Monument record MDO3010 - Deserted medieval village of Winterborne Farringdon, Winterborne Came

Earthworks of the deserted medieval village cover ten acres and include the ruins of the former parish church of St German. They are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and LIDAR.

St Germans's Church Remains. In ruins. 14th century. <2>

Winterborne Farringdon deserted Medieval village earthworks, centred SY 69818826, are generally as described by RCHM <4>, under permanent pasture and in good condition. The only exception is at SY 69488824, where the 70.0m length of N-S bank and ditch has been ploughed out. Surveyed on MSD at 1:2500 incorporating the RCHM survey. <5>

SY 69838823. The site of the deserted medieval settlement of Winterborne Farringdon, part of an associated field system and trackways. The settlement earthworks extend over approximately 8 hectares, split into discrete areas containing the remains of building platforms, hollow ways, a church, lynchets, trackways and a possible pond. <7>

The site of the deserted medieval settlement of Winterborne Farringdon, part of an associated field system and trackways. The settlement earthworks extend over approximately 8 hectares, split into discrete areas containing the remains of building platforms, hollow ways, a church, lynchets, trackways and a possible pond. They are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs and LIDAR. <8-12> The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<1> Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W (eds), 1863, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 2, 291, 519, 528, 529 (Monograph). SWX1269.

<2> DOE (HRR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Dorchester Rural District 1951, 70 (Scheduling record). SWX2329.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 69718823) St German's Church (NR) (remains of) (NAT) Deserted Medieval Village of Winterborne Farringdon (site of) (NAT)

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 387 (Monograph). SDO149.

'(8) WINTERBORNE FARRINGDON, deserted mediaeval village (69498827 to 70158830; Plate 197), lies along the gently rising valley floor S. of the South Winterborne; the remains extend for 750 yds. from a point 350 yds. W. of St. Peter's Church in Came Park. The site, on chalk and valley gravel, is well-drained but there are water meadows N. of the stream. There are two blocks of remains differing in character and separated by 150 yds. of now featureless pasture. A contemporary terrace-way, running S. of both blocks and dividing the E. half from strip fields (9) on the slopes to the S., must have continued E. and W. along the valley. Ponds and grass-grown quarries among the remains, which are all under pasture, are likely to be more recent.

Depopulation of Winterborne Farringdon seems to have been gradual. In 1291 St. German's Church, like St. Peter's, Winterborne Came, was omitted from the Taxatio Ecclesiastica (Rec. Commn., 1802) and in 1397 a commission was set up to enquire into its defects (Episc. Reg., Medford, f. cxxvi b, Diocesan Registry, Salisbury). In 1428 the village was not taxed because there were less than ten domiciled inhabitants (P.R.O., E. 179/103/69). From about 1580 the same incumbent often served both Farringdon and Came (Hutchins II, 291, 529); by 1625 the church was 'lone' and Coker, perhaps misleadingly, attributed this to the covetousness of men wishing to increase their demesnes (ibid., 519). In 1650 advocates of union of the churches of Farringdon (now 'decayed') and Came recorded that 'there are but 3 households belonging to Farringdon and very few people in Came' (ibid., 528). By 1773 Hutchins wrote that Farringdon 'is entirely depopulated and has been so beyond the memory of man' (Hutchins, 1st. ed., I, 437).

The West Block of 10 acres has subsidiary roads running into it. Their flanking scarps up to 5 ft. high are apparently due to build-up and not to hollowing. One road leads to the site of St. German's Church, marked by low banks forming an irregular oblong 70 ft. by 30 ft.; at the E. end is a gabled wall of rubble with some flints and ashlar dressings probably of the 18th or 19th century although possibly on earlier foundations. Incorporated in the wall are a 14th-century window of two ogee trefoiled lights with chamfered jambs, and several moulded stones probably from a 15th-century archway. The churchyard, covering about 1/7 acre, is surrounded on S. and E. by a flat-topped bank 1½ ft. to 2 ft. high and on the N.W. and N. by a 5 ft. scarp in which a ledge 3 ft. across perhaps marks the site of a wall.
Two houses are clearly marked by low banks, at (a), not less than 60 ft. by 20 ft., and at (b), rather shorter and only 15 ft. wide with a compartment 30 ft. long at the W. The S. bank of (b) seems to have been robbed of stone. There are at least six other platforms probably indicating buildings, of which (c) is notably large. At the extreme S.W. of the block is a very disturbed mound, apparently of tightly-packed flints.

The East Block of 4 acres may be incomplete, though there are now no traces of any extension in Home Wood. A platform (d), some 40 ft. by 35 ft., is the only likely house site. The irregular rounded scarp to the N. perhaps bounded an area formerly under water—a withy bed and drainage channels lie immediately to the N. An oval embanked depression 60 yds. W. of (d) has a floor some 9 ins. below ground level and a gap to the N.E., and could have been a retting pond. A short stretch of sunken way S.E. of it is flat-bottomed and from 1½ ft. to 2½ ft. deep below flanking scarps or broad banks. A low bank (e), up to 24 ft. broad, runs southwards uphill. After 350 yds. it meets a modern field boundary beyond which it disappears. It divides two groups of strip lynchets.

The earthworks in the wet area N. of the South Winterborne are probably later than the deserted village. They are now in Winterborne Herringston. On an irregular raised area there are also remains of a structure about 95 ft. by 20 ft. (R.A.F. V.A.P. CPE/UK 1934: 3084–5.)'

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 11-JUN-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1994, Medieval Village Research Group Index, PRN 466 (Index). SDO16386.

<7> English Heritage, English Heritage Scheduling Amendment, 1-FEB-2002 (Scheduling record). SDO17245.

<8> 21-FEB-2008, D0089663 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10908.

<9> Royal Air Force, 11-MAR-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2491 3012-4 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10906.

<10> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 3083-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10903.

<11> Royal Air Force, 09-MAR-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2475 4010-12 (Aerial Photograph). SDO10902.

<12> 01-DEC-1965, CUCAP (AMN 63-5) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11821.

<14> Historic England, Historic England Archive, BB74/04554 (Index). SDO14738.

ROUGH PLAN OF PART OF THE DESERTED VILLAGE

<15> Historic England, Historic England Archive, CC74/00409 (Index). SDO14738.

PLAN OF DMV SHOWING TWO DISTINCT AREAS OF OCCUPATION SEPARATED BY AN AREA OF FEATURELESS PASTURE

<16> National Record of the Historic Environment, 451978 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 11 2023 11:05AM