Monument record MDO2485 - Medieval settlement remains of Frome Whitfield, Stinsford

The earthwork remains of the medieval village of Frome Whitfield, sometimes also called West Frome, known to have been abandoned by 1610. The village had a church which was dedicated to St Nicholas, and an L-shaped bank is thought to be the remains of the platform on which this church stood.

'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. 79, 83B: Fagersten, 185, note 2); by 1327 only 10 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 water-meadows 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 1 ft. 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'. ' (1)

A small-scale archaeological evaluation in 1992 in connection with construction of a cess pit related to the use of the site as a scout camp, revealed small quantities of medeival and post-medieval pottery described as possibly ranging in date from the twelfth to nineteenth century, and a linear feature, interpreted as a probable ditch, the filling of which also contained medieval pottery. (2)

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 257 (Monograph). SDO149.

<2> Cox, P W, 1992, Archaeological Evaluation of Land at Frome Whitfield, Stinsford, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO12368.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1994, Medieval Village Research Group Index, PRN 495 (Index). SDO16386.

Record last edited

Feb 25 2019 11:13AM