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Colton is a shrunken medieval village located in Yorkshire, England, designated as an ancient monument. The site preserves earthwork remains that document the settlement's contraction, a phenomenon common across medieval England whereby villages were reduced in size or entirely abandoned, particularly during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The visible archaeological features include house platforms, field systems, and boundary structures that reflect the organization of the medieval settlement before its decline. This monument provides valuable evidence for understanding patterns of rural depopulation and land use change during the later medieval period.
Shrunken medieval village of Colton is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1005777. View the official record →
Colton is a shrunken medieval village located in Yorkshire, England, designated as an ancient monument.
Shrunken medieval village of Colton is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1005777.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Length of Grim's Ditch extending 1.4km from a point 70m south of Cotton Road East to the south east corner of Avenue Wood (1 km), Length of Grim's Ditch from Cotton Road East to the A63, Colton Common (1.1 km), Length of Grim's Ditch immediately east of Barrowby Road (1.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Shrunken medieval village of Colton's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Shrunken medieval village of Colton stands on Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Lower Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.