Herefordshire Through Time
The project focuses on the land to the south and south-west of Manor Farm (Ordnance Survey grid reference SO 613 560). The overall area of land targeted by the project measures 19.3 hectares. This land formed part of Bredenbury Court estate and gardens, which were established in the late 1800s (Sites and Monuments Record no. 31140). Preserved within the landscape are earthworks relating to the church and houses of the former settlement, including a substantial network of fields. The course of the old road - removed when the landscape of Bredenbury Court was created - is also present, running across the site.
The project consists of a community investigation using a number of archaeological techniques, as well as research into the documentary evidence. The investigation covers land divided between Manor Farm and St. Richard's School, and will look at the character of the post-medieval landscape and its surviving features. Enclosed within the landscape are the earthwork remains of the medieval core of Bredenbury, which consisted of a church, a settlement, trackways and a field system. Over the course of a year, volunteers both local to Bredenbury and from further afield (including pupils from St Richard's School and the local primary school) will carry out a series of archaeological investigations, commencing with a landscape survey and detailed survey to map all of the earthwork remains across the site and provide a point-in-time permanent record to aid in interpretation. Following the survey, geophysics (resistivity survey) will be employed over the area to identify any buried features. The results of this survey will aid in the targeting of trenches, where volunteers will receive the necessary training to carry out excavation over areas of settlement that include a possible medieval farmstead.
The overall result of the project will provide an up-to-date detailed and permanent record of a site that appears to be remarkably well preserved but is as yet not fully understood. The results will add to the County Sites and Monuments Record, as well as informing local inhabitants and visitors to Bredenbury of the historical development of the village and estate through the production of a booklet, a number of display panels, a series of events, and information made available online.
The results of this project up to the end of October 2010 are now available online via the Bromyard and District Local History Society's website. You can access the results by clicking on this link:
http://www.bromyardhistorysociety.org.uk/Archaeology.htm.
