Laughton en le Morthen, South Yorkshire: Evolution of a Medieval Magnate Core

Abstract

ABSTRACT Towards the end of the first millennium, a fundamental change in the fabric of Western European elite society occurred as families began to promote themselves not on the basis of kin-groups but of their personal wealth. Key to self-aggrandisement was the ownership of local power centres, into which aristocrats poured investment. In England, few of these magnate cores have been investigated archaeologically, and understanding relies on a small corpus of well-excavated sites. Eager to shift this dependence on excavated evidence, research at Laughton en le Morthen, South Yorkshire used a range of methods to reveal the origins of an aristocratic centre, and its transformation in the wake of the Norman Conquest. This included construction of a motte and bailey castle that was perhaps never used for military purposes, but was instead curated as a folly-type feature expressive of new lordly power. The results from Laughton not only allow the evolution of the site and its landscape to be mapped, but also shows the value of adopting diverse archaeological research methodologies for understanding medieval magnate cores.