Deserted medieval village facts for kids
Imagine a village that was once full of people and busy with life, but then everyone left, and it slowly disappeared. In the United Kingdom, these places are called deserted medieval villages (or DMVs). They were settlements that were abandoned during the Middle Ages. Often, the only things left are bumps and hollows in the ground, called earthworks, or patterns in fields seen from above, called cropmarks. If fewer than three houses are still lived in, it's a DMV. If more than three houses remain, but the village is much smaller than it used to be, it's called a shrunken medieval village. Experts believe there are over 3,000 DMVs in England alone!
Contents
Why Villages Disappeared
Villages didn't just disappear overnight. Many things caused people to leave their homes over hundreds of years.
Natural Disasters
Sometimes, nature forced people to move. Rivers might change their course, or get filled with mud. Heavy floods, especially during the very wet 13th and 14th centuries, could make villages unlivable. Villages near the coast could be washed away by the sea or covered by windblown sand.
The Black Death
Many people think the terrible disease called the Black Death in the mid-1300s caused villages to empty out. This plague certainly killed many people and sped up the decline of some villages. However, many DMVs actually became deserted later, in the 1400s. By then, the soil had become tired from too much farming, and other diseases were also a problem.
Changing Land Use
A big reason for villages disappearing in the 1400s was a change in how land was used. Landowners realized they could make a lot of money from wool. So, they started turning fields that were used for growing crops like wheat into pastures for sheep. This was often done through something called enclosure, where common land was fenced off. Hundreds of villages were abandoned because of this. Even today, you can sometimes see the old "ridge and furrow" patterns in fields, which show where medieval farmers used to plow their crops.
Grand Estates
Later, rich landowners wanted huge country houses with big parks and beautiful gardens. To create these grand estates, they sometimes moved or even destroyed entire villages. This process was also a type of enclosure, sometimes called "emparkment."
Famous Examples
One of the most famous deserted medieval villages in England is Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire. Archaeologists have studied this site a lot since it was discovered in 1948. You can still see the ruins of its church and its old fishpond.
In Northamptonshire, about 100 villages are considered deserted. Some examples include Onley, Althorp, and Faxton. Other examples of DMVs can be found at Gainsthorpe in Lincolnshire.
