Why 10 Villages in Oxfordshire Vanished!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 มิ.ย. 2024
- Welcome to this weeks offering. We explore a number of Abandoned settlements in Oxfordshire and try and piece their disappearance together. What linked them all?
As always, we are not historians, we just enjoy learning about routes, transport and such, and sharing our journey of learning with you. These videos are not specifically there for educational purposes, more so for you to learn a little (and maybe a lot more thereafter) and join us on these adventures.
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Thumbnail image right: @hedleythorne
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Filter: Snowman Digital and Beachfront B-Roll
Maps: Google Maps
Maps: National Library of Scotland
Maps: OS Maps. Media License.
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Music: Epidemicsound
Antiquarian image: wellcomeimages.org CC - บันเทิง
For those who come across land owners who have made it impossible to use a perfectly Legitimate footpath then the first thing is to contact your local council department which over sees public rights of way etc . To be annoyed and remain quiet or think someone else will report it is not good enough. Keep footpaths open by using them and reporting obstructions it only costs you your time.
Then you've got councils who will bend over backwards for landowners because of the amounts of corporate rates they pay.
What about places people have walked and used for at least 40 years, but are not on the public right of way maps? The land owner has closed them recently.
@@SciFiFemale happened where I am. Field used for walking for a number of years. Then planning position applied for lots of housing. This was turned down. Out of spite, owner put a bull with sheep in it. Now unusable. Yes owners can do what they want but means less open land to enjoy. Or, owner 'keeps' the footpath open but makes it impossible to use by placing big styles in the way.
Wonderful response!
I do it all the time!
I like to also revisit the areas & tell the landowners it was me who got it reopened!! (When they question why I'm walking there)!!
Quite right. Photographic evidence always helps, and ask for your rights of way officer. If you get stuck, the Ramblers' association are usually keen to help and advise. If there was no right of way, then it's tough, there's no right of way. However removing or covering up rights of way signs, or putting misleading or false 'no right of way' signage falls under the RoW officer's remit.
To all the private land owners who put up signs discouraging people from using the legal, public rights of way through their land... jeff off! It's scummy behaviour.
It's my land and you can't use it! Ahem, sawed off!
And to all the ones who put up signs to guide the wandering trespassing public away from private land, well done.
@@Simon_Nonymous People should have the right for small gardens yes. Anything larger or commercial maybe a compromise. For being able to keep people from wondering over the land hand it over to the local authority and lease it back. After all it was stolen in the first place.
Right to roam NOW.
Restore Rights of Way (footpaths, trackways and bridle paths) NOW.
I just bought two "No Trespassing" signs for 2 acres and cabin bordering a national forest. You can go in the NF all you want. But stay off my property if I say to do so. The boundary is well marked and visible (no fence). The law is on my side and you have no rights to it whatsoever. Different cultures have different rules and they are as serious as you take yours. So have fun! I enjoyed hill walking in the UK
Nothing in the Netherlands is ever abandoned for long. Every inch of this tiny land is always accounted for. So I'm glad I can enjoy such hidden secrets on your channel!
I grew up in Evenley (near Astwick). My Dad was a keen member of the Bicester Hash House Harriers and he spent many an hour working out trails for the next run and poring over OS maps. That got him interested in Astwick and the history of it. He would have loved this video, sadly no longer with us. 'On On Silver fox' (his Hash Handle).
Excuse my ignorance but what exactly do these hash house harriers harry?
Very well done once more. I found the link between present-day land owners shutting off public right-of-way paths and medieval land owners kicking tenents from their lands so they could keep more sheep there, quite ironic. A rich owner may thus destroy a community amenity or, indeed, the community itself. Perhaps a deeper dive into enclosures, new land ownership laws and eviction of tenants would be fruitful?
bloody normans, coming over here
@@jointgibAt least we got some decent Christian name like the saints Matthew Mark Luke and John otherwise saxon athalsten athalstein
Great video, in addition to plague, I thought many villages were 'abandoned' when landowners got more value from sheep than people. Shame some habits haven't changed!
I find the ordinance survey mapping app gives me great confidence in using paths that are discouraged - the red arrow giving me a clear position and removing doubt (I’m lousy with a map). I find it incredible how in one walk you can go from a landowner who is accommodating and helpful to another who treats you like a trespasser, though presumably still taking whatever subsidies are available!
Couldn't agree more.
Excellent content - having lived in Oxfordshire for 50 plus years ❤
The moated area inside of the wood reminded me so much of Penhallam in North Cornwall which has been excavated and is now very visible and was a fortified manor house. Good images on Google Lovely filming and excellent research. Really enjoyed it as always.
If you read some of Maurice Beresford's books ("The Lost Villages of England", for example) he confirms that the plague isn't the primary cause of desertion of villages in medieval times - it was landowners and pasturage primarily. It was cheaper to have a lot of sheep and employ one shepherd than to employ a large number of villein landworkers, particularly when wool was more profitable than crops.
Tilgarsley is an interesting one, as it is one of the few villages that was wiped out entirely by the plague (Tusmore, which you mention, is another). Many historians have debated where Tilgarsley lies, but it hasn't been definitively tracked down, as far as I'm aware.
I grew up near Caus Castle, which is a great example of a lost settlement on the English-Welsh border in Shropshire. Would be a good place for one of your videos actually- could walk along Offa's Dyke before moving around Long Mountain into Caus. There are some other interesting landmarks nearby like an old drover's mark (Bromlow callow).
It began as a Norman motte and bailey in the dangerous Welsh marches, midway between Shrewsbury and Montgomery. The settlement was a full town by the mid medieval period, with a market charter, status as a borough, and several hundred people living within the walls. The original wooden defenses had been fully upgraded to stone, so this was a substantial investment.
By the English Civil War, Caus was a ruin with a single family living within the walls. It was held by a token Royalist garrison, but apparently had been neglected for decades by the lords of the manor. It is probably this neglect that killed the community.
The castle was "made safe" following the war, and today little of the stonework remains. The earthworks are fairly well preserved and you can walk through the copse on the hill today. A single farm is present on the edge of the site.
Many of the local buildings were constructed with stone pilfered from the ruined castle in the years following the civil war, including the house I grew up in (built around 1650). There are a few pieces of well-cut stone in the oldest section which were clearly nabbed from a different building!
There’s also Hampton Gay, just north of Kidlington. Derelict Manor House and a nice little chapel you can go in.
Those ancient churches and chapels are a delight! They remind me of M.R. James stories like "The Uncommon Prayer-Book" and "A Neighbour's Landmark". Good to see Rebecca again, however briefly.
I'm relieved ..... Rebecca has found the come out of the bush sign at last!!
I guess there are no remains of the villages because they weren't built of stone?
Well worth a visit to St Huberts at Idsworth, its known as the church in the field. It has similar style paintings on the walls too ..... and no village nearby!!
Great video, well done!!
Thanks Paul & Rebecca.
Regards sent from Western Scotland.
there are a couple more between Old Chalford and Lidstone
Yep, I had feared I may have missed half a dozen
Thank you, love the changing/unchanging landscape stories. I also love the fact that all over the UK you can walk into isolated buildings and find images from several hundred years ago, cared for but not needing any protection.
Yay! Rebecca’s back.
She never left
Another interesting video today. A real walk “back in time”. Appreciate your time and labour in these videos. Glad to see you both today. Cheers mates!! ❤❤😊😊
Enjoyed that, Thanks1 I also enjoy Jack Hargreaves and he did a similar description of the loss of local villages. As happened in Scotland with the clearing of the Highlands, the same happened earlier in England with the Black Death which led to a severe loss of labour and the demand for wool and textiles caused the land owners to drive off or relocate whole villages to make sheep farming more profitable.
A really fascinating subject Paul, which must have taken up a lot of research, walking, and travelling time. Well done. Nice unexpected appearance by Rebecca at the end, whose shadowy presence I notice slips through the frame at 1:39!
hello again Paul and Rebecca, i love the history and mystery of these old settlements , great video , really well done and thank you both 😊😍
Our pleasure!
And as if by magic...there was the actual video! HOORAY, really interesting and makes you think about all those places still to be discovered. Thank you, as ever.
As you mentioned the Black Death I really think you should visit "The Village of the Damned " Eyam in Derbyshire.
You will have just missed "The Burning of the Rats" on bonfire night or there abouts.
Great stuff, Paul. There’s two main reasons why villages became abandoned in lowland Britain in the Middle Ages and later - plague and pestilence (that’s one 😜) and landowners (often because the villages spoiled their view!)
The Black Death should not just be taken as 1348; waves of it continued for the next 150 years.
I get the impression that COVID is going to come back in successive waves for a good many years yet as well.
Albury in Surrey (not to be confused with the one in Oxfordshire) is a great example of the latter. The whole village was moved with the exception of the church and a new village established with a new church a a few miles west.
@@stuartbridger5177 not far from me and a great example - I need to explore there
@@mothmagic1 Yes but the IFR is only 10x of seasonal flu (which is a horrible infection in its own right). If we get something with an IFR of 50% (50x Covid) then things get wonderfully interesting.
@@stuartbridger5177we've just spent a lovely afternoon walk round Albury!
Thank you guys for the incredible work
Thanks for watching!
Fab video. It's great to know that there's so much to see and find in the English countryside. A lot of mystery and a lot to learn too. That church is a gem!
I see pictures of villages in Wales that don't exist anymore and often wonder why. This is fascinating to see so many in one area. Thanks both.
So much rich history in Wales and being more sparsely populated, there is so much left and not lost under housing/industry etc. May i recommend the Elan valley and the Cwmystwyth lead mines. Incredible place to drive and so many amazing things to stop off and see. Like travelling through the past.
@@invokalink162 Thanks. Been to the Elan Valley on many an occasion, a fascinating place with so much history . I will look up the lead mines.
Nice one. Obviously you couldn't have covered every abandoned village in big county like Oxfordshire. We have walked through Nether Chalford near Chipping Norton. Shifford near us also has an isolated church. Despite working in Eynsham for a number of years, I have only recently heard of Tilgarsley.
There is Tilgarsley Road up by the traffic lights, near The Evenlode
@@eddielay2937 Yes, that was my only reference to the name, I didn't know its context until recently.
Wow, you pack a lot of excellent historical knowledge in your vlogs in such a short video. I love watching them as someone who is studying (as an amateur) archaeology and history. There is another deserted village that is on the Oxfordshire, Warwickshire boarder (not exactly sure which county it’s in but I think now it’s Warwickshire ). Wormleighton Deserted Medieval Village is viewable from the Oxford canal, that I have been navigating for 20 yrs, and the earthworks are interesting and very prominent on the landscape.
Thank you
Very interesting video again. I suppose the plague/black death or however they call it seems to be the biggest destroyer of villages thrughout Europe. Though the 30 year's war left a lot of abandoned villages in Germany too. I love those lonely churches in the countryside. I wish I could visit England one day and see this all for myself.
PS: she's alive! 🤣
Great stuff, Paul and Rebecca. A modern day Domesday Book.
Glad you enjoyed it
Where I was born and grew up there were stories about houses being on the site before our house was built. Digging the garden in the spring always brought up bits of broken plates and glass. In the rubbish pile at the far end of the garden was bits of brick and roof tiles. I have wondered for over fifty years what stood on that site before our brand new house was build in 1966.
I really enjoy these, I hated history at school but these videos whet my appetite for more.
Whilst the Black Death did destroy the economic viability of many places the shift to raising sheep for their fleeces did for many many more. And unlike the Scottish versions it all took place long before a large number of people were literate.
This is where my knowledge falls down because I assume there is must less work available for pastures?
@@pwhitewick between the famines of 1315 to 1317 and the arrival of the Black Death there was a gradual shift away from crop farming to sheep farming. This was coupled to another couple of trends: the increasing number of lords of the manors who were farming out their demesnes and the growth in the proportion of villagers who did no feudal services in the fields of the lord of the manor (ie a rise in the number of freemen and a fallin the number of villeins). After the Black Death this meant that there were fewer people who had to harvest the lord of the manor's crops for free making it more expensive to run the manor even taking the labour controls imposed in 1351. Sheep, on the other hand need less labour to rear than crops and the absentee lords of the manor preferred the money without the bother of the feudal obligations so got rid of their villains for sheep.
@@pwhitewick I've been looking into the sheep issue. In 1194 there were about 6 million sheep from which 50 000 sacks of wool were collected, mainly for export. By 1315 there were about 10 million sheep. During the reign of Edward I London alone exported 14,500 sacks of wool a year. Most if this wool went to Flanders.
In 1390 an Italian merchant, Francisco Balducci Pegolotti listed 185 monasteries of which 66 were held by the Cistercians. Fountains Abbey produced the most wool with74 sacks, but their abbey at Tintern and Dore got £18 13s and 4d for each sack of wool. England's nobles were not slow to copy the monasteries in switching to sheep farming. The Duchy of Lancaster had 2 sheep ranges in Yorkshire, managed from Pontefract and Pickering, and other in the Derbyshire Peak District.
After the Black Death the cost of labour was much higher than before (think of today's inflation after Covid as an equivalent) and the lords of manors across the country switched from keeping peasants to keeping sheep.
That was a really interesting story especially the moat.
Akeman Street also goes through Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire @ 6:28 (Now the A41!!!) - Thanks for sharing Paul 🙂🚂🚂🚂
Fascinating video, thanks for that.The abandoned chapels are particularly fascinating!
There are plenty of remains of medieval villages here in Lincolnshire. It is said that whilst the black death reduce the population it was the movement of the population away from these villages to work for larger land owners who needed them close at hand to work for them.
Beautiful video. Again. Thank you.
Thank you
Near Tusmore & Astwick (to the NE) you have a farm called Wilisden (woolisden) & there is another village there (just north of 'eath - use drops ure h's in N'or Oxfordshire).
I can't remember if it was the enclosure act or death of the wool trade that closed it.
A touch further to the N you have Shelswell, and a village was cleared to gentrify the landscape for the big 'ouse. The estate farm house has the remains of a moat around it.
Of course Fringford, Heath & Tusmore is Flora Thompson country, with Lark Rise to Candleford
By Bicester you've got Wretwick which was a plague village & Alchester a Roman Town - Bi-Cester apparently two camps??
At one stage the area was the border with the Danelaw
We used to explore Shelswell park's abandoned manor when we were kids in the early eighties before they demolished it.
Talk about the romans..I like it when they wear toga..describes eliteness and luxury..anyway always interesting journey, thank you for sharing 😃
Thanks again!
Very interesting thanks 😊
I find your videos amazingly interesting. Thank you both for your good work and historical information.
Our pleasure! We appreciate the watch.
Loved it, great video
There's also Wretchwick and Alchester on the edge of Bicester. 😊 But thanks, I really enjoyed the video!
Yep. Every time I make these, I then find a handful more!
Excellent work. Again. Thank You Both.
Great video, really interesting. Thanks.
Excellent very interesting thank you.
90K+ subscribers! well done you two 😀
Expertly presented as always
Fantastic video Paul and Rebecca, really enjoyed watching and very interesting.
Another Fine Production Paul & Rebecca
That was really good very interesting , thank you for putting in the time and effort!
Love your work, really interesting, I should look at OS maps of my area.
Brilliant video the Church look nice as well.
The lost villages of Dorset (there are dozens) were because previously wooded areas were cleared and were more suitable for farming than the chalk uplands where the villages had been.
Ah yes, have you been watching Jack H?
Another very interesting tale. Great explore and info. Thank you. Scenery amazing.
Fascinating video. Thank you both for offering such interesting insights into the history of abandoned settlements.
Good to see Rebecca again ! I would like to see Time Team do their thing there !
Cheers From California 😊
Fascinating. Especially since I grew up in Witney and I had no idea of these places until I saw this. Well done. (PS. Always enjoy seeing Rebecca in front of the camera too)
There are two more abandoned settlements south of Ilmer near Thame. I camped there this summer. (Coldharbor and Lockington)
Again another great video exploring our history, in a way I hadn’t thought about. Thanks for scratching an itch I never knew I had!!
Absolutely fascinating - I'm so glad I've found your interesting channel, so well presented.
Welcome aboard!
Greetings from Western Canada. I really enjoy your views. Thank you for doing them.
Another fascinating video. Thank you so much for the work you both put into making these.
Our pleasure!
This looks like an opportunity for Time Team to explore and they've only got 3 days!
AGHHH! You released the video at the same time as the Grand Prix started! How on earth can I watch both at once? ;-)
.....and work!? ;-)
Ah yes, that. Oops. Great film by the way!@@pwhitewick
do so love this channel
One more comment! You were so close to the abandoned rail line that joined up at Kings Sutton! (See my comments in Geoff's Least Used Kings Sutton video?) Worth checking out!
That was really fantastic. What history. Very sad about the chapel it is beautiful. Thanks for taking me along. Please take care
As an America, this still fascinates me how old Britain is. Almost feels like a lost history for me.....
When I was a kid in 1968 we had a party at school to celebrate our village being 1000 years old and that was just our recorded history. When you grow up in the UK you are surrounded by ancient churches and castles, centuries of history both remembered and forgotten. I grew up loving that deep connection to my country and hugely appreciate the work Paul and Rebecca do to bring the past alive for the TH-cam generation, of all ages!
@bobroberts6155 it's similar in the USA but all of the ancient villages and such are Native American. I don't need to explain why there's only a handful of those left.....
What a brilliant video. Would make a great new Timeteam dig
Technically speaking the sign at Bowles Farm is kinda correct. Yes, a bridleway runs to the left and right from that point and a path bisects the field to the east (running roughly NE), but straight ahead towards the large white barn (ie the other side of the sign) is not a public right of way. The fence around the field should be moved or have access gates, as it's blocking the bridleway, but the sign, though vague, is arguably correct.
I love this.
The last village, Astwick, certainly shows up well on the LiDAR data, as does the moat!.
Nice to learn more about the county i've lived all my life except for my time in the army
Great vid guys. The conclusion was beautifully written. Bravo for your continued efforts regarding both recording and presenting such important history.
PS - Those painting are incredible eh? Coombe Church on the south coast (now tucked in a corner of a farmstead, but the rest of the medieval village presumably long gone) has similar imagery on the walls. Worth a visit if you're ever near Chichester/Brighton.
Oh, and have you ever thought of moving over the boarder into Wales for more content? So much rich history and so much to see and discover. May i recommend the Elan valley and the Cwmystwyth lead mines. Incredible place to drive and so many amazing things to stop off and see. Like travelling through the past.
These videos make me jealous in numerous ways. For one, it's so cool that y'all can just wander across people's feilds and farms without worry. I know its because you don't have much public land and that landowners are still assholes about it sometimes, but it's still really cool. I'm also jealous that you can just personally investigate your history like that. We don't have anywhere near as much to see here, and the history that goes back more than a couple hundred years is... Uncomfortably complicated
What an amazing video paul, that church in middle of knowhere, gladly not vandilised either 👍
Excellent stuff, so many places like this around the country. Proper psychogeographical research.
Great. Thanks a lot. There are so many moated sites in central England and I find them very evocative. Wheatfield church is interesting, having arched windows and a Venetian window at its West end ... 17th century?
Really love your videos Paul (& Rebecca). Are you able to "cross reference" your work and that of Time Team? I would think you are highlighting several potential sites that a "dig" would add to the pool of archaeological data? Paul, Johannesburg
I wonder if the villages abandoned due to the plague, were just left empty as residents died, if they were deliberately "evacuated" with things left more or less intact, or if they were deliberately burned down / demolished. I guess whatever the combination of events, they were clearly not seen as nice places to live again.
GREAT have you ever considered putting out a book of your travels. The painted walls was good but you didn't really show them long enough so I could appreciate them.. Many thanks
Again very interesting. And nice to see Rebecca there at the end :)
Thank you.
Very interesting. I grew up in a village called Long Itchington (Warwickshire) the original location of the village was a mile or two further down the river Itchen than its present day location. Its abandonment was also caused by the black death.
Even though the small church was sealed up if you ask permission, you can actually arrange for christenings and other services to be conducted. Apparently, of course the site does not have any water or electricity, and apparently repairs are being done to improve the condition of the building.
I am fiddling Swinging on a Gate on my violin.
Was beginning to think Rebecca had gone the same way as Vicki Pipe....
As soon as this video started I thought of the black death, A bit out of your jurisdiction and like you at your age tried and still do with Google find things out, But some years ago my favourite park museum had a refit and it was revealed it was a priory a bit obvious it being Priory Park originally home of the Cluniac order, We have Cluny Square a children's playground and jokingly mentioned building on it, Apparently it was a mass burial site for the Black death which is spore and can lay dormant for centuries and can easily kill to day's local population
nice one
Thanks
`bout time you got a drone, Paul.
Haha.... Thanks, I mean I have had one for 6 years. LOL
Nice GIS/LIDAR work
Thanks
Oxfordshire where i use to live
Interesting how many of these are nearby ‘fords’ over the river Isis as with oxen-ford. I wonder if the Black Death meant people and buildings clustered around fewer fords/ crossings with more importance
As an American it’s absolutely wild to me that there is just a building in the middle of a giant field, completely abandoned, with a 700 year old painting in it. Just there. Ignored. For anyone to walk up and see or touch or vandalize or anything
I do know of an abandoned village near me, but it is much more recent. The last residents moving out in the ‘40s. The village had died when the local pit had closed in the ‘30s. Due to later opencast mining, there’s nothing really to see other than a single building and the war memorial.
Yet another quite enjoyable video.
Just wondering about the sign DANGER DEEP TURNING. What is a deep turning?
I also wonder if wars or even skirmishes caused so many deaths that the rest of the villagers abandoned their homes to move elsewhere that was hopefully safer?
Or perhaps it was a fairly sudden change in climate/weather that caused crops to fail and then t he abandonment of the villages?