An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley,

by H R Hannaford

Archaeology Service

Community and Economic Services AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION AT LUDSTONE HALL, CLAVERLEY, SHROPSHIRE

by H R HANNAFORD

A Report for LUDSTONE HALL ESTATE

Archaeology Service

Community and Economic Services Report Number 136 © Shropshire County Council February 1998 Winston Churchill Building, Radbrook Centre, Radbrook Road, , Shropshire SY3 9BJ Tel. (01743) 254018 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

CONTENTS Page No 1 INTRODUCTION 2 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 3 2.1 Aims and Objectives of the Evaluation 3 2.2 Methodology of the Evaluation 3 3 THE EVALUATION 4 3.1 The Documentary Research 4 3.2 The Trial Excavations 6 3.3 Discussion 7 4 RECOMMENDATIONS 8 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED 9 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9

ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Location of the study area (1:2500 scale) Fig. 2: Extract from the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 1:2500 plan, 1883, Shropshire Sheet No. LIX.7 Fig. 3: The evaluation trench; a) plan view b) south-facing section

Cover: Ludstone Hall, reproduced from Acton, F S, 1868, "The Castles and Old Houses of Shropshire"

1 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Ludstone is situated in southeast Shropshire, about 8.5km east of . Ludstone Hall (County SMR No. SA11770; NGR SO 8000 9448) is a large stone mansion built c.1607. The hall lies within a rectangular moat, and was probably built on the site of a medieval manor house maintained by the Deans of Bridgnorth. The hall is a Grade I Listed Building.

1.2 There is currently a proposal to install a swimming pool adjacent to the north side of the hall buildings. The proposed development site is situated in the northwest quadrant of the moated enclosure adjacent to outbuildings of the hall. It is considered likely that important archaeological remains relating to the medieval and later occupation of the site may be affected by the proposed development.

1.3 In view of the potential archaeological significance of the proposed development site, it was deemed necessary to undertake an archaeological evaluation of it in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the DoE Planning Policy Guideline No. 16 (Nov 1990).

1.4 A brief for this evaluation was prepared by the Head of Archaeology, Community and Economic Services, Shropshire County Council. The Archaeology Service was subsequently commissioned to carry out the evaluation.

2 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 2.1 Aims and Objectives of the Evaluation The aim of this evaluation is to provide information that will enable an informed and reasonable planning decision to be taken regarding the archaeological provision for the area affected by the proposed development. The objectives of this evaluation exercise were to locate any archaeological features and deposits likely to be affected by the proposed development, and to assess their survival, quality, condition and significance. On this basis, options for the management of the archaeological resource would be recommended, including any further archaeological provision where necessary (see below, section 4).

2.2 Methodology of the Evaluation In order to achieve these objectives, the evaluation was required to comprise a programme of trial excavation, supported where appropriate by documentary research.

The trial excavations were to take the form of a single trench, up to 6m long by 1.5m wide. It was required that all excavation should be limited to the top of significant archaeological deposits, with further excavation undertaken only where essential for achieving the objectives of the evaluation.

Documentary research was to be undertaken as appropriate to assist with the objectives of the evaluation exercise and to elucidate any features recorded during the on-site investigations.

3 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

3 THE EVALUATION 3.1 The Documentary Research Ludstone itself is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, although it was probably one of the townships of the Domesday parish and manor of Claverley (Thorn, 1986, ES3, note). In 1086, Claverley lay in , but was transferred to Shropshire soon after. Before the Conquest, the manor was valued at £7 10s (Eyton, 1856, p63) and was held by Algar, Earl of Mercia, who owned much land in Staffordshire (Thorn, 1986, 4,25,6 note). By the time of the Survey in 1086, Claverley was held in demesne by Roger of Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury. The manor comprised 20 hides and there was sufficient land for 32 ploughs; there were 5 ploughs in demesne, and there were 32 villagers and 13 smallholders with a further 22 ploughs. The estate also included a mill, 12 acres of meadowland, and a wood 3 leagues long by half a league wide. At the time of the Survey, the manor had increased in value to £10 (Eyton, 1856, p63).

Claverley appears to have been a composite manor, and after the rebellion of Earl Roger's son and heir, Robert de Bellême, in 1101, the manor, together with his other estates, was forfeited to the Crown. The manor remained crown demesne land throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, being granted out to various farmers during the period but always returning to the Crown. (Eyton, 1856, pp64-73).

Ludstone is first mentioned by name in the documentary record in the 13th century when the township of Ludstone and its tenants are referred to in various documents (Eyton, 1856, p99). From the beginning of the 13th century at least, Ludstone formed part of the endowments of the Deanery of Bridgnorth. Peter of Rivaulx obtained a gift of 18 beams for repairs to the hall shortly before his appointment as dean in 1223, and the Deans of Bridgnorth may have used Ludstone Hall as a local residence until the end of the 14th century. By the end of the 14th century, however, the hall was in a state of disrepair, and in 1403, Thomas of Tutbury, then Dean of Bridgnorth, was preparing to repair the manor house. (VCHS, 1973, p127.) At this time, the manor house comprised a hall with a great chamber at the upper end, a frerechamber, a kitchen, a bakehouse, a stable, cowshed and barn with porch, and a gatehouse partly of stone, all surrounded by a moat, and a well-stocked fishpond (VCH, 1973, p127; Oswald, 1952). Thomas of Tutbury died that year (1403), leaving on site worked freestone, 11,000 shingles and 17,000 tiles for repairing roofs, and 300 great boards for internal repairs. The repairs were not carried out immediately, and it appears that Tutbury's successor as dean, Columba of Dunbar, had the manor stripped and sold off the materials got ready for its repair. He also had several of the outbuildings pulled down, and sold off this material too. Nevertheless, the house and farm must eventually have been repaired, as they continued to support the deans of Bridgnorth until the middle of the 16th century.

By the early 17th century, the manor had been acquired by the Whitmore family (Acton, 1868). The present hall, of brick with stone details, was built by John Whitmore in c. 1607 (Oswald, 1952). The estate remained in the Whitmore family until 1867, when it was acquired by Mr W O Foster. In 1870 it was bought by Mr J R Cartwright (d. 1910), a Sedgeley firebrick manufacturer, who undertook much restoration work on the hall and grounds (Oswald, 1952; Stamper, 1993). Apart from the house, which he restored, and the moat, most of the outbuildings and grounds were created or altered by

4 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

Cartwright (Stamper, 1996). This would presumably include the outbuilding which forms the southern edge of the proposed development. On the 1st edition OS 1:2500 plan, surveyed in 1882, this is shown not as the present continuous building but as a series of small walled enclosures with a small building at the eastern end (see Fig. 2).

Otherwise, the 1st edition OS plan shows the study area much as it is today, with a path immediately adjacent to the outbuildings and open ground (a lawn) extending across to the pool which forms the northern arm of the moat (OS 1:2500, 1883). To the east of the study area, the lower parts of the stone and brick lodges and stone abutments of the eastern bridge across the moat may represent the only surviving visible medieval fabric at the hall, and may in fact be the remains of the stone gatehouse mentioned at the beginning of the 15th century (Stamper, 1996).

5 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

3.2 THE TRIAL EXCAVATIONS 3.2.1 An area 6m long by 1.5m wide was initially marked out for excavation parallel to the eastern end of the north wall of the sandstone outbuilding at a distance of 1m (Fig. 3a). The presence of a number of live services, however, restricted the area available for excavation, and so a single trench 5m long by 1.5m wide was excavated. The trench was excavated entirely by hand.

3.2.2 The natural subsoil, consisting of a yellowish-brown sand (Fig. 3b; 25) was seen at a depth of 1.38m below the existing ground surface in a sondage at the western end of the trench. The natural was covered by a deposit 0.12m thick of a slightly darker yellowish- brown sand (24) identified as the disturbed surface of the subsoil. This was covered by a layer of brown silty sand (23) which produced one sherd of medieval pottery, and which was cut by a small circular pit (22) whose fill (21) produced 494gms of large unabraded sherds of a 12th/early 13th century cooking pot. The fill (21) of the pit was indistinguishable from the layer (23) it cut and was only recognisable from the way the pot sherds lay and from where the pit's base cut the underlying layer (24). The pit and layer 23 were sealed by a further layer of a dark brown sandy silt 0.10m thick (18) which also produced medieval pottery of 12th/13th-century date and a small silver pin.

This layer (18) lay beneath a layer of dark greyish brown silty sand (12), which was exposed at the western end of the trench. In the central and eastern parts of the trench, this latter deposit was covered by a former yard surface consisting of sandstone fragments (14) and gravel (17) in the central part of the trench and cobbles and pebbles (13) at the eastern end. A circular stakehole (16) had been cut through the gravel deposit (17).

All these features and deposits lay beneath a layer between 0.33 and 0.44m thick of dark greyish-brown silty sandy loam representing a buried garden soil. The lower 20cms of this deposit (10) produced exclusively medieval pottery, the upper 10-20cms (9) produced pottery of medieval to mid 18th-century date.

Two inspection chambers, one of brick (8) and the other of brick and re-used red sandstone (11), had been cut into this buried garden soil (Fig. 3a), presumably giving access to a drain running along the north side of the outbuilding.

A layer of a very dark grey silty sandy loam 0.15m thick (6), also representing buried garden soil, and producing finds of late 17th- to early 19th-century date, butted against the sides of the inspection chambers and sealed layer (9).

A layer of hardcore 0.25m thick (5) consisting of red sandstone fragments, tile, and bricks of mid 17th- to early 18th-century date, and pottery of early to mid 19th-century date provided bedding for the existing gravel path (4), which incorporated pottery of 19th-century date, and whose surface comprised a layer up to 0.07m thick of more recently-laid, cleaner pinkish pea-gravel (0).

3.2.3 The trench was backfilled by hand upon completion of the excavation.

6 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

3.3 DISCUSSION 3.3.1 Stratified medieval deposits c. 0.6m thick were seen at a depth of between 0.6m and 1.25m below the existing ground surface. These deposits contained a good, stratified assemblage of medieval pottery of 12th- to 14th-century date. Medieval features in the form of a yard surface and an associated stakehole were seen within these deposits at a depth of 0.85m. These features and deposits are likely to continue across the whole of the site of the proposed development.

3.3.2 Large stratified assemblages of medieval pottery from Shropshire are rare, and are practically non-existent from rural sites in the county. The recovery of 43 sherds weighing 794gm from the small sample of the medieval deposits sampled by the trial excavation indicates the presence of a potential assemblage of regional importance within the study area.

3.3.3 No significant features or deposits of post-medieval date were encountered by the excavation.

7 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

4 RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 Significant features and deposits of medieval date were encountered by the evaluation. The proposed development will entirely destroy these remains. While these remains are not considered to be of sufficient importance to merit preservation in situ, they are nevertheless considered to be important enough to merit preservation by record.

4.2 Moreover, these deposits have been shown by the evaluation to contain an assemblage of medieval ceramic material that is considered to be of great regional significance.

4.3 It is recommended that a programme of further archaeological work should precede the development. Such works might include the removal by machine of later deposits within the development area to a depth of c. 0.75m, to enable the excavation and cleaning by hand and recording of the medieval yard, associated features and underlying medieval deposits.

4.4 The importance of the medieval ceramic assemblage should be reflected in any scheme of work or research design for this further work.

4.5 The existing live services within the study area would need to be disconnected to enable further excavation work to be carried out.

8 An Archaeological Evaluation at Ludstone Hall, Claverley, Shropshire

5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED

Acton, F S, 1868: The Castles and Old Mansions of Shropshire, Shrewsbury Eyton, Rev R W, 1856: Antiquities of Shropshire, vol 3 Gaydon, A J, (ed) 1973: A , vol II, (VCHS) Ordnance Survey 1883: 1:2500 Shropshire Sheet No. LIX.7 Ordnance Survey 1:2500 Sheet Nos. SO 7894/7994 & SO 8094/8194 (197n Revision) Oswald, A, 1952: "Ludstone Hall", Country Life, January 11th 1952 Pevsner, N, 1958: The Buildings of : Shropshire, Harmondsworth Stamper, P, 1993: A Survey of Historic Parks and Gardens in Shropshire, Shropshire County Council Archaeology Service Report No. 41 Stamper, P, 1996: Historic Parks and Gardens in Shropshire. A Compendium of Site Reports Compiled 1994-1997, Shropshire County Council Archaeology Service Report No. 55 Thorn, F and C, (eds), 1986: Domesday Book: Shropshire, Chichester

ABBREVIATIONS AOD Above Ordnance Datum ASD Above Site Datum DoE Department of the Environment OS Ordnance Survey SMR County Sites and Monuments Record, Shire Hall, Shrewsbury SRRC Shropshire Records and Research Centre TSAS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society TSAHS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society VCHS Victoria History of the Counties of England: A History of Shropshire

6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer would like to thank Paul Williams and Stéphane Roy for their assistance with the site investigations and Claire Barnes for processing the finds from the excavation.

9 the study area

© Crown copyright

LUDSTONE HALL 1998 Fig. 1: Location of the study area (1:2500 scale) the study area

LUDSTONE HALL 1998 Fig. 2: Extract from the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 1:2500 plan, 1883, Shropshire Sheet No. LIX.7 N

electric main

17 16 12 22 18 14 24 13

11 8

site bm 100.00m (nominal)

doorway outbuilding a

WE

0 100.00m ASD 4 5

6 9 10 18 17 12 23 24 25 b

0 2 metres

LUDSTONE HALL 1998 Fig. 3: The evaluation trench; a) plan view b) south-facing section