MSO8525 - Little Staddon Farmstead (Monument)

The farmstead is shown on the Tithe Map of 1839 as three buildings and a linear group of fields but is now visible as substantial ruins and earthworks. The medieval settlement of Staddon is not necessarily on this site.

SS 877 366. Deserted medieval farmstead of Little and Middle Staddon,indicated in the 1327 Lay Subsidy by the entry of Hamelino de Stoddone. [1] In 1839 Little Staddon was an estate of 78 acres. [2] No longer a working farmstead. [3] Shown with Middle Staddon on 1962 map with characteristic enclosures. [4] Banks, walls and a roofless building shown on 1947 aerial photograph. Middle Staddon is possibly the three sides of a rectangular building on the east side of the lane. [5-7] 1971 aerial photographs show no buildings. [6] The Lay Subsidy entry cannot necessarily be taken as evidence of settlement at this site and may equally apply to Great Staddon, some 600 metres to the northeast. The Tithe Map for Winsford parish shows three buildings at Little Staddon and a holding of 78 acres arranged into a linear group of fields alongside Middle Staddon on its eastern side. By 1890 (Ordnance Survey 1st edition 25inch mapping, sheet Somerset 46.13) this configuration of structures had altered but three buildings still survived forming a group around a small yard and (?)pond. This pattern is clearly discernible on the ground today. The surviving evidence is a combination of substantial ruins and earthworks. The west gable wall of a two storey structure survives to full height, but elsewhere the remains are low walls (between 0.5 metres and 2 metres high) and building platforms. [8] Two possible building platforms are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs to the south of the surviving structures at Little Staddon at circa SS 8770 3658 (or Lower Staddon as it is annotated on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1890 [10]). The approximately 9 metres by 15 metres platforms are cut into the southwest facing slope above East Nethercote and appear to abut the yards of Little Staddon. [9-11] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [12]