Whitson

Whitson, Caldicot Level, Monmouthshire

The Caldicot Level was reclaimed following the Anglo-Norman conquest of Wales in the late 11th century. A series of villages and monastic farms known as �granges� were created (eg Lower Grange and Grangefield farms), but the settlement at Whitson is of particular interest. The earliest settlement appears to have lain in an oval -shaped enclosure south of the church, similar to Puxton on the North Somerset Levels [link to Puxton page]: along with a number of other such enclosures these may in fact pre-date the Anglo-Norman settlement of the area. The church at Whitson includes a fine Norman doorway and probably dates to the late 11th or 12th century. At some later date, probably in the 12th or 13th century, the settlement focus then shifted half a kilometre to the north, where a carefully planned village was laid out adjacent to a broad �funnel-shaped� common [Figure 1]. A row of farmsteads was laid out along the edge of this common and these can still be seen to the east of the modern road, that runs down the middle of the former common. A series of plots of land were laid out to the rear of these farmsteads which stretch for over a kilometre, forming a remarkable block of carefully planned medieval landscape [Figure 2]. Visit details.