The Wansdyke & District Forums

As several newer members have asked where to begin with the deserted-settlement question, I thought I would set down a short reading list and invite others to add to it. For the general picture, Beresford on the lost villages of England remains the starting point, dated though it is. For this county specifically, the Victoria County History volumes are indispensable and are now largely online. On enclosure, the parliamentary awards are held at the record office and many are mapped. And do not neglect the air photographs; much of what survives of these places survives only as earthwork, best read from above in a low winter sun. I will happily point anyone to specific parishes; it is, I confess, my chief pleasure.

An excellent list, Selwood, to which I will add the obvious thing I would. The county archaeological society's magazine has run since 1854 and carries the parish-by-parish detail you will not find in the general books; the back numbers are digitised. And for reading earthworks on the ground rather than on the page, the old RCHME field guides have never been bettered. It always comes back to the maps in the end, Selwood. It always comes back to the maps.

And the society library has most of these on the shelf for members, do come and use it, that is what it is for. First Saturday of the month, ten until one, tea included.

Just so. Janet, you have reminded me to renew my membership, which I had let lapse, shamefully, for a man who uses the library as much as I do.