Site Event/Activity record ECH4532 - Field visits to Caldecott Green and Green Lane

Field visits by R Edwards and M Watson to Caldecott Green on the 1st and 3rd of June 2009. Fields have been referenced by their plot names/numbers recorded in the (appropriate) Tithe award. CHER1784 The village is located on an east west aligned lane/green lane which joins another green lane at its eastern end (see CHER 1785). At its eastern end the lane joins the north-south aligned Shocklach to Farndon Road. The lane can be traced to the west through Caldecott Farm and the neighbouring field systems for approximately 500m. The present village comprises three houses and Caldecott Farm, which straddles the Shocklach to Farndon Road. A cast iron pump and sand stone trough stand on the southern side of the lane. There are numerous small enclosures, some gardens, some overgrown. CHER 1785/1 A green lane which runs from Wetreins Green Farm in the north to Castletown in the south. Spurs lead to Caldecott Green (CHER 1784) and Caldecott Hall. For a significant proportion of the lanes length it's eastern boundary forms the township boundary between Kings Marsh, Stretton, Caldecott and Grafton. To the south of Castletown (CHER 1783) the lane joins Castletown Lane. The northern part of the lane, from Caldecott Green to Wetreins Green Farm, may be later in date. The original course may have run due north to meet Watling Street at SJ43695418 see CHER 1785/2. Aerial photographs dating from the 1970s (see 2) show linear earthworks which may be a narrow spur to The Wetreins with the lane. Alternatively this may have been the original redirected route north. A section of the lane from SJ43515213 to SJ43245272 was walked on the 1st of June. The flanking ditches to the lane are deep c. 1m and the lane is c.15-20m wide. No traces of the sandstone blocks/paving mentioned by R Turner were observed, except where they have been re-used to fill areas of poaching in field entrances. The track in the centre of the lane has been levelled and surfaced with gravel and recycled tarmac, possibly as Rights of Way improvement works after 2000 (E Soper pers comm). A section of the lane from SJ43515213 to SJ43835108 was walked on the 3rd of June. The lane is narrower than the section walked to the north. The spur to Caldecott Hall is well preserved and unsurfaced. The track in the centre of the lane has been levelled and surfaced with a geotex membrane covered by a surface made of recycled tarmac. A small number of irregular sandstone blocks were observed in a low bank between the western flanking ditch and the path in the vicinity of the spur to Caldecott Hall. It could not be ascertained if this low bank had been created by ditch clearance or resurfacing works. In some parts of this stretch of the lane, the track surface appeared to be slightly below the surface of the adjacent fields. Subsidence due to badger activity was signposted at approximately SJ43695164. Plot 104 Caldecott Croft - SJ43585212 The field is pasture. North - south aligned ridge and furrow which curved east was observed in this field. The field was ploughed and reseeded 20yrs ago (J Drage pers comm). Although slighted by the ploughing the rides still stand to an impressive height. Bases of the furrows seem very marshy in places. The difference between the base of the furrows and top of the ridges must be in the region of 0.5m. Plot 103 Caldecott Field - SJ43535236 The field is pasture. The narrow ridge and furrow, possibly created by steam ploughing has been destroyed, presumably when the field was ploughed and reseeded 20yrs ago (J Drage pers comm). Two large parallel curving NNE-SSW aligned ridges, approx 50m apart (ridge to ridge) were observed. They appeared to run into the woodland (Mrs Lache's Gorse) to the north. Aerial photographs dating from the 1970s (see 2) show the ridges continuing north beyond the woodland in to fields to the immediate east of The Wetreins. These features may be the headlands associated with an earlier medieval field system. These features have been assigned the HER number CHER 4661. CHER 1785/2 The headlands identified in Plot 103 Caldecott Field appear to have been respecting another pre-existing linear landscape feature. The headlands have not been traced for any appreciable distance beyond Wetriens Lane and Wetreins Farm Moat (CHER 1788). However they align with a series of narrow fields depicted on the Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 6” to 1 mile map, suggesting that the pre-existing linear landscape feature continued to Morrislake bridge where it would meet Watling Street. The southern end connects with the southern section of the green lane at Caldecott Green (CHER 1785/1). This suggests that this feature is a road or track, possibly replaced or superseded in the late medieval period by the northern part of CHER 1785/1. Given the relationship between these features and the headlands (CHER 4661), this may have been part of larger restructuring of the fields systems in this area. It is not clear how this fits in with the observations of a road, interpreted as Roman Watling Street, made by AC & E Waddelove at various locations in the vicinity of this of this monument.