An abandoned village in the Yorkshire Wolds, once home to a thriving community, has been subject to decades of research, et it still baffles historians and archaeologists today
A UK ghost town which was inhabited 500 years ago is one of the best preserved in Britain and still baffles historians today.
Wharram Percy, in the Yorkshire Wolds, is one of Britain’s 3,000 deserted medieval villages and is one of the most famous. For more than 60 years, archaeologists and historians have pioneered new techniques in the town in an attempt to understand what life was like in the village, and why it was eventually abandoned.
The village sits on the the side of a remote but beautiful valley and was continuously inhabited for six centuries, before it was left for ruin soon after 1500. Today, visitors can investigate and trace out the outlines of many of the lost houses, or explore the substantial remains of the church and millpond.
The name of the village is believed to have come from the Percy family, who acquired the lordship of Wharram, around 1,086. The village’s South Manor, the foundation of the adjacent planned row of peasant houses, and improvements to the church are believed to represent the signs of the Percys’ growing ascendancy.
According to English Heritage, in 1254 Henry Chamberlain sold his remaining rights in Wharram to Peter Percy I, making Percy all-powerful within the village and it was most likely Peter Percy I who then demolished the South Manor and built the North Manor, together with two more rows of houses, increasing the number of properties to about 40. However, by the early 16th Century, the village was almost deserted, following years of gradual abandonment and forced evictions.
Exactly why everyone would end up leaving is not completely clear. Historians know that Baron William Hilton evicted families and destroyed their homes in the 1500s to make room for more sheep. The price of wool was rising, and Hilton converted the village’s arable land to pasture.
The combined forces of famine and the Black Death likely chipped away at the village’s population over the years. Its idyllic yet far flung setting in a remote valley in the Yorkshire Wolds likely made it a hard sell to those looking for a new place to live.
Since the 1950s, the village has been the subject of intensive research and several excavations. as historians attempt to figure out where everyone went. All research was collated and published in a book, in 2012. For those who wish to visit the remains of the village, there is an English Heritage car park located about three-quarters of a mile away. There is a £2 fee for the car park, which applies to non-members.
If you are wanted to extended you exploration of ghost towns, the riverside ruins of Kirkham Priory are only 25 minutes from Wharram Percy. With 900 years of history, the priory has seen many visitors including Winston Churchill, when the ruins were used by the military for testing equipment in preparation for the D-Day landings in 1944.
Kirkham also has a small shop, toilets, a picnic area and a car park located around 100 metres from the site. Ice cream is also sold in the summer, at the site.
