The desertion of settlements is a process that has been going on for many thousands of years and is still going on today. The deserted medieval village of Gainsthorpe (Picture: English Heritage) As a monument, these lost villages can be fascinating places where you can walk down the medieval street looking at the banks and mounds that indicate the positions of medieval houses and yards. Many lost villages result from people not being able to live there anymore if they were to survive.ĭo you have a lost village near you? Let me know in the comments.When looking at medieval settlement remains in the Lincolnshire landscape, people often look at the shrunken and deserted villages. People need work, and if opportunities arise to escape poverty by moving to another village or town, people will take them. Quite often, it is employment or, rather, a lack of it that has caused the demise of a village. The redundant workers had to return to the mainland, and the village was abandoned within the same year. On Brownsea Island (off the coast of Poole, Dorset), an entire village, Maryland, was lost when the new owner Lady Mary Bonham-Christie closed down most of the employment on the island. Over a period of time, it became abandoned, and all that is left are some lumps and bumps in the fields. That seemed to start the decline but not complete destruction. Thomas Hungerford built Farleigh Hungerford Castle and wanted the land to be a deer park. Close to my home, there are the lost villages of Rowley and Wittenham. There are also villages where the landowner decided they didn’t want people living on their often newly acquired land. The Army allows occasional open days, and a fleet of vintage coaches takes those wishing to visit. The church is the only building that was spared, and a former resident's last funeral to be held there has recently taken place. In Wiltshire, the village of Imber is one such example.
Some villages also lost out to the military when the land was required for the British Army to use as training grounds for the world wars. In 2022 we experienced a drought which brought out many YouTubers to explore the exposed floor of Ladybower and the exposed foundations of the villages, including some super old bridges that have survived around 80 years of being under water. I used to live in Derbyshire, where the villages of Ashopton and Derwent had to make way for the Ladybower Reservoir. This happened when reservoirs were built, and entire villages were destroyed and buried under water. In more recent times, some villages have been lost in the name of progress. This was once a place of some importance it had been granted a weekly market charter in the 14th century. This was a village recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. The last three remaining terraced houses were finally demolished in 2020 before they went over the cliff edge. In Suffolk, Easton Bavents has been washed away by the sea. That is still happening today with coastal erosion. There have been many settlements along the coast that have literally fallen into the sea.
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