Haddon’s lost village

Nether Haddon revealed

Surveys by post-graduate archaeology students from the University of Sheffield have provided new insights into the deserted medieval village of Nether Haddon. Report by COLIN MERRONY and TOM MILLINGTON

The relaxation of Covid-19 measures in May last year finally allowed the resumption of fieldwork for Masters students on the Landscape Survey module in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. Working in collaboration with the Peak District National Park and the Haddon Estate, the students undertook an archaeological survey at the site of the Deserted Medieval Village (DMV) of Nether Haddon, just across the A6 from Haddon Hall. The site, which spreads across a north-east facing slope overlooking the Wye Valley, is clearly visible as a series of earthworks and is closely connected to extensive areas of surviving medieval field systems. Several walkover surveys had taken place in the 1980s and 1990s which mapped out the village site and the adjacent areas of medieval field systems and parkland. The aim of the 2021 survey was to build on this and create the first accurate and detailed earthwork survey of the village site using a total station (an instrument which measures the direct distance to a target very precisely), a GPS receiver (using satellite signals to precisely define the location of the receiver) and a drone (low level aerial photography). Secondly, part of the village site was investigated using geophysical surveys to provide some indication of the potential for underground archaeological remains. The former settlement of Nether Haddon is mentioned

Resistivity survey being undertaken on the site Aerial photograph from 1984 showing Nether Haddon from the northwest, A6 on the left (Derrick Riley)

in the Domesday Book (1086) along with the neighbouring village of Over Haddon, both of which were connected to the manorial centre of Haddon Hall. The timescales for and the reasons behind Nether Haddon’s decline are still unclear. The favourite interpretation of the village’s abandonment is that the village was cleared following a 1330 licence to empark lands surrounding Haddon Hall, although potentially the village continues beyond this date and subsequently declines after the onset of the Black Death in the 1340s. Eventually the village site was incorporated into the deer park surrounding Haddon Hall, within a field known as “Little Park”. The use of the site continues to be unclear through this period, although it appears that by the mid16th century at least, the site of the village was under pasture, primarily for sheep grazing. The earthwork survey revealed a series of platforms which are primarily clustered around the main curving Holloway, an ancient trackway which runs through the village. Both resistivity and magnetometer surveys were undertaken across a significant part of the site. Overall, the resistivity provided the clearest results, with several possible structures identified which are not visible on the surface. A final twist in the investigations at Nether Haddon was the discovery of several historic aerial photographs showing the earthworks of the deserted medieval village, taken by Derrick Riley in December 1984. This rediscovery came about as the University of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology began a project to catalogue and digitise the Sheffield Library of Aerial Photography in the hope that this previously under-utilised resource can be made more accessible to students, academics, researchers, and the wider public. The survey undertaken last spring indicates that Nether Haddon was once a sizeable settlement with several dwellings, outbuildings and associated enclosures. However, there is much more to survey on the site and it is hoped this project will continue in the future.

Acknowledgements: The survey was undertaken by Masters students Claire Asplin, Helen Basson, Nicola Barber, Rachel Delatte and Tom Millington and supervised by Dr. Bob Johnston, Dr. Guglielmo Strapazzon and Colin Merrony.