So this week we are moving onto the start of the initial look at the deserted villages that appear on the Gazetteer in 1969. A small county, and now part of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. There are only 18 sites altogether….. this week has looked at:
- Boughton
- Caldecote
- Catworth, Little
- Colne
- Conington
- Coppingford
- Little Gidding
Boughton is a scheduled site, like a number of the sites this week and has visible earthwork remains. Vist the collection of aerial photographs in the Cambridge Aerial Photograph collection for detailed views of the earthworks.
Caldecote another scheduled site this time Historic England have a number of excellent photographs.
Little Catworth is recorded in Domesday but not again in tax records until the 16th century. Seems either to have always been hidden in the early tax record of other settlements or perhaps did not exists as a settlement until later.
Colne has been suggested to be a deserted settlement by the presence of an isolated church, but the present settlement includes 17th and 16th century structures – even after a devastating fire, suggesting it may have been an earlier centre of settlement. There are two moated sites known, one to the west of the church now destroyed, one to the east near the present village. These match the two manors known from the historical record.
Coppingford is one of a number of deserted settlements in the Cambridgeshire area that was surveyed and published in the Proceedings of the Cambridgeshire Antiquarian Society in the 1970s.
Little Gidding has a complex history. The medieval village appears to have been deserted by the end of the 16th century, however a second lease of life was given in the 17th century based at the Ferrar’s manor house when a short-lived religious community is established. This came to an end though by the end of the century, and the settlement remained deserted after this point.
Onwards with the next seven sites next week.
Beresford's Lost Villages Blog 