Why were some medieval villages deserted?

There are over 2000 known sites of deserted medieval villages in England. Some villages were depopulated gradually by disease, enclosure or depleted local resources, others destroyed for aesthetic reasons by landowners, and others swept away by the effects of a changing climate.
Landowners and tenants
Coastal erosion and climate change
Lives and landscape
Places with deserted medieval villages:

Stowe
At Stowe, the medieval village was deserted when the Temple family created a private deer park in the 1630s and 40s. A medieval church still remains on the site of the now-lost village at the heart of the landscape.

Dunwich Heath and Beach
Now a small settlement with a beautiful heath and beach, in the Anglo-Saxon period Dunwich was a major international port and the capital of the Kingdom of East Anglia. The majority of the town was destroyed by storms during the thirteenth and fourteen centuries, resulting today in Europe’s largest medieval underwater site.

Wimpole Estate
At Wimpole Estate hamlets were destroyed when the celebrated garden designer, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, landscaped the park from 1767 to improve the views from the Hall.

Gunby Estate, Hall & Gardens
A medieval village on the site of the Gunby Estate was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, and is thought to have been deserted when Gunby Hall was built in 1700. You can still see the remains of the village as earthworks in the park today.
Our landscapes
We value our landscape and as one of the UK’s largest landowners, keep our land accessible for future generations.