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WARWICKSHIRE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT RECORD Information for record number WA529 Site Name and Summary A cemetery of medieval date which may have been associated with Boteler's Castle, Alcester, which lies 200m to the west. Type: Period: Cemetery, Extended Inhumation, Building? Medieval (1066 AD - 1539 AD) Location Parish: District: Grid Reference: Alcester Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire SP 08 55 Level of Protection Old SMR PrefRef Description Source Number 1 A group of 16 inhumations was found to the NE of Icknield St during observation of a pipe trench. The burials were 0.2-1.3m beneath ground surface in red marl, sealed by occupation debris of Medieval and Roman date. No grave goods were recovered but sherds of Roman pottery were recovered from the grave fills. If the cemetery was Medieval, it may have been connected with Boteler's Castle, which which is said to have had a chapel. The field name evidence (chapel Close, Rough chapel Close, Lower chapel Close) suggests a Medieval origin for the cemetery. 3 Initial report on above. Same info. Eight of the burials were immature ( 25 yrs old), 5 were adult and 3 could not be estimated. 4 The OS records that the cemetery has been dated by radio carbon dating to the C10. 5 6 Radiocarbon dates. One from burial. Other almost certainly form another burial, definitely from same site. First calibrated to AD 1050 +/- 170 (95%), second to AD 1195 +/- 125. Could both therefore be contemporary with settlement to west (MWA537). 7 Correspondence about an entry in Harwell's Radiocarbon list. 8 Review of the radio carbon dates for HAR 2732 (1000bp +/-80) and HAR 3434 (880bp +/-70). 9 A radiocarbon date which appears to refer to this site; HAR 3433 (740bp +/-70). Sources Source No: Source Type: Title: Author/Originator: Date: Page Number: Volume/Sheet: 7 Correspondence C-14 dates from Alcester Nuclear Applications, Harwell 1985 Source No: Source Type: Title: 4 Record Card/Form OS Card 05NE29 All Information (c) Warwickshire County Council Author/Originator: Date: Page Number: Volume/Sheet: Ordnance Survey 1981 Source No: Source Type: Title: Author/Originator: Date: Page Number: Volume/Sheet: 1 Serial WMANS no 20 1977 Ford, D 1977 69 20 Source No: Source Type: Title: 8 Serial Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society (TBAS) Vol 101 Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeology Society 1997 Author/Originator: Date: Page Number: Volume/Sheet: 05NE29 101 Source No: Source Type: Title: Author/Originator: Date: Page Number: Volume/Sheet: 5 Unpublished document Harwell Radiocarbon Dating Certificate Harwell 1978 Source No: Source Type: Title: Author/Originator: Date: Page Number: Volume/Sheet: 6 Unpublished document Harwell Radiocarbon Dating Certificate Harwell 1979 Source No: Source Type: Title: Author/Originator: Date: Page Number: Volume/Sheet: 9 Unpublished document Alcester Pipe Trench Radiocarbon Dating Certificate Harlow 1980 Source No: Source Type: Title: 2 Watching Brief Report Watching Brief on water pipeline trench, Oversley Parish, Alcester, Warwickshire Ford, D 1977 Author/Originator: Date: Page Number: Volume/Sheet: All Information (c) Warwickshire County Council Word or Phrase OS Card TBAS WMANS Radiocarbon Dating Roman Description Ordnance Survey Record Card. Before the 1970s the Ordnance Survey (OS) were responsible for recording archaeological monuments during mapping exercises. This helped the Ordnance Survey to decide which monuments to publish on maps. During these exercises the details of the monuments were written down on record cards. Copies of some of the cards are kept at the Warwickshire Sites and Monuments Record. The responsibility for recording archaeological monuments later passed to the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments. Transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society is a journal produced by the society annually. It contains articles about archaeological field work that has taken place in Birmingham and Warwickshire in previous years. Copies of the journal are kept by the Warwickshire Sites and Monuments Record. West Midlands Archaeological News Sheet, a publication that was produced each year, this later became West Midlands Archaeology. The West Midlands Arcaheological News Sheet contains reports about archaeological work that was carried out in the West Midlands region in the previous year. It includes information about sites dating from the Prehistoric to the Post Medieval periods. It was produced the Department of Extramural Studies at Birmingham University. Copies are held at the Warwickshire Sites and Monuments Record. Another name for radiocarbon dating is C14 dating. It is used to find out how old some archaeological remains are. Archaeologists do this by measuring the amount of radioactive carbon left in samples of organic material (from the remains of plants or animals). organic materials contain radioactive and non-radioactive carbon in fixed amounts while they are part of living plants or animals. When the plant or animal dies the radioactive carbon starts to decay. By comparing the amount of radioactive carbon left in the organic material with the amount of stable carbon, archaeologists can find out how old it is. About 43 AD to 409 AD (the 1st century AD to the 5th century AD) Roman period comes after the Iron Age and before the Saxon period. Roman period in Britain began in 43 AD when a Roman commander called Aulus Plautius invaded the south coast, near Kent. There were a series of skirmishes with the native Britons, who were defeated. In the months that followed, more Roman troops arrived and slowly moved westwards and northwards.[more] AD 47 they had gone as far southwest as Cornwall, as far west as the Welsh Border and as far north as the Humber. Although there was some conflict with the British tribes, native Britons gradually adopted some aspects of the Roman way of life. Romans are well known for their ability to organise building on a large scale. Because many of their buildings were made of stone, often with tile rooves, the remains survive well in many places. The Roman period is the earliest period from which there is documentary evidence, albeit in small quantities, and this also helps us to find out how they lived. have discovered evidence of the Romans in many different parts of Warwickshire. Archaeological sites include settlements at Tiddington and Tripontium, the Roman towns of Chesterton and Alcester, and Roman forts at Mancetter and The Lunt at Baginton. Many Roman objects, such as coins, pots and brooches have been found in the All Information (c) Warwickshire County Council county. Some of them were imported from elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The major Roman roads known as the Fosse Way, Ryknield Street and Watling Street all run through Warwickshire. Medieval 1066 AD to 1539 AD (the 11th century AD to the 16th century AD) medieval period comes after the Saxon period and before the post medieval period. Medieval period begins in 1066 AD. was the year that the Normans, led by William the Conqueror (1066 – 1087), invaded England and defeated Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in East Sussex. Medieval period includes the first half of the Tudor period (1485 – 1603 AD), when the Tudor family reigned in England and eventually in Scotland too. end of the Medieval period is marked by Henry VIII’s (1509 – 1547) order for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the years running up to 1539 AD. The whole of this period is sometimes called the Middle Ages.[more] Normans are well known for building the first motte and bailey castles. There are a number of these in Warwickshire. Brinklow Castle and Boteler’s Castle, near Alcester, are fine examples. Warwick Castle and Kenilworth Castle began their long histories as motte and bailey castles. Domesday Book was written in the reign of William the Conqueror. It was completed in about 1086 AD. is a detailed statement of lands held by the king and his tenants and of the resources that went with those lands, for example which manors belonged to which estates. Book was probably put together so that William knew how much tax he was getting from the country. It provides archaeologists and historians with a detailed picture of the size of settlements and the population at the beginning of the medieval period. Many of these settlements were later deserted as a result of a number of causes, including changes to land tenure. In other cases the focal point of settlements physically shifted. Either way, Warwickshire is well known for the contrast in types of settlement between the Arden area of the north west and the Feldon area of the south and east. In the Arden area medieval settlements were of the small, dispersed type, whilst in the Feldon area the settlements developed into nucleated villages. Some medieval deserted settlements in Warwickshire can still be traced as earthworks. A good example exists at Wormleighton. of medieval farming survive in many parts of Warwickshire as earthworks of ridge and furrow cultivation. Ridge and furrow earthworks show where the land was ploughed so that crops could be grown. The ridges and furrows formed because successive years of ploughing caused the soil to be drawn up into ridges whilst the furrows lying between them became deeper. The fields were ploughed using a team of oxen pulling a small plough, which was very difficult to turn. This accounts for why the land was ploughed in long strips and why fields were left open i.e. without hedges, fences or walls dividing up the land into smaller pockets. were much smaller in the medieval period. The people who farmed the land did not own it. The land belonged to the lord of the manor. The people farming the land were simply tenants who worked a strip of land or maybe several strips. This is why medieval farming is sometimes called strip farming. the time that Domesday Book was written the only town in what is now called Warwickshire was Warwick. Documentary evidence shows us All Information (c) Warwickshire County Council SITE SETTLEMENT INHUMATION GRAVE CASTLE FIELD CEMETERY TRENCH CHAPEL BURIAL PIPELINE that as the years went on more and more markets appeared in the county. By 1450 there were forty. towns that grew around the markets were different from the surrounding villages in their appearance and the type of people who lived in them. They were larger than the villages and had a more complicated network of streets and lanes. The towns had an open space in the centre where a market was held each week. The houses and workshops that lined the streets had long narrow strips of land behind them called tenements. Some historic maps show these medieval build Unclassifiable site with minimal information. Specify site type wherever possible. A small concentration of dwellings. An interment of unburnt, articulated human remains. Use specific type where known. A place of burial. Use more specific type where known. A fortress and dwelling, usually medieval in origin, and often consisting of a keep, curtain wall and towers etc. An area of land, often enclosed, used for cultivation or the grazing of livestock. An area of ground, set apart for the burial of the dead. An excavation used as a means of concealment, protection or both. A freestanding building, or a room or recess serving as a place of Christian worship in a church or other building. Use more specific type where known. An interment of human or animal remains. Use specific type where known. If component use with wider site type. Use FUNERARY SITE for optimum retrieval in searches. A conduit or pipes, used primarily for conveying petroleum from oil wells to a refinery, or for supplying water to a town or district, etc. All Information (c) Warwickshire County Council