDED IN THE SCHEDULE ON 21st January 1999