The Walkhampton Enclosure (Devon)

ABSTRACT

At Walkhampton, west Devon, a continuous line of field boundaries apparently represents the remains of two sides and three corners of a roughly rectangular enclosure of c. 175 hectares. We argue on stratigraphic grounds that the Walkhampton Enclosure (WE) pre-dates the Norman Conquest. It was sited strategically — defended by watercourses to the west and south, and located where two important long-distance roads merged to cross the River Walkham. At its centre lies Welltown Farm (probably once Bickwell), whose earliest known form was a twelfth-century hall; it is set within a pear-shaped embanked enclosure. It is likely that the WE played a key role in West Saxon control of the area in the early ninth century, before the establishment of the burh at Lydford. Walkhampton was a royal manor at the time of the Domesday survey; we suggest that the old territory of Roborough hundred was ‘royalised’ by a West Saxon king, with its centre transferred to Walkhampton. The WE may be interpreted as a late Saxon inland, administratively a royal manor liable to render a contribution to the ‘farm of one night’, supporting a peripatetic royalty and other important officials.

Keywords:

• Devon
• Anglo-Saxon
• inland
• enclosure
• roads

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Richard Glanville for drawing our attention to the history of Welltown Farm, Richard Kitchin for advice about local history and farming, and for facilitating access to farmland, David Parsons for his help with place-names, and John Pidgeon for advice and permission to make reference to his work at Welltown.