Monument record MDO20967 - Frome House: deserted settlement

Settlement earthworks of probable medieval origin, visible as earthworks on aerial photographs.

The parish church of St. Nicholas of Frome Whitfield is mentioned in 1503 when an indulgence was granted to all who visited it, but it was almost entirely decayed by 1549. <1> The area is grass covered and no visible trace of the church remains. <3> Settlement Remains (691915), part of the former village of Frome Whitfield, lie 70 yds. S. of Frome Whitfield House. The settlement, sometimes called West Frome (Hutchins II, 410) has a recorded population of 13 in Domesday Book (D.B.I,ff.79,83b; Fagersten, 185, note 2); by 1327 only taxpayers are recorded, perhaps indicating a slight decline; The settlement had a church dedicated to St. Nicholas, but it was destroyed by 1549 (Hutchins II, 416). By 1610 depopulation was complete and the parish was joined with that of Holy Trinity Dorchester; it had 'been of long time utterly dispeopled and was then without church or chapel' (ibid). The remains are much disturbed by the irrigation of watermeadows and by garden landscaping. The most prominent feature, alleged to be the site of the church, is a roughly L-shaped platform with sides 25 yds long, and 1ft to 2ft high; it is cut into by a pond on the N side. To the W is a low N-S bank, with a parallel scarp 25 yds beyond it. Pottery of the 13th and 14th centuries has been picked up on the site. On the Tithe Map of 1840 (Holy Trinity Parish, Dorchester) the field in which the remains lie is called 'Chapel Close'. Vague indications of ground disturbance at SY 691915 on air photographs. <4> The field immediately north-east of the iron footbridge 'over the Frome (SY 69179132) at Frome Whitfield deserted village was ploughed in 1974. Mr P.F Williams suggested that some of the finds he picked up over a wide area of this field may imply occupation or re-occupation in the 18th or 19th century. The iron objects, suggesting this late occupation, consisted a spur, a key, part of a single-edge knife, two horseshoes and a sconce. <5> The present remains lie west of the pond within a 1ha. Field centred at SY 69119151. Parallel banks and scarps in the west of the field, averaging 5.0 metres wide and 0.3 metres high, are possibly associated with water-meadow irrigation. The remains in the east of the field average 0.4 metres high and do not have a cohesive pattern. The scarps on three sides of the alleged church site suggest a rough east-west alignment (see plan), though at SY 69139148, the highest point in the field, there is a similarly aligned rectangular area, 11.5 by 7 metres. The fields north-east of the iron bridge and at SY 69179132, are watermeadows with no visible remains of desertion. Surveyed at 1:2500 on MSD. <6> Settlement earthworks of probable medieval origin, visible as earthworks on aerial photographs. <7>

Record last edited

Nov 8 2023 1:56PM