Assembling leading experts on the subject, this account explores the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of thousands of villages and smaller settlements in England and Wales between 1340 and 1750. By revisiting the deserted villages, this breakthrough study addresses questions that have plagued archaeologists, geographers, and historians since the 1940s—including why they were deserted, why some villages survived while others were abandoned, and who was responsible for their desertion—offering a series of exciting insights into the fate of these fascinating sites.
Author(s): Christopher Dyer, Richard Jones
Series: Explorations in Local and Regional History
Edition: 1
Publisher: University of Hertfordshire Press
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 233
City: Hatfield
Copyright
......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Figures......Page 8
2.1 Changing patterns of desertion in Devon as known in 1968 and 2009......Page 32
2.2 Deserted villages and hamlets in Norfolk......Page 33
2.3 Deserted villages and hamlets in Rutland......Page 40
2.4 East Midlands settlements with particular place-name generics that became parishes......Page 43
2.5 East Midlands settlements with particular place-name generics that have been ‘lost’......Page 44
2.6 Evidence for the abandonment of the village of Lillingstone Dayrell......Page 48
2.7 Evidence for the abandonment of the hamlet of Elm Green, Wicken......Page 49
3.1 Deserted village sites in Warwickshire and Worcestershire......Page 56
3.2 Location map of places mentioned in the Stratford guild register......Page 57
4.1 Hamilton, aerial photographic view looking north-east......Page 72
4.2 Ingarsby, aerial photographic view looking north-east......Page 76
4.3 Stretton Magna, simplified interpretation of site plan......Page 80
4.4 Knaptoft, remains of sixteenth-century house......Page 83
4.5 Knaptoft, aerial photographic view from the north......Page 84
5.1 Map showing location of sites in the Milton Keynes area......Page 89
5.2 Spatial arrangement of the settlement of Westbury......Page 92
5.3 Development of Division 2 at Westbury......Page 96
5.4 Contrasting archaeological remains of houses at Great Linford and Westbury......Page 101
6.1 Miscellaneous objects from Woodperry......Page 109
6.2 The cistern found at Churchill......Page 117
6.3 Floor plan of the burnt building found at Dinna Clerks......Page 121
6.4 The abandoned building at Pennard on the Gower peninsula......Page 122
7.1 The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century infield and outfield at Wharram Percy......Page 138
7.2 The late-seventeenth-century dispersal of farmsteads at East Matfen......Page 141
8.1 Lincoln diocese, c. 1710......Page 145
8.2 Buckinghamshire case studies showing location of Boarstall and Middle Claydon......Page 149
8.3 The site of Boarstall village c. 1580......Page 151
8.4 The site of Boarstall village c. 1690......Page 152
8.5 The fate of 1968 listed settlements in the Lincolnshire sample area......Page 159
9.1 Medieval strip fields on Ffridd Camen in Llandrillo on the western edge of the Berwyn......Page 169
9.2 The enclosures of the putative sixteenth-century farmstead at Beili Bedw......Page 173
9.3 Foundations of a long hut in the Duhonw valley on Mynydd Epynt in Brecknock......Page 177
9.4 The head of a small valley running off Aberedw Common......Page 179
9.5 Abandoned cottage encroachments along Cwm Twlch......Page 181
10.1 Somerleyton Hall, and its park, as shown on an estate map of 1652......Page 189
10.2 Chatsworth Park......Page 193
10.3 Houghton Hall and park, from Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus of 1722......Page 195
10.4 Earthworks in Houghton Park......Page 196
10.5 Edensor village, clustering at the gates of Chatsworth Park......Page 201
10.6 Ayott St Lawrence: the parish church, rebuilt within the park in 1764......Page 203
Tables......Page 10
3.1 Recruitment to the Stratford guild from selected villages......Page 58
5.1 Details of hearths from excavated buildings at Westbury......Page 100
8.1 Middle Claydon: numbers of tenants by farm group size 1648–1787......Page 154
8.2 Middle Claydon: percentage of farm acreage by farm size group......Page 155
8.3 Population change in ‘open’ and ‘close’ villages in the Bernwood and Claydon areas......Page 157
8.4 Continuity and disappearance of 1968 deserted villages in the Lincolnshire Wolds sample area......Page 158
Contributors......Page 12
Abbreviations......Page 14
Series Editors’ Preface......Page 16
Preface......Page 18
Acknowledgements......Page 22
1 The origins and development of deserted village studies by Christopher Taylor......Page 24
2 Contrasting patterns of village and hamlet desertion in England by Richard Jones......Page 31
3 Villages in crisis: social dislocation and desertion, 1370–1520 by Christopher Dyer......Page 51
4 Dr Hoskins I presume! Field visits in the footsteps of a pioneer by Paul Everson and Graham Brown......Page 69
5 Houses and communities: archaeological evidence for variation in medieval peasant experience by Sally V. Smith......Page 87
6 Deserted medieval villages and the objects from them by David A. Hinton......Page 107
7 The desertion of Wharram Percy village and its wider context by Stuart Wrathmell......Page 132
8 Understanding village desertion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by John Broad......Page 144
9 Abandoning the uplands: depopulation among dispersed settlements in western Britain by Robert Silvester......Page 163
10 ‘At Pleasure’s Lordly Call’: the archaeology of emparked settlements by Tom Williamson......Page 185
11 Deserted villages revisited: in the past, the present and the future by Richard Jones and Christopher Dyer......Page 205
Bibliography......Page 207
Index......Page 224
