The project brief identified an area of earthworks of unknown origin in the field to the south-east of Rufford Hills Farm.

These earthworks are not recorded on any of the available historic cartographic sources. Earthworks are visible in the vicinity of Rufford Hills Farm on aerial photography dating to 1989 and modern Google Earth imagery.

The 1637 estate map shows that these features are likely to be located outside of the estate boundary as they are depicted in the wooded area of Welley Beskall. It is possible that these earthworks could represent the remains of a deserted medieval village which was established on the outskirts of the estate. Another possibility is that these features represent the remains of a former grange or possibly fishponds associated with the monastic use of Rufford. The terraced nature of these features suggests that the area was used for agricultural activities, which further enforces the interpretation that these were features relating to a medieval grange.

Hannah Shaw & Lucy Fletcher, 2016, Rufford Abbey, Ollerton, Nottinghamshire: Historic Landscape Baseline (Unpublished document). SNT5795.