Wall-by-Aldsworth (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Aldsworth.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP15471061
Latitude 51.79393° Longitude -1.77706°

Wall-by-Aldsworth has been described as a Urban Defence but is rejected as such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

SP 155106. "Wall by Aldsworth was reckoned as a village in the 13th century" (Beresford 1963). Its name, which occurs in the 12th century, suggests the existence of defensive walls, especially Roman works, but no such remains have been reported here, where it probably refers to a defensive or boundary bank to the north of Aldsworth. Nothing visible on air photographs (Beresford 1963; Smith 1964; DMV Res Gp 7; RAF APs).
The area around Wall Farm is under pasture and there is no trace of desertion except, perhaps, in the bottom of a narrow N-S valley, centred at SP 15451049. Here there are low scarps which probably indicate the former boundaries of small paddocks but no building platforms could be identified. There are indications that a small stream formerly flowed down this valley from the north.
Mrs Wilcox (Mrs Wilcox,Wall Farm) said that all field names on the farm were associated with farming and none was significant except for the field centred at SP 15251035 which is called Townsend Bank.
No trace of defensive walls or boundary banks were found to the north of Aldsworth. All walls and hedges in that area are of normal Cotswold type (F1 JR 14-DEC-76).
Sp 155 106. Listed in review of deserted medieval villages of Gloucestershire (Aston and Viner 1981).
No evidence of a wall or building platforms of a deserted settlement was visible on the available aerial photographs which were viewed as part of the South Cotswolds NMP. However there were some earthworks mapped to the east of Wall Farm, which may represent small rectangular enclosures of fields or paddocks. They cover an area that measures 140m N-S and about 105m E-W. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 330015.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2550.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Beresford's Lost Villages
Books
- Jurica, A.R.J., 1981, 'Aldsworth', in N.M. Herbert (ed.) VCH Gloucestershire Vol. 7 p. 5-13
  Beresford, M.W. and J.G. Hurst, 1971, Deserted Medieval Village: Studies (London: Lutterworth Press)
  Smith, A.H. (ed), 1964, The Place-Names of Gloucestershire Part 1 (English Place-Name Society 38) p. 23
  Beresford, M., 1954, Lost Villages of England (London: Lutterworth Press) p. 351
Periodical Articles
- Dyer, C., 2002, 'Villages and Non-Villages in the Medieval Cotswolds' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 120 p. 11-35 online copy
  Aston, M. and Viner, L., 1981, Glevensis Vol. 15 p. 25 online copy
  Spry, N.P., 1969, 'The Deserted Medieval Villages of Gloucestershire' Glevensis Vol. 4 p. 17 online copy

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