Grafton Flyford
Deserted Village and Church
Educational Presentation
Produced by
Worcestershire Historic Environment
and Archaeology Service
GRAFTON FLYFORD
A Deserted Village
in
Worcestershire
Welcome to
our village.
We are going to make a photographic visit
to a real place in Worcestershire, to find
out about the deserted village of Grafton
Flyford and its landscape and church
This is a nice view
We will rediscover the lost village of Grafton
Flyford by looking at lots of
new and old maps, photographs and drawings.
Keep Clicking for Three More Images
I can see my
house from
here!
PART 1
Medieval Farming and Landscape at
Grafton Flyford
Copyright the British Library
To start, lets look at a
photograph taken from an
aeroplane.
This shows the village of Grafton
Flyford, as it looks today. All you
can see there now are the church,
an old farm with its outbuildings
and the old schoolhouse.
Click to see where the church is on the photograph
The medieval village, which was in
the pale coloured fields, has
completely disappeared!
There are some new houses and
other buildings to the left of the
church.
If you look very carefully you can
still see the ridge and furrow
strips out in the pasture and
corn fields.
You wouldn’t get me
up in one of
those things!
We will now look at an old map made by Mr John Doharty in about 1740.
It shows you what the village was like 300 years ago! You can see there
were just a few farms and buildings left in the village but the smaller
cottages have already disappeared! These farms were still surrounded by
big open fields divided into strips - just like it was in medieval times.
Click for Arrow to show Church ten Click for Questions
Why are the fields divided up like this? What
do you think the numbers are for?
Do you know how and why medieval people
shared out strips in the different fields?
We know that most of these fields were
arable from the time of the Domesday Book
in the 11th century until the late 18th
century, when they mostly became pasture.
My family has
a few strips in
every field and
we all have to help
with the weeding.
What do the words ‘Arable’ and ‘Pasture’
mean?
Why do you think that the fields were
changed from arable to pasture?
Who were the people who might have changed
it?
Copyright Worcester Record Office
Would these changes have made any
difference to the lives of the peasants and
poorer farmers?
This shows you the same John Doharty map in black and white with a
modern map in colour over the top, so you can see all the changes
which have taken place over 300 years.
Click to Show the Church on the Map
then Click for Questions
The red lines show the field boundaries and
roads.
Have the roads changed?
I must have used
the lane to the
church hundreds
of times!
Have the field boundaries changed?
The purple lines show the footpaths.
Why are there so many footpaths?
Who would have used them all?
The blue lines show streams and ponds and the
River Avon in the bottom corner.
Can you see any old ponds?
Can you see any new ponds?
How many are still the same?
The green lines show the outline of buildings
which are there today.
Are there any buildings on the old map which are
not on the modern map. ?
Are there any new buildings which are not on
the old map?
All around the medieval village are holloways, which are old tracks that
have worn very deep over hundreds of years of use.
Click for Next Picture
then Click for Questions
Where do you think all
these tracks were
going to?
Can you see any of the
old tracks on the
map?
Some of the lanes
get so muddy and
I hate walking in it!
What would these
tracks have looked
like in Medieval times?
Who or what would
use them?
Why are they so
deep?
Why are they covered
in grass now?
Are they still used?
What do you think will
happen to them in the
future?
In medieval times, the peasants used to grow their crops on long strips
which were shared out between all the villagers. This way of farming
meant that everyone had a share of the different crops and also the
good and bad land. This seems very fair but even then some people
were richer than others and had more land. If you look carefully you
can still see the strips out in the fields at Grafton Flyford.
Click for Next Image and Arrow
We all have strips
in different fields
but we all work
the land together.
Click again twice for two arrows
The long strips in the open fields are now called ‘ridge and furrow’. This
plan shows where all the ridge and furrow used to be around the village
of Grafton Flyford during the medieval times. Can you imagine the hard
work it would take to plough all these fields. The arrow will show you
where the medieval village used to be.
Click for Arrow
then Click for Questions
I am really good at
throwing stones
at crows!
What is the name of the large strong animal
that medieval peasants used to pull their
ploughs through the soil? Do you know how
many they harnessed to one plough when the
soil was very heavy clay?
What was the name for a group or block of
ridges and furrows that all went in the same
direction? Think about the word ‘furrow’.
When the crop seeds were being sown, what job
did the boys and girls from the village have to
do? Why was it so important?
Make a list of the sort of crops the medieval
peasants used to grown in their fields?
Plan by C J Bond, 1973
What do the words - ‘leaving the field fallow’ mean? And why did they do this to a field?
The End of Part 1
Grafton Flyford Educational Presentation
was produced by
Worcestershire County Council
Historic Environment and Archaeology
Service
Now you have seen the
land that we farm,
go on and explore
our village.
Copyright Worcester Record Office