Alkmonton mediæval settlement
Alkmonton mediæval settlement is an archaeological site, a deserted mediæval village near the present-day village of Alkmonton, about five miles south of Ashbourne in Derbyshire. It is a Scheduled Monument.[1]
Location
- Location map: 52°56’8"N, 1°42’46"W
History
Alkmonton is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Alchementune; it was held under Henry de Ferrers. There were 8 villagers and 7 smallholders. In 1332 the tax quota was comparable to its neighbours.[1][2]
In about 1100, when the manor was held by Robert de Bakepuze, a hospital for female lepers was built, dedicated to St Leonard. It was refounded in 1406, leprosy having died out, by the widow of Sir Walter Blount, who held the manor. His descendant Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy (died 1474) willed that a chapel, dedicated to St Nicholas, should be built at Alkmonton, and that the master of the hospital should say Mass there each year on the feast of St Nicholas.[3]
The hospital and chapel were abolished during the reign of King Edward VI.[3]
Earthworks
The earthworks, thought to be the entirety of the mediæval village, are south of the present-day village of Alkmonton, on a south-west facing slope, next to Alkmonton Old Hall Farm to the south. They are well preserved; there is a village green in the south of the site, and sunken trackways lead away from it. There is a platform, about 25 yards by 50 yards, thought to be the site of the mediæval chapel. A font, now in St John's Church in Alkmonton, was found near here in 1844. There is a larger platform north of the supposed chapel, about 50 yards by 60 yards. There are other features, rectangular enclosures within which are building platforms.[1][4]
North and east of the site of the village are ridge and furrow patterns, surviving to a height of a foot and a half, of the mediæval open-field system.[1]
See also
- Hungry Bentley, a deserted village nearby
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 National Heritage List 1018617: Mediæval settlement, including site of chapel and part of the open field system, immediately north east of Alkmonton Old Hall Farm (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ Alkmonton mediæval settlement in the Domesday Book
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A History of the County of Derby - Volume 2 pp 80–81: Hospitals: Alkmonton (Victoria County History)
- ↑ "Alkmonton" in 'Beresford's Lost Villages': University of Hull
