Typical remains of depopulation. They consist of a nucleus of fragmentary, rectangular crofts surrounded by rig and furrow banks and flanked on the south by the remains of a disused trackway. Surveyed at 1/2500. (1)

(NZ 11047644) Village (site of) (consequent publication). (2)

Deserted medieval village at Newham. (3)

Published survey (25 inch) revised. (4)

In 1242 the manor was a parcel of the barony of Whalton. No information found concerning the size of the settlement in the Middle Ages. The Lay Subsidy of 1296 recorded ten taxpayers.
In a survey of 1569-70 Newham comprised seven tenements and an eighth either waste or amalgamated with another. In 1608 another survey showed the estate to have been reorganised into fewer, leasehold units. The quadrapartite division of the vill has been maintained - East, West and Middle Newham have isolated steadings in the centre of their farmholds.
By 1594 customary tenure had been abolished, and the township converted into two demesne holdings. Before 1608 the township had been leased out, and soon after the tenants seem to have been enfranchised as freeholders. Enclosure was probably responsible for the removal of two of the three farmsteads from the village site.
The village site is next to Middle Newham farmhouse. It comprises earthworks running parallel to, and on both sides of, the road between West, Middle and East Newham. There is a line of crofts on the north side of the road containing the sites of buildings. They seem to suggest about eight tenements. The village is bounded on the north and south by ridge and furrow. The earthworks to the south of the road are less clear, and to the west have been obliterated by the steading of Middle Newham. (5)

Scheduled. (6)

NZ 111 763; NZ 110 764. Middle Newham deserted village. Scheduled No ND/588. (7a)

Lidar and air photograph survey in 2017 suggests it is probable that some earthworks at Middle Newham represent 17th century reorganisation of the former village tenements, in particular some of the rectilinear elements to the south of the current road. Better-defined buildings at the eastern end of the village may be the barns, byres and houses identified in contemporary documents.

A medieval and post medieval village of Middle Newham is visible as earthworks on air photographs and lidar. Earthwork remains of the village straddle the current road to the north and west of Middle Newham Farm. North of the road a hollow way runs east-west and is flanked by several embanked croft boundaries on its northern side. A number of rectilinear platforms front onto the hollow way, representing building remains or house platforms. To the south of the current road are traces of further settlement aligned on a back lane, again traceable as an east-west hollow way. Some of the best preserved building remains have been identified here with the house plans readable from the earthworks but some of these may relate to post medieval occupation. Small areas of ridge and furrow ploughing lie within some of the crofts. The farm was reorganised into four leasehold unitsby 1608 so some elements may relate to ths phase of occupation. The earthworks were extant on the latest 2016 lidar.

Areas of ridge and furrow ploughing which formed part of Middle Newham's open fields lie to the north and south of the village. Traces of bank-defined field boundaries relating to the 1616 enclosure of the fields are also visible. Some of these earthworks were no longer extant on the latest 2016 lidar. (7b-c)

The remains of the deserted medieval village, under a hay crop at the time of fieldwork, straddle the modern road, which probably occupies the line of the original street. To the N is a series of turf-covered enclosures bounded on the N side by a continuous bank beyond which broad rig commences. S of the modern road, the earthworks are poorly defined, but there are traces of a parallel back lane with broad rig visible to the S of it. Surveyed on MSD. (7d)