![]() Our towns and cities expanded, the very towns and cities ![]() The drift of people from the countryside accelerated and Labourer’s tie to his feudal lord was slowly broken. Recurring right into the late 17th century.Įngland continued to move to a wage based economy, and the To decline throughout the next 150 years but the plague kept This meant eviction and the resulting poverty was to create The lord moved into sheep farming and enclosed the open fields. Take employment elsewhere, work for a wage and be free of In return, the lord had to provide protection for him and Him and to provide a certain number of days work for him. Lord’s land and had to share some of his produce with The feudal system said that nobility held land for the crown Which in turn would hastened the decline of the village. The shrinking workforce was beginning to affect the longĮstablished feudal system that would eventually break down, Often on slightly higher ground and some were actually re-colonised. The Black Death also played its part, but there were notĪs many plague villages as you may think because many relocated, Vale of Evesham and the Severn Vale, never to return. Too great a stain of village communities that were already Here in the Cotswolds overgrazingĪnd poor soil fertility only added to the problem, putting This resulted in crop failuresĪnd livestock diseases. Throughout the 13th and parts of the 14th centuryĮurope suffered from a climate change with severe wintersĪnd cold, very wet summers. To remove the villagers from their expanding estates. Of their creed called for them to be established as far awayĪs possible from the habitation of others, they felt obliged Were not allowed to accept any form of tithe or revenue from Their life was one of solitude,ĭevotion and meditation cut off from the outside world. It is easy to say that the villages must have been abandonedīecause of the Black Death, the dreadful plague that sweptĪcross England in 1348-48, but there is more to it than that.ĭuring the Norman period, the Cistercian Order of monksĮstablished their abbeys at Hailes, Kingswood and BruernĪs they did throughout England. There are around 80 deserted villages in the Cotswold and, surprisingly, many sites have avoided the plough. The street is sunken because it was worn away over many years by wagons, the movement of people and cattle and helped along by the wind and rain. ![]() Banks and ditches mark out places where these villagers once kept livestock and grew a few crops. Houses once stood on the level areas and with a little imagination, it is possible to make out enclosed areas behind. Typically, you will be walking in a hollow way with flat-topped banks on either side. It is the bumps and hollows covering an acre or two that tell you that you are on a medieval main street. Some sites are easily missed but others are more obvious. If you do much walking across the Cotswolds, eventually you will pass through a deserted village. Years at the Stow-on-the-Wold Visitor Information Centre. Ralph Green lives in Bourton-on-the-Water and used to work for many ARTICLES BY RALPH GREEN OF THE VISITOR INFORMATION CENTRE AT STOW-ON-THE-WOLD
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