The Wansdyke & District Forums

me again! different project this year, the Black Death. teacher says loads of villages were wiped out by it and never came back. is that true round here? which ones? trying to find a local one i can actually go and look at rather than just Eyam which everyone in my class is doing.

Welcome back, Jordan; the As clearly agreed with you. A useful caution first, because your teacher has given you the popular version. The plague of 1348 to 1349 killed perhaps a third to a half of the population, which is staggering, but it rarely wiped a village out at a stroke and left it empty forever. What usually happened was slower: the plague weakened a place, then a run of bad harvests, then a landlord turning arable to sheep because there were too few hands to plough, and over a century the village dwindled and the last families left. So the honest answer is that very few of our deserted villages died of plague alone; most were killed by the plague and the sheep together. That is less dramatic but more true, and your teacher will respect you for the distinction.

There's a Medieval Settlement Research Group here https://medieval-settlement.com/

Selwood is right, and for a local one you can actually walk: look for a deserted medieval village, a DMV, with good earthworks, where the documents show a fourteenth-century decline. There are several in the county on access land. I will message you a couple that are reachable and safe to visit, with permission noted. Take the lidar images from the other thread up with you and you will see the house platforms under your feet.

thank you both!! the plague and the sheep together is a brilliant line, thats my opening sentence sorted. will go and walk one at half term and take photos. this forum is honestly better than the internet.