The village of Braunston Cleves or Fawcliff is a deserted medieval village that stood north of the village of Braunston in the English county of Northamptonshire at its border with Warwickshire.
It has long been a "lost village", having no standing buildings, but its position and the topography of its street and houses can be traced from the irregularities of the ground where it once stood. It was on the southwest slope of Cleve's Hill within Braunston parish and appears to have been occupied in late Anglo-Saxon and early post-Conquest times. It is unknown why the village was deserted, but it had certainly been destroyed by the 18th century.
History
The history of this settlement is virtually unknown. It is thought that the settlement lay within the manor at Braunston which, at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086), belonged to Walter de Aincurt.W. Page (ed.), The Victoria History of the County of Northamptonshire, Vol. I (Archibald Constable & Co., 1902/University of London with IHR & Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1970), p. 340 (Internet Archive). This passed to William Trussbutt (whose family held a barony seated in Yorkshire and LincolnshireI.J. Sanders, English Baronies: A Study of Their Origin and Descent, 1086-1327 (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1960), p. 56.), and was divided between his three daughters.'Braunston', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire, Vol. 3: Archaeological Sites in North-West Northamptonshire (London 1981), pp. 21-25 (British History Online).
Two other deserted village sites, named Braunstonbury and Wolfhampcote, exist within the immediate vicinity of Braunston, and were possibly part of the same manor. There is also an existing hamlet called Little Braunston.An Inventory of Archaeological Sites in North West Northamptonshire, Page 22, Fig 27. 'Wulfhampcote and Braunstonberry' in M.W. Beresford and J.K.S. St Joseph, Medieval England: An Aerial Survey, 2nd Edition (Cambridge University Press 1979), pp. 126-27 (Google).
The settlement called FawcliffAn Inventory of Archaeological Sites in North West Northamptonshire, Page 23. descended to Agatha Trussbutt, then wife of Hamo the grandson of Meinfelin (whose barony was seated at Wolverton, BuckinghamshireSee 'Parishes: Wolverton (Manor and barony)', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Buckingham, Vol. 4 (London, 1927), pp. 505-09 (British History Online).).G.R. Elvey (ed.), 'The Barony of Wolverton' in Luffield Priory Charters Vol. II, Buckinghamshire Record Society Vol. 18 (Buckingham and Northampton Record Societies/Broadwater Press 1975), in Introduction, pp. xxxix-xliv (Society pdf). After Hamo's death she remarried to William de Albini, who paid a fine to enjoy her lands, and she lived down to 1247.'97. Inquisition post mortem: Agatha Trussebut', Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, Vol. I: Henry III, 1236-1272 (HMSO 1904), p. 22 (Internet Archive).For the relationships, see T. Stapleton, Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae Sub Regibus Angliae (Society of Antiquaries, London 1844), II, in Preface, pp. lxxvi-viii (Google). She thus outlived her sister Hilary (died 1241), who gave her share of the manor (including at least part of Braunstonbury) to Lilleshall Abbey in Shropshire.
Remains today The remains of the village can be found at the head of a small valley where there is a spring.
The village stood on the west bank of the water course. There is a series of depressions and platforms which were probably the sites of dwellings. Below the stream at the southern end of the site there are several ditched enclosures along which the stream flows today.An Inventory of Archaeological Sites in North West Northamptonshire,
References