tanged arrow from Fulford

Water Fulford
 Recording the events of September 1066
yorks releif map
 
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Water Fulford

The tithe map of 1845 shows six sets of buildings in Water Fulford. The location of the surviving hall can be detected, but the other buildings on the arable land are not obvious today. The straight road coming from the south is marked ‘from Selby’ but veers to the east at the boundary with Naburn. Otherwise the roads can be easily identified and matched with their modern locations. The land beside the Ouse is still known as Water Fulford Ings. The land was arable, apparently with oats and barley the main crops.

Water Fulford was built to the south of the ford. One surviving tithe map suggests that a layout similar to the post-conquest Gate Fulford (fig 3.3) was planned as there are the strips lying each side of the central road. The limited work we conducted suggests that this was a failed post-conquest ‘new-town’. The amount of domestic pottery suggests that there were building on the site for perhaps three centuries. The earliest pottery we found was dated to a century after the battle and most was from later centuries.

There is much evidence of pottery to the north of the main street, which is still marked by a lamp-lit and paved footpath running across a field. However we found very little evidence of pottery to the south. The land south of this path was consolidated into a single landholding while that to the north is still in separate tofts, although these vary in size.

The land beside Landing Lane was tithe-free in 1845. This would suggest that this was not usable land so did not attract any tithe payments to the church. This land is still subject to regular flooding.

The image looks towards the ford. It crosses the modern A19, with the playing fields which have been filled that cover the old ford, about 3m below the present surface.

Looking south west towards Naburn (right) and north east to the old ford (left). This paved public path bisects the field along the line indicated on old maps as the main road through Water Fulford.  

Water Fulford is the site of what is in effect, an abandoned medieval settlement that once occupied this land.

The land dips in the distance and this is the dead ground where Harald could have assembled his ‘best troops’ before his outflanking move.

 

 
Last updated May 2012