Acton Scott Heritage Project - the background

St. Margaret's Church, Acton Scott (image) [+]
St. Margaret's Church is a mainly medieval structure. This painting was by Rev. Williams in the late 18th Century. It shows the church before changes were made in the 19th Century. (Image courtesy of Shropshire Archives)

This two year, “Your Heritage” funded, community project was run by the Archaeology Service of Shropshire County Council. Community volunteers were given opportunities to take part in a range of archaeological and historical techniques including surveying, field walking, excavation, historical research and interpretation.

A detailed account of the parish of Acton Scott appears in the Victoria County History Vol X. However major questions about the settlement and land use of the parish over the last 3000 years remain unanswered.

An Iron Age enclosure ditch east of Acton Scott Historic Working farm was partially excavated in recent years, and other enclosures are known from crop marks to exist west of the village but little else is known of pre-Roman settlement and cultivation.

In 1817 a Roman villa was discovered during road works. This was later excavated by Mrs Frances Stackhouse-Acton in 1844. The exact site of the villa remains to be confirmed, but the excavated building probably doesn’t lie within the Iron Age enclosure as is commonly thought (and depicted on SMR). An aisled barn type building was identified complete with mosaic floor and a fragment of wall painting depicting a peacock’s head. The uncovered heated rooms are thought to have been a bath house. Bizarrely there was also an inclusion of Greek coins of 700BC to 300 BC whose provenance is a mystery! It is not known whether the excavated building represents the original farm house or a later conversion of an agricultural building for residential use, by a bailiff for example. Other farm buildings undoubtedly remain to be discovered.

The site of Saxon settlement is unknown as is the exact whereabouts of any late Saxon/medieval nucleated settlement, although it was probably in the vicinity of St. Margaret’s Church. In the late 18th century the foundations of a tower in Tower Yard were quarried but recorded. The configuration of the building, despite some parallels with Stokesay Castle, remains a mystery. Earthworks in the field, which could represent building platforms for the original nucleated village, offer scope for surveying or geophysical survey. The extent of the parish’s ridge and furrow also needs to be mapped. Castle Hill may reveal vestiges of medieval defences overlooking the main Shrewsbury to Ludlow road but might instead be an Iron Age fort, related to a much later feature or a now forgotten local myth. Whereas two thirds of the parish was, and still is, served by St Margaret’s church even the whereabouts of the chapel of Alcaston manor, mentioned in 1259 and 1349 are unknown. One suggestion is a site adjacent to now demolished timber (tithe?) barn but it may simply have been a room in Alcaston manor house and could as easily have been sited elsewhere in the southern third of the parish.

There is a chain of fishponds between the village and Hatton, known from the 18th Century. These may however have much earlier origins. It is tempting to see them as related to Acton Scott’s mill documented in 1278 and there may even have been a relationship between them and the Roman villa site. Alcaston too had a water mill site but whether on the Marsh or Byrne Brook is again unknown.

Further areas for investigation could be to trace the manner by which the parish boundary was marked over time, and the vestiges of improvements made to the Acton Estate in the early 19th Century. A tree and hedgerow survey may prove worthwhile in this respect.

It can be seen that major issues remain to be addressed by the Heritage project and it is hoped that this will provide sufficient challenge for volunteers to continue the project in a self-funded manner beyond its “official” end in 2009.

Bibliography:
Victoria County History Vol X p 9-22
Sites and Monuments Record