Sulby

60 SULBY

(OS 1: 10000 ^a SP 68 SW, ^b SP 68 SE, ^c SP 67 NE)

The parish is roughly triangular and covers only about 650 hectares. On its N.W. side is the county boundary with Leicestershire; its S.W. side follows part of the upper reaches of the R. Avon, here flowing N.W. at about 125 m. above OD. Apart from alluvial deposits on the floor of this and other small valleys, and Middle Lias Clay exposed on the valley sides, the entire parish consists of a flat upland at about 150 m. above OD, covered with Boulder Clay. There are two important monuments in the parish, the deserted village of Sulby (3) which was almost completely overploughed in the late or post-medieval period but has undergone no recent damage, and the site of Sulby Abbey (2). It is possible that the abbey was built on the site of a second medieval settlement in the parish already abandoned before the religious house was founded there.

Roman

^b(1) Roman settlement (SP 672809), in the E. of the parish on Boulder Clay at 157 m. above OD. Many sherds of Roman grey ware and some of colour-coated ware have been found over a wide area (Northants. Archaeol., 11 (1976), 194).

Medieval and Later

^bc(2) Sulby abbey (SP 657800; Fig. 137; Plate 4), lies in the S.E. of the parish, across the valley of the R. Avon, between 135 m. and 145 m. above OD. Most of the land is on Jurassic clay or Boulder Clay, but the present farmhouse and the assumed site of the church and claustral buildings are on a small patch of glacial gravel.

The abbey, a house of Premonstratensian Canons, was founded in 1155 in the adjacent parish of Welford by William de Wideville who gave them the church of Welford and nine carucates of land in Sulby. Shortly afterwards, following the grant of a manor in Sulby as well as the church in that parish, the abbey was moved to Sulby. Edward II stayed at Sulby Abbey on a number of occasions but visitations in the late 15th century never recorded more than 13 canons. The abbey was dissolved in 1538, and in 1567 the land was acquired by Sir Christopher Hatton, the first of a succession of lay owners (VCH Northants., II (1906), 138–42; H. M. Colvin, The White Canons in England (1951), 77–82).

It is possible that the abbey was built on the site of an earlier village already deserted by the 12th century for one of the two entries for Sulby in Domesday Book is for a manor of 2½ hides held by Geoffrey de Wirce as part of Welford, which was then waste (VCH Northants., I (1902), 347).

Most of the large area of earthworks appears to be paddocks, ponds and water-courses. The actual site of the abbey is identifiable, however, and the main approach to it survives as a broad trackway bounded by shallow ditches or low banks which runs down the hillside towards the present Abbey Farm. Immediately N. of the farm the track opens into an area of irregular shape bounded by scarps and banks ('a' on plan). The interior is occupied by very disturbed ground and uninterpretable scarps and ditches. This seems to be the site of the monastic church and claustral buildings. The existing house, of 18th or 19th-century date, and a late 19th-century arch in the garden contain reused fragments of worked and moulded stone, and a large number of finds have been made in the vicinity of the farm buildings including a stone coffin, a coffin lid with a floriated cross, fragments of window tracery, columns, mouldings, balls of lead and fragments of ironwork. In this century an 'arch' is said to have been found immediately N. of the farm (OS Record Cards). A number of decorated floor tiles from the abbey (NM; Plate 23) include one of 14th-century date, part of a four-tile design and another, of the 14th or 15th century, depicting a coat of arms with three pikes. It may be the arms of the Wyke family. Even in the early 18th century Bridges (Hist. of Northants., I (1791), 597) recorded the discovery of stonework on this site.

To the S. of the farm, in the valley bottom, is a complicated system of ponds and channels. The R. Avon must originally have flowed along the bottom of the valley but has been diverted and made to run as a high-level leat on the S. side of the valley, at one point ('b' on plan) passing through a large cutting 4 m. deep. The valley floor then seems to have been divided into a series of ponds. In the S.E. a large dam ('c' on plan), still standing up to 2 m. high, was constructed across the valley, thus ponding back a large lake. The latter area is now drained and has been ploughed in narrow ridge-and-furrow of late 18th-century or early 19th-century type. Below the dam ('d' on plan) are several small ponds or fish stews. Those to the S.W. were supplied by a channel, from the diverted Avon but it is not clear how the two to the N.E. were filled. The land to the N.W. of these ponds also has narrow ridge-and-furrow on it.

Further N. ('e' on plan) are other earthworks the purpose of which is not clear. They consist of a large rectangular mound which was apparently once almost completely surrounded by water, as well as a number of channels or ditches.

Earthworks on the S.W. side of the diverted R. Avon include a large pond ('f' on plan), the N.E. side of which has been broken down and survives only as three mounds though the S.W. side of its dam remains 2 m. high. This pond appears to have been filled by seepage from the valley side, as the diverted Avon to the N.E. is at a lower level. To the S.E. of this pond is a large semicircular ditch 1.5 m. deep, of unknown purpose, and S.E. again is a small embanked paddock. A long mound, perhaps a 'pillow mound', within the latter has been ploughed over by later ridge-and-furrow. This paddock may be an enclosed rabbit warren. All these features lie N.E. of a long boundary bank and ditch ('g' on plan) which separates them from the ridge-and-furrow to the S.W. and is perhaps the original precinct boundary of the abbey on this side. It is presumably of early date for on its N.E. side are the truncated remains of ridge-and-furrow which is not aligned with the ridge-and-furrow to the S.E. This means that pre-existing ridge-and-furrow in the area was overlaid by the boundary bank and ditch and that subsequently the land to the S.W. was reploughed in new ridges.

On the N. side of the valley, N.E. of the site of the conventual buildings, is a group of large paddocks bounded by shallow ditches and separated from the ridge-and-furrow beyond by a bank ('h' on plan) up to 1.5 m. high with traces of an outer ditch. These paddocks all have ridge-and-furrow within them. The bank may represent the monastic precinct boundary on this side of the site for at its S.E. end it turns S.W. and runs down towards the Avon. Traces of a spread bank on the N.W. edge of the site ('i' on plan) may also be the boundary bank (RAF VAP 106G/UK/636, 3177–8; CPE/UK/2109, 3303–5; CUAP, AEV26–9, NR 59–60, XT76).

^b(3) Deserted village of Sulby (SP 653816; Fig. 138; Plate 9), lies near the W. edge of the parish, W. of Park Farm, on land sloping S.E. to a small tributary of the R. Avon on Boulder Clay between 137 m. and 155 m. above OD. The earthworks are in very good condition and are especially interesting because they show that the greater part of the village was ploughed over after its desertion.

Sulby is first recorded in Domesday Book as two manors, one held by Guy de Reinbuedcurt with a recorded population of 13, and the other which was waste held by Geoffrey de Wirce (VCH Northants., I (1902), 343, 347). The latter manor may have been represented by a village already deserted and then replaced by Sulby Abbey (2), but the one held by Guy de Reinbuedcurt is perhaps the site described here. This village was acquired by Sulby Abbey soon after 1215 and is mentioned separately in the Nomina Villarum of 1316. In 1334 the vill paid 31s. for the Lay Subsidy (PRO, E179/155/3) and in 1377 89 people over the age of 14 paid the Poll Tax (PRO, E179/155/28). By 1428 there were less than ten householders in the village (Feudal Aids, p. 52). At the Dissolution Sulby Abbey had large areas of pasture in the parish including a close known as 'Old Soulby', and 2000 sheep were being grazed in the area by 1547 (K. J. Allison et al., The Deserted Villages of Northants. (1966), 46). In 1674 five householders paid the Hearth Tax (PRO, E179/254/14) and in the early 18th century Bridges (Hist. of Northants., I (1791), 596) said that Old Sulby consisted of only two or three scattered houses. This evidence indicates that the village itself disappeared between 1377 and 1428 and was replaced by the present pattern of scattered farmsteads.

There was apparently a parish church at Sulby, separate from that of Sulby Abbey and dedicated to St. Botolph. Bridges (op. cit., 597) said that the nave had fallen down long before 1451 and the rest of the building was destroyed at the Dissolution. It was said to have stood about a mile N. of the abbey near the N.W. end of the meadow called St. Botolph's Pool. This suggests that it stood within the deserted village, though no exact site can be assigned to it unless it was the large platform at the E. end of the village ('i' on plan).

The site consists of a number of hollow-ways with the remains of former houses and closes along them. The main hollow-way, which is up to 1 m. deep, ('a'–'b'–'c' on plan) enters the village at its N.W. corner and runs almost due S. until it disappears into arable land at its S. end ('c' on plan). Another hollow-way branches off it to the S.E. The point of junction ('b' on plan) appears to be triangular. To the S.E. the latter hollow-way forks again; the N. branch ('d' on plan) turns N. and then E. and extends down the hillside, the S. branch runs southwards to the edge of the site where it meets another one at right-angles ('e' on plan). This runs S.E. in the valley bottom, but may once have extended N.W. to meet the assumed extension of the main N.–S. hollow-way.

On the W. side of the main hollow-way (between 'a' and 'b' on plan) there are at least eight long closes, all bounded by shallow ditches or low scarps. Six of these have been overploughed by ridge-and-furrow and all but one of the former house-sites at their E. ends have been destroyed. At one point ('f' on plan) the ridge-and-furrow extends into the hollow-way itself and thus partly blocks it. Along the E. side is a series of less regular closes, some bounded by ditches up to 1.25 m. deep. Two of these ('g' and 'h' on plan) appear to be aligned quite differently from the others and one ('g' on plan) seems to have encroached upon the hollow-way. This may mean that these features are a later alteration to the previous layout of the village in this area.

Along the N. side of the main E.–W. hollow-way ('b'–'d' on plan) are small closes, bounded by low scarps and shallow ditches, some of which are likely to be the sites of former buildings. Other closes behind them to the N. are all overploughed by later ridge-and-furrow, some of it extremely short. On both sides of the S.E. hollow-way ('d'–'e' on plan) there is a more regular pattern of closes but as all have been partly or entirely ploughed over by later ridge-and-furrow little but the main boundaries survives. In the centre of the E. of the site there is a large double platform ('i' on plan), raised some 1.5 m. above the surrounding land, and the most prominent earthwork on the site. Because of its E.–W. orientation it has been suggested that it is the site of the parish church (OS Record Cards) but this cannot be proved without excavation.

The S.W. corner of the village has been destroyed by modern cultivation but in the plough soil there is a long narrow area of stony ground. From it a quantity of medieval pottery of 12th to 14th-century date including some Lyveden ware has been recovered. A single Roman sherd has also been found (RAF VAP CPE/UK/2109, 4302–3; CUAP, XT81, AEB24–5, AGU68–9, AKP44–5).

^b(4) Civil War grave (?) (SP 66978013), lies in the S.E. of the parish near the Naseby boundary, on a N.-facing slope, at 160 m. above OD. There is a tradition that, following the Battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645, the dead were buried in a communal grave on the battlefield, (J. Mastin, Hist. and Ants. of Naseby (1792), 68). In 1842 Edward Fitzgerald, in an attempt to locate the centre of the battlefield, dug into a mound at this point and found numerous skeletons (OS Record Cards). Though the site is just to the W. of the battlefield itself there is no reason to doubt that this is a grave connected with that event. It consists of a shallow scoop some 50 m. across, cut into the hillside with a very slight mound in the centre.

(5) Cultivation remains. The date of the enclosure of the common fields of Sulby is unknown but was certainly before 1720, when Bridges (Hist. of Northants., I (1791), 596) described it as an enclosed lordship, and was probably before the Dissolution of the abbey, when there were at least 880 acres of pasture there (K. J. Allison et al., The Deserted Villages of Northants. (1966), 46). It is likely that the fields were in fact enclosed when the village of Sulby was abandoned, that is between 1377 and 1428. Much of the ridge-and-furrow of these fields has been destroyed. Where it survives on the ground or can be traced on air photographs it is mainly arranged in long sweeping furlongs, running across ridges and valleys, for example in the area surrounding Sulby Abbey itself, where most of the ridges run N.–S. Further N., around and across the site of Sulby village, the main trend is E.–W. across the S.-facing spurs, with a few shorter interlocked furlongs. E. of the village the N.-S. trend predominates. Ridge-and-furrow is particularly well preserved within closes associated with Sulby Abbey, and on the S. side of the abbey the precinct boundary bank appears to have been laid out across pre-existing furlongs. This has resulted in the abandonment of the shorter truncated ends and the development of new ridge-and-furrow outside the precinct boundary (RAF VAP 106G/UK/636, 3135–9, 3177–81; CPE/UK/2109, 4299– 4303, 3301–5).