Weedon

The laying of a pipeline through Weedon parish meant some archaeological fieldwork including field-walking, trial trenching, geophysical survey and a watching brief. These revealed Neolithic to Bronze Age flints, Roman features, enclosures and artefacts such as pottery and tile. Roman pottery and a ditch were also found near Hardwick church. Work on the Watermead roundabout also revealed Neolithic to Bronze Age flints, Late Iron Age pottery and a Roman enclosure with pottery, animal remains and a spindle-whorl. Some have argued that the place-name Weedon suggests the presence of a Saxon temple. Recent excavations at Weedon Hill for a new housing development have uncovered a Roman settlement and possible shrine, that may have been the inspiration for the place-name.

There are many earthworks of the medieval period, such as house platforms near Rectory Farm, a trackway and house platforms near Five Elms and shrunken village earthworks and hollow-way at East End. There are also fourteenth century records of a dovecote and manor house. Local tradition also suggests a windmill mound near Rectory Farm and a chapel and plague victim’s burial ground near Lilies, though there is no physical evidence on the ground.

There is also a local tradition of a Civil War battle and therefore some associated earthworks near Hardwick Church, though these cannot be traced on the ground. The battle was said to have taken place near Holman’s Bridge where there is meant to be a cemetery. Some Civil War artefacts were found there in the nineteenth century. The bridge itself is known to have been there in the sixteenth century, though the present bridge is modern.

Most of the listed buildings in this parish date to the seventeenth or nineteenth centuries. Eastgate House has fifteenth century fabric with a sixteenth to seventeenth century cross-wing and an eighteenth century barn extension. Lambsquay House was a seventeenth century barn that incorporated a fifteenth century cruck truss but has been converted to a house. Lilies house and gardens date to the nineteenth century, though the garden wall is sixteenth century. The pump in the High Street is also nineteenth century.