The UK’s ghost villages that vanished from the face of the earth for a horrid reason

The UK’s rural landscape bears many signs of . Many peoples have trodden its soil, which could tell many stories.

The was one of social upheaval, and there is a list of , once part of local landscapes across the country, that did not survive one particularly seismic event.

The Black Death arrived in England in 1348, and is thought to have killed between two and three million people in England.

At the time, this was between one third and half of the country’s population.

Symptoms included swellings on the body, buboes, and patients emitted a putrid stench.

Sufferers also coughed up blood.

Folk were told to kill their town’s cats and dogs to stop the spread or try out an array of supposed cures, such as potions of various ingredients.

The outbreak devastated communities, and some of them were so depopulated that they were eventually abandoned.

These are thought to include places like Hale in Northamptonshire, Nash in Shropshire, Dode in Kent, and Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire.

Althorp is another potential example.

The population of Canons Ashby deeply declined, and the Black Death may have hastened the decline of the medieval village of Church Charwelton.

Local legend tells that the village of Wolfhampcote was wiped out by the Black Death as people fled there from London. But there’s no evidence to support this. 

After the Black Death abated, the loss of a great many of the peasant population ensured that their services were more valuable. Land was also more plentiful.

Higher payments were demanded, and landowners’ profits were affected.

The ensuing socio-economic tensions contributed towards, to some extent, the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381. Wat Tyler led rebels against the monarch, King Richard II.

Also impacted were trading, commercial and financial networks in villages, towns and cities.