Lost villages of the UK

As promised in a previous blog post, here is the trial article I wrote for RuralHistoria. If you are interested in rural history, have a look around the website - there's loads of interesting stuff on there... starting with my article on fulling mills, obviously!

Anyway, here's my article on the lost villages of the UK:

Lost Villages of the UK

As you travel through the British countryside, you will inevitably spot the odd derelict house or perhaps a group of long-disused farm buildings. But did you know that there are over 3,000 deserted medieval villages (DMVs) across the UK?

The reasons why these villages were abandoned are many and varied, and offer an intriguing insight into the history of the British Isles.

Coastal erosion

Many of the lost villages on the British coast have unsurprisingly been lost to coastal erosion. One such village is Easton Bavents, Suffolk. Once a thriving village with its own market, it also had the distinction of being England’s most easterly village. However, the village was slowly lost to the sea, losing the church sometime in the 17^th century. The last remaining building in the village, a row of three terraced houses, was demolished in 2020.

Cliff Fall at Easton Bavents (c) Bob Jones

Requisitioned by Armed Forces

Several lost villages across the UK were requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence for military training during the Second World War. Some of these villages, such as Balsdean, Suffolk, were already largely uninhabited at the time they were taken over. However, many of these villages were still inhabited and residents had to be evicted. Often, residents left their homes willingly, believing they were doing their bit for the war effort and they were comforted by the thought they would return after the war. Sadly, this was not to be the case, and many of these areas, such as Imber, Wiltshire and Tyneham, Dorset are still under Ministry of Defence ownership even now.

Ruined Barns, Balsdean (c) Simon Carey

Switch from arable to pastoral farming

Perhaps the best-known abandoned village in the UK is Wharram Percy, Yorkshire. As one of the largest and best-preserved abandoned villages, it has been the focus of ongoing archaeological investigations since the 1950s. The village had provided homes for farm workers when the land was used by the Percy family for arable farming. However, the land was taken over by the Hylton family in the 1400s, and by this time, owing to changes in prices and wages, it was more profitable to make the change to pastoral farming. Over the next century, more and more land was given over to grazing pasture for the sheep, and fewer and fewer workers were needed. In the early 1500s, the final residents of the village were evicted to make way for more sheep pasture.

Ruin of Wharram Percy church (c) David Smith

Loss of Industry

Villages are often built to house workers near mines or work sites. Often these industries are not sustainable and eventually the work dries up and the workers leave. One example is Binnend, Fife, which was built near a shale oil extraction works in the 1870s. When the oil works closed in 1892, the population began to decline. Many houses in the village were used during the First World War, as housing for admiralty staff, homes for women widowed by the war and affordable housing for workers in the nearby aluminium works and shipyards. However, the population continued to decline in subsequent years and the village was formally closed in 1931, with the final residents leaving in the 1950s.

Flooded to create a reservoir

Several villages across the UK have been demolished or submerged by the creation of new reservoirs. A notable example is Derwent, Derbyshire which was flooded as part of the creation of the Ladybower Reservoir, and appears in the news periodically when dry conditions cause the water level to drop and expose the remains of the village, drawing huge crowds. Another example is Mardale Green, Lake District, which was submerged in the late 1930s when the level of Haweswater was raised to form Haweswater Reservoir.

The lost village of Mardale Green (c) Marathon

Enduring mysteries

As we’ve seen, archaeological and historical research can often elucidate the reasons why a village has been abandoned. However, there are numerous abandoned villages where no clear reason for their abandonment has ever been established. One example is Lancaut, on the border between Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire. In 1306 the village is recorded as having 10 households, in 1551 it was noted as having 19 adult inhabitants and by 1931 there was a recorded population of 10, but nowadays there is little left of the village except for a working farm. A lack of written records means little is known about why the village was abandoned.

Ruin of St James Church, Lancaut (c) Andy Dingley

Starting out on Upwork

I signed up to Upwork in October 2022. I hated creating my profile - I'm not very good at selling myself! My first job was writing copy for a website in Bulgaria selling greeting cards! I was happy doing that, but he soon asked me to come up with slogans for the cards, or even to suggest images for the cards, and that just wasn't my bag, so I stepped away from that one.

My profile photo - it's from 15+ years ago!

My next job was writing 25 1,000-word articles about freezers for the Freeze It website. When I applied for the job, I couldn't imagine what I would find to write that many words about on the topic of freezers, but I was assured the client would provide me with all the titles and I would just have to write the articles. I have now written 41 articles about freezers, so consider myself quite the expert! I've covered topics including How to defrost your freezer quickly, How to clean your freezer, and profiles on different manufacturers such as Miele and SMEG.

I initially agreed to 6 articles a week, and was able to keep up with that for the first month, but then told the client I would need to cut back as it meant I wasn't able to get any other writing done. I cut back to 4 articles a week, which was much more manageable. After the second month, the client asked me to start writing for one of their sister websites - Let's Foodie. I've only written a few for this site so far, including Why do deli sandwiches taste better? and Can you marinate broccoli?

I love working for this client as they give clear instructions, they give me the title for each article but then give me freedom on subheadings, and they communicate with me frequently. I also like the way their algorithms work so that my articles show up at the top of Google searches, as it really boosts my online presence. Plus they sort out all the formatting and add in subtitles and luscious photographs, so my articles look awesome! I also get full credit for my writing, and an author bio, which is a great way to boost my profile.

In November I also took on a client who specialises in creating online courses. I wrote a course on Traditional Chinese Medicine Reflexology. For this I had to write a 3,000-word module, 2 extended tasks and 10 multiple choice questions. This isn't available for free online, so I can't share it here. I had to do a lot of research for this one, as it was something I knew nothing about, and I really enjoyed getting to learn about something new.

Towards the end of November I was invited to write a trial article for a company promising ongoing work. I was given the topic "Do Jews Drink Milk", which I will share another time. I was successful and they added me to their pool of writers. I wrote two articles for them: How to cut thick toenails and 15 celebs who are expecting in 2023. I haven't seen the latter online yet, but if you click through to the former you will see that I didn't get author credit for this one. Furthermore, I soon discovered that not many articles came up that were topics I felt confident writing about or had any interest in learning more about, so I decided not to continue with this contract.

Through January I just focused on my work with Freeze It/Let's Foodie. Then in February, when I felt a bit more on top of my work load, I started looking for new contracts. Firstly I secured a contract supposedly writing about backyard birds. However, when writing my trial article I discovered that actually they were interested in birds generally, rather than wild birds of the UK, plus the copy was primarily for US audiences, and I am not confident writing in US English. So after writing this article about long-tailed birds, I stepped away from this client. Again, this was one where I didn't get author credit, but I wrote it, I promise!

Finally, and the contract I've been most excited about, in February I applied for a job with the headline "Pasionate writers wanted for a UK/rural countryside history website. This sounded like my dream job! For my test article I wrote about lost villages. This topic has since been taken up by another writer for the site, so I will share my original piece here at a later date. Since securing the contract I've not had chance to write much (my year 11s are nearing their GCSE exams and I've been focused on marking their work and giving them detailed feedback), but I have written this article on fulling mills. As you will see, this is another site that gives me full credit and an author bio, plus they format the article and add photos so the piece looks really professional. This is my favourite contract so far, as I love rural history, so getting the chance to immerse myself in researching and writing on this topic is a dream come true!