The Medieval and Post Medieval Landscape of Onley Fields Farm Northamptonshire Peter Wardle Colin Lacey & Heather Papworth Published by PAW Print Publishers, 38 Elvendon Rd, Goring on Thames, Berkshire, RG8 0DU. PAW Print Publishers is the publishing section of the Historic Environment Consultancy, advisers on all aspects of the historic environment. www.historicenvironment.co.uk Copyright © PAW Print Publishers 2016 First published 2016 ISBN 978-0-9562381-3-9 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Bibliographic Information Wardle,P., Lacey,C. & Papworth,H., 2016, The Medieval and Post Medieval Landscape of Onley Fields Farm Northamptonshire, PAW Print Publishers, Goring on Thames All Rights Reserved This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Copies of this book may be obtained from www.historicenvironment.co.uk. Designed and typeset by Peter Wardle & Colin Lacey Printed by The Historic Environment Consultancy All photographs © Dr Peter Wardle unless stated otherwise. The Medieval and Post Medieval Landscape of Onley Fields Farm Northamptonshire CV23 8AN Peter Wardle Colin Lacey & Heather Papworth Published by PAW Print Publishers Copyright © PAW Print Publishers 2016 Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... iii Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Structure of The Report ............................................................................................................. 1 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 4 Topography & Geology Location ............................................................................................... 4 The Deserted Medieval Village ..................................................................................................... 5 The Structure of The Village ...................................................................................................... 6 Trackways ................................................................................................................................. 7 The Field System ...................................................................................................................... 8 Archaeological Excavation (Evaluation) of The Field System ................................................... 9 The Post Medieval Landscape – The Oxford Canal ................................................................... 13 The Early Canal ....................................................................................................................... 13 The Later Canal & The New Marina Inlet ................................................................................ 18 The Bridges ............................................................................................................................. 22 Bridge 81: Borstal Bridge ........................................................................................................ 23 Bridge 82: Rowdyke Bridge ..................................................................................................... 28 Bridge 83: Hazels Bridge ......................................................................................................... 32 Onley Fields Farm ................................................................................................................... 37 The Victorian Great Central Main Line Railway .......................................................................... 38 Historic Photographs ............................................................................................................... 39 The Layout of the Railway ....................................................................................................... 41 The Main Line Embankment ................................................................................................... 43 The Siding Embankment ......................................................................................................... 46 The Crossing ........................................................................................................................... 49 The Subway ............................................................................................................................ 50 The Twentieth Century ................................................................................................................ 53 The Wartime Supply Depot ..................................................................................................... 53 The Prisoner of War Camp ...................................................................................................... 57 The Post War Establishment ................................................................................................... 58 The Prison Complex ................................................................................................................ 59 Conclusions - The Evolution of The Landscape ......................................................................... 60 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 62 Appendices 1. Photographic Recording of the Field System 2. The Oxford Canal 3. The Great Central Main Line 4. The Archaeological Evaluation 5. Archaeology Warwickshire Evaluation Report List of Figures Figure 1: General Location Plan (Inset Scale 1:5,000,000) .......................................................... 2 Figure 2: Detailed Location Plan ................................................................................................... 3 Figure 3: Topography of Barby, Onley and the surrounding area (Image from Google Maps). .... 4 Figure 4: The Deserted Medieval Village of Onley, 1:5000 after RCHME 1981 ........................... 5 Figure 5: The structure of Onley DMV overlaid on the RCHME 1981 survey. .............................. 6 Figure 6: Trackways & Deserted Medieval Village overlain on modern OS mapping ................... 7 Figure 7: Extent and layout of Field System. ................................................................................ 8 Figure 8 The Location of Trenches Scale 1:2500 ......................................................................... 9 Figure 9: Cross Section of Ridge and Furrow (Trench 33) ......................................................... 11 Figure 10: Map illustrating route of the 18th century canal and the 19th century alteration ....... 14 Figure 11: Map illustrating route of the 18th Century canal and the 19th Century alteration. ..... 15 Figure 12: Ordnance Survey 1884 1:2500 plan, reduced to 1:5000 ........................................... 16 Figure 13: Profiles across canal around proposed inlet profiles ................................................. 21 Figure 14: Location of canal profiles ........................................................................................... 21 Figure 15: OS 1” map of 1834, 1:25,000 .................................................................................... 22 Figure 16 Plan of Bridge 81 Scale 1:200 .................................................................................... 23 Figure 17: Plan of Bridge 82, 1:200 ............................................................................................ 29 Figure 18: South elevation, Bridge 82 ......................................................................................... 29 Figure 19: Plan of Bridge 83, 1:200 ............................................................................................ 32 Figure 20: North elevation, Bridge 83 ......................................................................................... 33 Figure 21 The original Design of Embankments and Cuttings (Rolt 1971) ................................. 38 Figure 22 The Layout of the Railway Based on the 1910 OS 1:2500 Plan ................................. 42 Figure 23: Location of embankment profiles ............................................................................... 45 Figure 24: Embankment profiles ................................................................................................. 45 Figure 25: The crossing as seen on the 1910 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map ............................ 49 Figure 26: The Subway Scale 1:200 ........................................................................................... 50 Figure 27 : Extract of 1947 air photograph showing Supply Depot and Prisoner of War Camp. 53 Figure 28: Layout of Supply Depot, from 1947 air photograph ................................................... 56 Figure