Nether Poppleton, City of York, Yorkshire - Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results

Wessex Archaeology

The archaeological evaluation was successful in achieving a number of the aims of the project, including establishing the presence of part of the vallum monasteria, the surrounding boundary ditch which encompassed monastic sites. This ditch contained sherds of pottery dated to c. AD 450-850 and is likely to date to the Early/Middle Anglo-Saxon period.

The trenches around St. Everilda’s were also able to provide new information about the later development of the manorial complex which arose during the 12th century. The medieval moated manor house, within the Scheduled earthworks was probably superseded in the Tudor period by a new building to the south east, before moving once more, in the 18th century, to its present position.

Analysis of the current layout of the village indicates that Nether Poppleton was probably a planned settlement, established along a single main street to the west of the church during the Norman period. Pottery recovered from the trenching within the village points to its medieval origins, but no significant structural or archaeological
evidence was recovered to shed further light on the origins or development of the village layout. The oldest buildings lining the old main village street appear to date to the 17th and 18th centuries, and are likely to have been built on the sites of their medieval predecessors. Some are still aligned with their gables to the road, possibly fossilising earlier, medieval, building patterns. The best evidence for the medieval village layout lies in the survival of many of the early boundary plots along Main Street and Church Lane.