Wigginton & Neighbourhood Plan – Heritage Statement

Designated Heritage Assets

There are two Conservation Areas: Hopwas and Wigginton. There are also 15 Grade II Listed buildings and structures and a further 14 buildings within Hopwas which have been identified as being of local importance following the Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan carried out by District Council in May 2012 .

It should be noted that there are other historic buildings which are not designated which may be deemed to contribute to the local character of the parish and to the individual villages; this may include buildings within Comberford and Wigginton as well as the historic farmsteads. Policies have therefore been formulated which seek to protect and enhance the character of the settlements in terms of materials used, scale etc. and thereby retain their local distinctiveness.

Sites of known archaeological interest (excluding buildings and structures)

There are a number of sites recorded on the Historic Environment Record (HER), excluding buildings and structures, which are deemed to have an archaeological interest. The Staffordshire HER is a database which records all of the known archaeological sites and monuments as well as the historic buildings. It also incorporates information on archaeological work that has been carried out within the county

The archaeological sites recorded within the HER as lying within the parish include the earthwork remains of ‘shifted villages’ to the north east of Wigginton and around Comberford (particularly to the south). These features suggest that both of these villages were either once larger or have shifted away from an earlier focus, which then remains as earthworks in the fields. These form an important part of the history of both places and retain a high potential for below ground archaeological remains to survive. The areas of ridge and furrow, which survive particularly well around Wigginton, are associated with medieval and later land management being evidence of arable cultivation whereby the plough was pulled by an eight-ox plough team (horses not being used until much later in history). The preservation of these features will enable them to be enjoyed by the current and future communities.

Other evidence, surviving as cropmarks visible on aerial photography in areas now being ploughed, includes possible prehistoric-Roman enclosures and settlement in the wider landscape around Comberford. Further undated enclosures and cropmark features (mostly to the south of Comberford and Hopwas) may also prove to date to these periods. In all these cases there is a high potential for below ground archaeological remains to survive which could contribute to an understanding of how people interacted with and managed the landscape of this area. The presence of these features also raises the potential for further currently unidentified archaeological remains to survive within the parish.

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Historic Landscape Character and historic farmsteads

Two characterisation projects carried out by Staffordshire County Council also provide an insight into specific aspects of the historic environment of the parish; historic landscape character and a historic farmsteads survey. In brief the Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) was a desk-based project which looked at modern and historic mapping to identify the historic components within the landscape in order to understand the processes that have affected the way Staffordshire looks today; this information is held within a Geographical Information System (GIS).

The HLC reveals that the landscape within the parish has been subject to centuries of change from the initial enclosure of the medieval open fields around Wigginton during the post medieval period (approximately AD 1485-1799). These post medieval field systems survive to the immediate west, north and extending east away from the village. These field patterns are closely associated with the ridge and furrow earthworks mentioned above and form part of the development of Wigginton’s agricultural history from the medieval period onwards; in general the evidence of both the enclosure and the surviving ridge and furrow reflects a change in focus from principally arable production to a pastoral stock-raising economy.

To the south of Wigginton the fields reveal evidence for 18th-19th century change either the complete re-planning of the landscape by surveyors as part of an Act of Enclosure (1771) as ‘18th-19th Century Planned Enclosure’ or as the reorganisation of the post medieval ‘Piecemeal Enclosure’ where there is evidence of field boundaries being either re-laid or where fields were sub-divided with straight boundaries inserted. The hedgerows associated with ‘Planned Enclosure’ are often of a single species usually hawthorn or blackthorn. These large-scale changes, under the influence of surveyors, were usually funded by large estates and wealthy landowners during this period. Further change has occurred since the Second World War when fields were opened up to increase production.

Historic Farmsteads

The Historic Farmsteads survey by Staffordshire County Council was a desk-based study which identified all of Staffordshire’s farmsteads which existed on historic mapping before circa 1900 and identified their plan form, condition and location. The plan form of the historic farmsteads also contributes to an understanding of the development of the farmed landscape.

The survey identified that the parish was predominantly comprised of large regular courtyard farmsteads located both within villages and in isolated positions surrounded by their fields. The predominance of the regular courtyard plan form suggests that many of the farmsteads were either built new or substantially remodelled during the 18th-19th century in an aim to increase productivity within the landscape; a process often financed by large landowners. The plan forms of the farmsteads can, therefore, be seen to support the evidence of the historic landscape character which suggests that there was significant landscape change during the 18th-19th century.

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In total 16 historic farmsteads were identified as part of the survey as surviving in some form within the parish. Of these 62.5% retain more than 50% of their historic plan form.

Heritage Environment Character Assessment

Lichfield District Council commissioned the Historic Environment Team at Staffordshire County Council to deliver a Heritage Environment Character Assessment in 2009 to form part of the evidence base for their Local Plan. The resultant piece of work include land lying within adjacent to Tamworth and included much, but not all, of the parish of . It includes Hopwas Hays Wood, North west of , South of Hopwas, Tame Valley east of Hopwas, North of Coton Green, Wigginton, East of Wigginton, Fields around Statfold and south of Syerscote, West of Hopwas and Hopwas itself.

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