Monument record 7568 - Enclosure in Barn Croft

<1> Various, Written Communication to the HER, Welsh, T 26/09/2014 (Written Communication). SCH3756.

A feature observed on a footpath at SJ48046195, about 150 metres north-west of Golden Nook Farm, close to the parish boundary with Foulk Stapleton. It is a a rectangular island, less clear in field east which has been improved. The west side of the island is parallel to the Foulk Stapleford Parish boundary before it turns east, so that might mark the other side of the island, which is overall 45 metres by 30 estimate east-west. The outline is indented and eroded; the north-western corner 17 metres from the hedge, the south-western corner 6 meters from the hedge. It is linked to rising ground by a bank/causeway rising west at the south-west corner. The “ditch” on the uphill side has a 6 metre floor, but with the slope implies 15 to 18 metres crest to crest, but therefore overlooked. The island is off axis to a 95 metre length of headland, which starts 15 metres south-east of corner of the field, by about 20 degrees. It may be just a utility moat, or simply the base of an enclosed barn (the Tithe Award records this field as Barn Field). It could be interpreted as a platform cut into the slope, and then ditched round for drainage, owing to its low lying position. It may also be an earlier high status house platform.

<2> Royal Air Force, 1944-1947, 1940s RAF Aerial Photographs from Operation Review (Aerial Photograph). SCH8041.

The feature is clearly visible in the western field on this aerial photograph as a distinct sub-square enclosure.

<2> The GeoInformation Group, 2005, 1940s RAF Aerial Photographs from Operation Review (Aerial Photograph). SCH4608.

The feature is clearly visible in the western field on this aerial photograph as a distinct sub-square enclosure.

<3> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 194/2 c.1838 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

The north-south boundary between the two fields (Barn Croft on the west and Flatt Field on the east) shows a distinct right angled kink adjacent to two marl pits.

<4> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards, R 01/10/2014 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The tithe award (see 3) shows a right angled kink adjacent to two marl pits. The aerial photograph (see 2) clearly shows two marl pits to the immediate west of the feature. This would seem to confirm that the feature originally extended into the eastern field.