Part 2
The village of Grafton Flyford from
medieval times to the early 18th
century
Copyright British Library
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
Now compare your Doharty map to the
modern map and the aerial photograph.
Have things changed much since this
old map was made?
One of my great, great,
great, great, great,
great, great grandchildren
might have lived in
one of these farms.
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
Some arrows will point out the buildings
which are no longer there today.
Click Again for Arrows
Copyright Worcester Record Office
Did you notice all the missing buildings?
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.
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!
How many rooms did a peasant
cottage have?
Where was the toilet and bath?
What it would be like inside a
poor peasant’s cottage?
How would be different inside
the lord’s manor house?
Click to Show Trackways between House Plots
then Click for Questions
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?
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
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.
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.
If a team of archaeologists
excavated this site, what do
you think they would find
under the grass?
Click to see a simple timberframed and thatched house.
Some of these house platforms still had buildings on them at the time
when John Doharty made his map in about 1740.
Arrows will show the platforms with trackways in between.
Click for Arrows
then Click for Questions
What has happened to all the farm
houses, cottages and barns - where
have they all gone?
All the houses
were built of wood.
If they weren’t looked
after properly, they
would fall down.
Were all the village buildings
abandoned at once, or do you think
it would take many years for them
to slowly disappear?
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?
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
I knocked the miller’s
son into the moat - by
accident, of course.
Hee hee hee!
What sort of person would
have lived in a big house
surrounded with water like
this one?
Do you know what sort of
fish they ate in medieval
times?
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?
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
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
Who do you think would have lived in this
large house? And why is it still there when
the other cottages have all disappeared?
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
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
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
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.
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.
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