Norman neighbours

For years Time Team fan Frances Davies, of Skipsea, Humberside, has been collecting finds from the field outside her back door. They include Neolithic flint implements, Saxon remains and even the odd piece of Roman pot. But the best – and the most numerous – are medieval pottery finds dating from the time of the Norman Conquest.

Indeed, so many finds turned up when Frances went fieldwalking after the local farmer ploughed her field more deeply than usual that she called in the Time Team geophysics crew to carry out a private survey. Together with the finds, what their survey revealed was enough to persuade Time Team to carry out a full three-day investigation. This turned up not just an individual farmstead or settlement on the land, but what appears to have been an entire village, built around the time of the Norman Conquest and connected with nearby Skipsea Castle, which was built soon after the Conquest and was once the seat of power of the Norman overlord of the whole area.

Time Trail

The period following the Norman Conquest in 1066 was one of great change – and immense suffering – in England. After defeating King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror made good his victory by almost everywhere replacing the Saxon nobility with his own followers. Saxon estates were confiscated and land redistributed as a reward to those who supported William and fought on his side against Harold.

Opposition was savagely crushed, particularly after the revolt of 1069. Led by the kingdom of Northumbria, this soon spread across the whole of northern England. William's response was as brutal as it was decisive. Not only were the rebels defeated in battle, but entire villages were razed and crops and seedcorn destroyed. The whole landscape was devastated as William moved northwards. Thousands starved during the winter of 1069-70, leaving behind a depopulated countryside. The 'Harrying of the North', as it became known, was so severe that 'there was no village inhabited between York and Durham', according to Simeon of Durham, writing in the early 12th century.

The Domesday Book of 1086 records that seven families were still living in Skipsea parish at that time, so the area was not entirely depopulated during the Harrying of the North. It is probable that the settlement uncovered by Time Team grew up in connection with Skipsea Castle, one of the many Norman castles built in the aftermath of the Conquest to consolidate William's power and control the local population. Skipsea Castle was built around 1086 and consisted of a 15-metre high motte (or central stronghold) surrounded by a lake and marshland. It was connected to its bailey (or enclosed area) by a timber causeway across the marsh.

The settlement continued in use through the medieval era. The sequence of pottery finds made on the site indicates that it probably declined as the town of Skipsea grew. At any rate, the evidence of ridge and furrow ploughing overlying the settlement archaeology on a large part of the site demonstrates that it was abandoned during the medieval period. This was possibly as a result of the sea encroaching on agricultural land and forcing the relocation of existing farmsteads. At a time when this stretch of coast is eroding at the rate of two metres a year, Time Team's investigation has at least ensured that this example of Britain's many deserted medieval villages is lost no longer.

Now try our Time Trial quiz to see how much you know about Britain's lost villages.

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