Professor Emerita Barbara English’s well informed and beautifully illustrated talk covered many local lost villages. She explained with examples the many ways in which desertion of a village could be caused.

Barbara said that it was only after aerial photography began around 1920 that people realised just how many lost villages there were and how clearly they can be seen. Much later, Lidar surveys added to our knowledge. She also showed how old maps can help.

Barbara listed the reasons that have contributed to the desertion of villages.  They include war, disease, extreme weather, changes in farming practices such as conversion from arable to sheep, and displacement by aristocratic and monastic land owners. Barbara gave local examples of each.

They included the loss of old Leconfield to a deer park, and the devastation caused to local villages following William the Conqueror’s “harrying of the north” as evidenced in the Doomsday Book.  One unusual contributory cause of desertion was the mass emigration of villagers from Rowley, near Beverley.

East Yorkshire has the added problem of coastal erosion. Barbara reviewed the villages lost and mentioned in particular the prosperous town of Ravenser Odd washed away by a storm in the 1350’s.

Barbara admitted that despite continuing research we don’t know for sure how, why or when some of the villages were deserted.

Throughout the talk Barbara made various references to Maurice Beresford, famed for his 40 year excavations at Wharram Percy. If you want more information about lost villages in general, Barbara’s advice would be to look for his books.