Middle Carlton

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On the 24th of February 2008 I joined the Washingborough Archaeology Group in walking a field in Lincolnshire. The field is situated at the site of Middle Carlton, a lost medieval village. Work had previously been done in the village with the Time Team. The walk revealed a range of items from human and animal bone to flint working, pottery and wall plaster. 300+ finds were made in the first half of the field with just a couple being shown below.

Wapentake of Lawress

From Lost vills and other forgotten places: Middle Carlton, a lost vill and parish, which is now included in North Carlton. It has been found impossible in every case to identify the several Carltons. In addition to the existing places of that name— Great and Little Carlton, Castle Carlton, Carlton le Moorland, Carlton Scroop, and North and South Carlton—there was a tiny parish of the name lying between North and South Carlton, and now included in the former parish. These three Carltons, which lie from three to five miles north-west of Lincoln, appear in the records under various names: (1) North Carlton is found as Carlton Wildeker, Carlton Kyme, (fn. 75) North Carlton by Scampton, (fn. 76) Carlton Kyme in Ysele (fn. 77) ; (2) South Carlton as Carlton by Lincoln, Carlton Paynel, (fn. 78) Carlton by Burton; (3) and the depopulated Carlton (fn. 79) as Middle Carlton, Little Carlton, Little Carlton by Lincoln, Carlton Makerel, (fn. 80) Barton, Barton by Northcarleton, Barthon by Suth Carlton, Carlton Barton, Barketon, Barkeston, (fn. 81) Parua Carleton que uocatur Barkeston. (fn. 82)

Middle Carlton, as this place of many aliases may most fitly be called, was a rectory in the gift of the Paynells, and the institutions continue until the end of the fourteenth century. The parish probably suffered heavily in the Black Death; for it is recorded in 1398 that there had been no parishioners for forty years. (fn. 83) In 1428 there were not more than ten inhabitants. (fn. 84) About 1399, Thomas de Aston, who was then patron of the rectory, arranged for its appropriation on the next vacancy to the hospital of St. Edmund, king and martyr, which he had founded at Spital le Street. (fn. 85) A supplementary tithe-rent-charge award of the parish of North Carlton, dated 31 December, 1849, shews that the master of the hospital was entitled to 21l. a year on account of tithes arising out of nine closes, eight of pasture and one of meadow, which were 'well-known as the rectory of Little Carlton.' These closes contain 108 acres, 2 roods, 2 perches, and it seems probable that they comprised the whole area of the parish with the probable exception of a strip of the marsh running westwards towards Broxholme. The map attached to the award shews that the closes lay just to the west of the road from Lincoln to Kirton, and were bounded on the north by North Carlton, on the south by South Carlton, and on the west by a bridle road from North to South Carlton. The boundaries of these closes have been considerably altered, and no fences now mark the boundary between North Carlton and what was Middle Carlton. The nine closes are now represented by the following enclosures as delineated in the Ordnance Survey:—no. 73, the western parts of nos. 79 and 111, no. 113, no. 120, and no. 121. The village itself was situated in a close called Bartons, which is now included in no. 113 of the Ordnance Survey. The outline of the church can still be discerned, especially in dry weather, a few yards from the northern boundary of no. 113, and just to the east of the footpath from North Carlton to South Carlton; while mounds mark the foundations of buildings on the opposite side of the footpath. There are also traces of a road to the village from the highway to Lincoln on the east, and of a road which connected the three Carltons.


Walking the field
Roman bead
Kern stone
Pottery handle
Pottery handle