Burton Dassett Southend, Warwickshire - A Medieval Market Village

Southend, one of five medieval settlements in Burton Dassett parish, Warwickshire, was the site of a market promoted by the manorial lord Bartholomew de Sudeley, with a charter being obtained in 1267. The settlement prospered, becoming known as Chipping Dassett, and approached urban status, but then declined throughout the 15th century. It was subjected to depopulation in 1497. The site survived as earthworks in pasture until construction of the M40 motorway necessitated the archaeological programme described here. The only building to survive was the 13th-century chapel of St James, reduced, along with an adjacent post-medieval priest-s house, to a cow-shed.

Open area excavations at Southend investigated parts of ten medieval properties. There was some prehistoric and Romano-British activity, with evidence for woodland regeneration and subsequent clearance in the post-Roman period, despite the Feldon area being one often considered to have little in the way of tree-cover sinc