The Ordnance Survey Explorer 5 map, titled Mendip Hills East, includes the area immediately west of Maiden Bradley, and shows (names) the site of the medieval village of Yarnfield (ST 778384), situated immediately north of what is now the minor road which connects Maiden Bradley with North Brewham. The site is west of Manor Farm and north of Grange Farm, and west of the road that connects Yarnfield Gate (the location of a former turnpike) with Gare Hill.
Danny Howell visited the Yarnfield medieval village site on the afternoon of Monday 8th October 2007 and was able to glean some additional information. He writes:
About a yard to the west of a wooden gate on the southern side of the village site, adjacent the Maiden Bradley to North Brewham road, is a small plaque, resting slightly at an angle on two wooden posts, which has obviously been erected courtesy of the Duke of Somerset, and the wording of the plaque (in white lettering on a green background, but now faded no doubt due to sunlight) gives a concise description, as follows:
“THE DUKE OF SOMERSET’S ESTATES.
YARNFIELD MEDIEVAL VILLAGE.
The earthworks are the visible remains of the Medieval village which probably dates from the late Saxon period. By 1086 it was large enough to be included in the Domesday Survey. Originally the village was in the county of Someset and was called “Gernefelle’. At this period it was owned by Walter Giffard and was home to 30-40 individuals who worked on 5 smallholdings, sharing one plough. A detailed survey of the area has indicated a maximum of 10 crofts once stood on this site which could have supported a population of 60 to 80 people. In the late 14th Century the village was called Yarnfield. There is no record of the village’s subsequent decline.”
This information also appears on framed notice boards fixed to wooden gates, one at the eastern end of the site and another one on the north side, and the boards also feature a map. The boards are titled “Conservation Walks’ and begin with the line: “You are welcome to walk in this field and to explore the earthworks found here.”
A walk in the field, which is a pasture one grazed by cattle and is mainly on a slope, dropping down north east from the road to a track and another smaller field below, reveals many humps and bumps, with patches of nettles growing in between. What must have been a road into the village, or a village street, can be seen, with raised banks either side, running up the slope from the north east to the south west. At the brow of the slope, is a large depression which is probably the result of quarrying in more recent times. Near this depression, running down the hill are a couple of trees (ash and oak) and some holly bushes. In the smaller field is a spring, from which the clear water flows through reeds into nearby woodland (west of Manor Common Wood, though Moultons Park Wood and into Penstones Wood). Perhaps it was the water from this spring that fed the stream, which the Yarn-field weavers utilised to “impart permanency to the colours of the manufactured materials.”
The Ordnance Survey Timeline Historical Map 1811-1817 (Sheet 183), shows a building at the lower end of the medieval village site – the site is not named on this particular map – and this building may have been a barn. This building does not exist today.