Wharram Percy

Wharram Percy is a deserted mediaeval village located between Malton and Wetwang, North Yorkshire. It is the most famous and intensively studied of Britain's 3,000 or so deserted mediaeval villages.

Wharram Percy is recorded in the Domesday Book as Warran, but has been settled since pre-historic times. It was victim to the Black Death in 1348/9 but this was not the reason for the desertion of the village. This was down to the rise of sheep farming, for wool and meat, combined with the inability of cereal farming to make a profit which saw the end of the village in the 16th century. The villagers were made homeless as the Lord of the Manor knocked down their homes to provide extra pasture for the more profitable animals.

Professor Maurice Beresford of the University of Leeds rediscovered the village in 1948 and helped lead the excavation of the site. The village was researched every summer by combined teams of archaeologists, historians and even botanists, from 1950 to 1990.

The village is now in the care of English Heritage.