Bifocal Settlement : Discussion

It is intriguing that the bifocal settlement pattern described above seems to mirror the outline form of the township, which appears to consist of two distinct components. One of these is focussed on the main village and basically encloses the catchment of the Hosedon and Alwinton burns.

There is space for arable fields and meadows on the lower ground to the north of the Coquet and west of the Alwin, but the bulk of the area is represented by rough hill pasture on the slopes of Castle Hills, Lords Seat and Green Side to the north and North West.

The second discrete territorial component of the township comprised a roughly oblong block of land stretching from the church eastward to included the north-facing hillside known, perhaps significantly, as Parson Side. Again this consisted of a settlement situated on the lower haugh land beside the Alwin-Coquet confluence and a more extensive area of hillside pastures.

Moreover, in the case of both of the township’s territorial components, the settlement is situated in one corner of the defined area. Between these two distinct components intrudes a salient of Clennell township.

The form of the township, thus described, might imply that two site components were combined at some stage, a straightforward rural village community with its agricultural territory, plus a parish church with an attached parcel of land, perhaps representing the church’s original endowment.

One further observation should be noted in relation to the township outline. A substantial length of the southern boundary of the Low Alwinton territory adjoins the deer park attached to the Umfravilles’ castle of Harbottle. This park was subsequently incorporated in Peels township which evolved from the demesne manor of Shirmondesden. The precise line of this boundary must therefore reflect the creation of the park in the 12th or 13th centuries. However it is possible that the north-western boundary of Shirmondesden township previously ran through the same general area even if it did not follow the exact course as that traced by the builders of the park’s paling.

The location of the church away from the main settlement site is also interesting in other respects. It is tempting to see in it an earlier settlement focus for the district, the centre of a local Saxon manorial lordship, or thanage, or perhaps even a shire caput, with a administrative complex, including a church, but not necessarily any kind of nucleated agricultural settlement. At some point the administrative centre was perhaps abandoned, leaving only the church.

Both of these hypotheses - the early estate caput and the combining of two discrete territories - are highly speculative of course, but, equally obviously, they need not be mutually exclusive. The Low Alwinton territory centred on the church might initially have lain outside the normal township structure, if it really was the site of a shire caput, and perhaps only later combined with a neighbouring township, following the abandonment of the administrative complex.

However, at present, we must admit that whilst it would appear very likely that the fact that the church is located outside the village settlement is in some way significant, we cannot determine with any confidence precisely what it does signify.