1. Part 2
The village of Grafton Flyford from medieval times to the early 18th century
Copyright British Library

2. great, great grandchildren
Let us look a bit closer at the beautifully coloured 18th century John Doharty map which is very accurate and well drawn. Can you see the church? - look for the large building with the tower and crosses. Can you see the farms, cottages and barns? Click for Questions
SLIDE No 14
LOOKS AT THE REASONS FOR DESERTION OF THIS VILLAGE.
THE IMPACT OF PLAGUES AND FAMINES WOULD HAVE AFFECTED THIS MANOR. MANY OF THE PEASANTS WOULD HAVE DIED OR MOVED TO MORE LUCRATIVE AREAS. PERHAPS THEY SOUGHT THEIR FORTUNE IN THE GROWING TOWNS. THE GRADUAL DECLINE WOULD HAVE GONE ON FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS. ALL
RE-CYCLABLE MATERIALS WOULD HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE SITE AND RE-USED.
Now compare your Doharty map to the modern map and the aerial photograph.
Have things changed much since this old map was made?
Write down the things you think have changed. For example,
are all the buildings still there?
Then write down the things which you think are still the same now as they were in the 18th century.
When you have finished Click Again
One of my great, great,
great, great, great,
great, great grandchildren
might have lived in
one of these farms.
Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
PROBABLE REASON FOR THE LAST FARMS TO BE DESERTED
BY THE 18TH CENTURY IN GRAFTON FLYFORD THERE ARE SEVERAL LARGER TENANT FARMS WITH OUT-BUILDINGS STILL IN THE VILLAGE AREA. THESE HAVE BEEN MADE BY AMALGAMATING SEVERAL SMALLER HOLDINGS. BUT BY THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY ALL BUT CHURCH FARM HAVE GONE.
IT IS LIKELY THAT THE CHIEF LANDOWNER, THE EARL OF COVENTRY, DECIDED TO GO INTO SHEEP FARMING IN A BIG WAY. HE WOULD HAVE EVICTED HIS TENANTS OR LET THEIR LEASES RUN OUT AND THEN DEMOLISHED THEIR FARMS. THEN TURNED ALL THE ARABLE FIELDS AND THE SITES OF THEIR FARM BUILDINGS INTO SHEEP PASTURES. MUCH COMMON PASTURE AND OPEN FIELDS WERE ENCLOSED AT THIS TIME WITH HEDGES. THIS LEFT NO COMMON GRAZING RIGHTS FOR THE ORDINARY PEASANT’S FEW ANIMALS. THIS OFTEN FORCED THEM TO LEAVE.
Some arrows will point out the buildings which are no longer there today.
Click Again for Arrows
Did you notice all the missing buildings?
Copyright Worcester Record Office
18. Have things changed much since this old map was made? Yes
Write down the things you think have changed. For example,
are all the buildings still there? Several farms, cottages and barns have gone. The road to the right of Church Farm is no longer there. Some ponds have gone.
Then write down the things which you think are still the same now as they were in the 18th century. The Church, Church Farm and the Schoolhouse. Some of the roads and one of the ponds.

3. Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
If you visit Grafton Flyford today, all you can see of the original village are lots of strange lumps and bumps in the grassy fields. This is where the peasants’ trackways, cottages and gardens used to be.
SLIDE No 15
IS ALL ABOUT MEDIEVAL HOUSING. IT MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR PUPILS TO LOOK AT THE CONSTRUCTION OF TIMBER-FRAMED HOUSES AT THIS POINT AND PERHAPS DRAW A PEASANT HOUSE AFTER ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOUSES OF THE PEASANTS AND THE LORD.
What materials were the peasant cottages made from?
What were roofs, walls and the floors like. Was there a hearth for a fire and did they have chimneys?
I built my own
house with the help of
my neighbours and I was
very proud of it!
Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
How many rooms did a peasant cottage have?
Where was the toilet and bath?
19. What materials were the peasant cottages made from? Mostly in Worcestershire the houses were timber-framed so - wood with wattle and daub panels. Wealthier houses might have stone foundations or a bit of a wall for the wood frame. The manor house might be built of stone.
What it would be like inside a poor peasant’s cottage?
20. What were roofs, walls and the floors like. Was there a hearth for a fire and did they have chimneys? The roof would be thatched with straw or reeds. The walls would be wattle and daub. Wattle panels were made from woven small hazel or willow branches or thin flat pieces of split wood called lathes. Daub was clay mixed with manure and straw and was used inside and outside. The wall would be whitewashed with lime to help preserve them and keep the wet out.
The floor would be beaten earth with reeds strewn on it. The wealthier peasants might have wooden planks on the floor. The lord would certainly have wooden flootr. The hearth was just an area with stones around it in the centre of the house or hall in a larger building. Chimneys were not generally common until the Tudor period..
How would be different inside the lord’s manor house?
Make a list of six things that we might have in our own houses today that ordinary medieval people did not have in their cottages?
Click to Show Trackways between House Plots
then Click for Questions
21. How many rooms did a peasant cottage have? Usually a poor peasant would have a one roomed cottage with a central hearth. Wealthy yeoman farmers would have a house of several bays. The Manor house would have a huge central hall with private rooms off to one side and buttery on the other. Manor kitchens might be separate buildings to avoid fires.
Where was the toilet and bath? At best the toilet would be a plank with a hole over a pit perhaps surrounded by wattle panels. There would be no bath. People would probably just wash in a wooden bucket or go to the stream or river.
23 and 24. The differences between peasant’s and lord’s houses could be discussed in class. A List can then be made.

4. Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
Here are some of the places where the village houses once stood. Archaeologists call them ‘house platforms’ - raised ground that the cottages and barns would have been built on. All you can see now are these grassy mounds with paths and trackways around them Click to Show Trackway Arrow then Click for Questions
SLIDE No 16
LOOKS AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS AND WHAT THE EVIDENCE CAN TELL US ABOUT THE MEDIEVAL VILLAGE OF GRAFTON FLYFORD. THE QUESTION REQUIRE THE PUPILS TO THINK MORE DEEPLY INTO HOW THESE LUMPS AND BUMPS ARE MADE AND WHY THEY ARE STILL OUT IN THE FIELDS.
How do you think the house plots and gardens ended up higher than the tracks and lanes around them?
Our cottage had a
ditch around it to
drain the rain away.
Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
Why do you think that these lumps and bumps have survived all this time - but the buildings have not? Think about what the buildings were made from.
25. How do you think the house plots and gardens ended up higher than the ground around them? The original house plot would probably have a ditch around it and the ground made up slightly. Over hundreds of years the debris from the house and garden would gradually build up in height. But mostly the trackways and paths have gradually eroded around the houses through use.
If a team of archaeologists excavated this site, what do you think they would find under the grass?
26. Why do you think that these lumps and bumps have survived all this time - but the buildings have not? The houses have all rotted away or anything that could be recycled such a wood timbers and stone have been removed. The platform the house once stood on as been preserved by pasture and will remain unless ploughed away.
Click to see a simple timber-framed and thatched house.
27. If a team of archaeologists excavated this site, what do you think they would find under the grass? They would find the drainage ditches around the plot or ‘toft’ as it is know. They might find stone foundations for the wooden house to sit on or the drip gulley from where the rain has run off the thatch. Inside the house they would find any stone placed on the floors or padstones under the big upright timbers and possibly the floor surfaces and where the hearth might have been and baked the earth. They might find some broken pottery or a few metal artefacts such as pieces from a cauldron, nails or bits of tools.

5. Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
Some of these house platforms still had buildings on them at the time when John Doharty made his map in about Arrows will show the platforms with trackways in between Click for Arrows then Click for Questions
SLIDE No 17
THIS SLIDE LOOKS AT THE REASONS FOR THE HOUSE PLATFORMS HAVING NO BUILDINGS LEFT ON THEM AND THE GRADUAL DESERTION OF THE VILLAGE OVER HUNDREDS OF YEARS.
THE SLIDE MAKES REFERENCE BACK TO THE DOHARTY MAP FOR PUPILS TO STUDY AND MAKE COMPARISONS
What has happened to all the farm houses, cottages and barns - where have they all gone?
Were all the village buildings abandoned at once, or do you think it would take many years for them to slowly disappear?
All the houses
were built of wood.
If they weren’t looked
after properly, they
would fall down.
Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
28. What has happened to all the farm houses, cottages and barns - where have they all gone? They have all been abandoned and either rotted away or were deliberately pulled down and destroyed.
Write down or discuss in class, all the possible different reasons why there are no people or houses left in the village of Grafton Flyford.
Did they just leave? Were they evicted? Did their crops fail. Did they die? If they died, what sort of things could they have died from?
29. Were all the village buildings abandoned at once or did it take many years for them to slowly disappear? This would take hundreds of years and there were many reasons. It was a gradual decline, it certainly did not disappear over night. Below are few of the reasons.
30. Describe all the possible different reasons why there are no people or houses left in the village of Grafton Flyford. Did they just leave? Were they evicted? Did their crops fail. Did they die? If they died, what sort of things could they have died from? In the 14th century there were several plagues including the notorious Black Death when a third of the population of England died. Both in the medieval and the post-medieval period some very bad weather meant harvests were poor. This led to shortages of cereal crops, so wheat prices were exhorbitant and people starved. All these disasters would take their toll on the population.
By Tudor times sheep farming was beginning to have an impact and some people moved away because there were no jobs for agricultural labourers, some moved by choice and went to the towns or some were forcibly evicted. Often in the post-medieval period small peasant tenants and agricultural labourers were evicted after the harvests and were cruelly thrown out of their homes just before winter set in. They had nowhere to go and no means of survival. This caused a huge social problem as these people by necessity had to become wandering beggars or outlaws.
The final death knell for the village would have been the enclosure of fields and commons, which removed the peasants grazing rights. Then the larger landowners turned practically the whole parish over to sheep-runs in the late 18th century. The remaining tenant farmers would have been forced out or just evicted and often at the worse time of year after the harvest and into winter.

6. Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
This photograph shows the remains of a moated site - a house on an island surrounded by a big ditch full of water. It was an important house and would make a big impression on visitors. The moat helped to get rid of waste from the house by washing it away and out into the fish ponds. These ponds also supplied the owners with easy-to-catch fresh fish for their dinners! Click for Questions
SLIDE No 18
THIS SLIDE INTRODUCES DISCUSSION OF WEALTHIER LANDOWNERS LIVING IN A LARGE HOUSE ONA MOATED SITE IN THE VILLAGE.
THE MOAT WOULD FORM PART OF A STRING OF FISHPONDS WHICH WERE FARMED LIKE MODERN TROUT FARMS, AS A VALUABLE FOOD SOURCE - ALTHOUGH TROUT WERE NOT FOUND IN MEDIEVAL FISHPONDS. TENCH, BREAM, PERCH, ROACH AND PIKE BEING THE MOST COMMON SPECIES.
What sort of person would have lived in a big house surrounded with water like this one?
I knocked the miller’s
son into the moat - by
accident, of course.
Hee hee hee!
Do you know what sort of fish they ate in medieval times?
Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
31. What sort of person would have lived in a big house like this?
A wealthy person probably this was the earlier original house of the lord of the manor or one of his relatives. Manor houses are very common in Worcestershire particularly in the north of the county. The moats are often made just to show off and are a status symbol rather than having any practical reason. They were many different shapes and often were just L-shaped which showed to the front and side, the view that a visitor would see. Causeways or drawbridges provided access.
How do you think they caught their fish?
People were supposed to eat only vegetables and fish and no meat on a certain day of the week. Do you know which day that was?
Do you know what sort of fish they ate in medieval time?
Eels were very popular food. Also in Domesday the supply of a ‘stick of eels’ was often
part of a person’s rent requirement.
Other common fish species were: Tench, Bream, Perch, Roaches, Pike and pickerels (baby
pikes). Carp were introduced in the 16th century and later became very popular.
33. How do you think they caught their fish?
They made wicker fish traps and fishing nets and used them both on fishponds and rivers.
34. What days of the week were people supposed to only eat fish and vegetables and no meat? Wednesdays and Fridays - particularly Fridays - a tradition carried on well into the 20th century and still kept to by some church schools.

7. Here is a picture showing what a moated site might have looked like in the 14th century.
Imaginative illustration of a typical Worcestershire medieval moated site – Copyright Deborah Overton

8. Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
You can just make out a large timber-framed building behind the church. This is Church Farm and was probably the place where the medieval manor house once stood. The house we can see today is mostly 17th century but parts of it might be much older Click for Questions
SLIDE No 20
THIS SLIDE CONTINUES THE THEME ABOUT THE LORD OF THE MANOR WHERE HE LIVED AND THE PRIVATE CHAPEL HE PROBABLY HAD AT THE BACK OF HIS MANOR HOUSE, NOW KNOWN AS CHURCH FARM. THIS IS NEAR TO THE CHURCH AND THE LORD WOULD STILL HAVE USED THE PARISH CHURCH.
Who do you think would have lived in this large house? And why is it still there when the other cottages have all disappeared?
Questions/Answers and Useful Notes
35. Who do you think would have lived in this large house?
The lord of the manor probably lived here as it is nearest to the church and the most important site - high on the hill in a prestigious position. Although the house probably had a private chapel, the parish church would have been important to the lord and his family.
Why is it still there when the other farms and cottages have all disappeared?
The reason this house has survived and the others have disappeared is because it was originally built of better and larger timbers and was therefore more likely to survive the years. Because the owners were wealthy, they would have kept it in good repair and over the years the owners have extended and built onto the original house. This house would have been the first to have a chimney and also may have had a tiled roof very early on.
Look closely at your Doharty map. There might have been a private chapel at the farm as well as the church nearby.
What symbol can you see on another building which might mean the building is a chapel?
Click again to see Arrow
36. What symbol can you see on another building, which might mean the building is a chapel?
A large black cross.

9. small piece of land in the
This is an imaginative sketch of what the village of Grafton Flyford might have looked like when lots of people were living and working there in the early 14th century. If you have a copy of this ask your teacher if you can colour it in and put on some labels. See the next slide for ideas for labels.
Our cottage was on the
small piece of land in the
middle of the bottom
row. It was my job to
feed the chickens
and collect the eggs.
Copyright Deborah Overton

10. Here is a coloured picture of the village and some examples of labels to give you some ideas: the church, church farm, cottage, barn, chicken coop, ponds, arable field, pasture field or orchard.
Imaginative illustration of Grafton Flyford during the 14th Century - Copyright Deborah Overton

11. Our photographic tour around the deserted village Grafton Flyford is now complete. As the sun goes down we can watch the long shadows appear on the abandoned house platforms, trackways and fields. Perhaps you have learnt a little bit more about the people who lived and worked there for over a thousand years, and understand what happened to their village to make it disappear.
Hope you enjoyed
your visit to our
village. If you like, you
could go and visit
the church now too.
SLIDE No 23
THERE ARE TWO SUGGESTED EXTENTIONS AS AN OPTIONAL FOLLOW UP FOR THE DESERTED VILLAGE
SEE NEXT SLIDE FOR DETAILS OF ACTIVITY EXTENSIONS.

12. Extensions for use with the Grafton Flyford Deserted Village Educational Presentation
The Deserted Medieval Village Use the picture of what the village might have looked like in the medieval times, colour it in and label up the church, farms, cottages, barns, ponds, trackways and ridge and furrow fields.
Compare and Contrast Use the Worksheet chart to compare and contrast the life of the son or daughter of a medieval peasant and lord of the manor with the life modern day young person.
Think about - Food, Houses, Clothing, School, Work and Play - decide what is the same and what is different.

13. The End of Part 2 Grafton Flyford Educational Presentation was produced by Worcestershire County Council Historic Environment and Archaeology Service
Farewell.
Please visit our
village again. But have
a look at the church
before you go.
Copyright Worcester Record Office