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THREAD. Maurice Beresford’s 1954 study of #deserted #medieval villages was a game-changer. He showed that few #villages were lost as a result of the Black Death of 1348-50. Most were lost c1450-1540. Some disappeared because they were too small to be viable ... 
2. ..others were forcibly deserted by landowners making the profitable shift from arable farming (corn prices falling as fewer mouths to feed) to more profitable & much less labour-intensive wool production by converting open fields to pasture; eg Stretton Baskerville, Warwicks
3. The distribution of deserted medieval villages (map of 2002 of those known in 1968) shows how closely their occurrence follows that of large-scale open fields which covered most of the area of a parish. (Both maps archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/arch…)
