Wharram Percy Deserted Medieval Village
We had intended to visit this site on our first trip to North Yorkshire, but we never made it due to satnav issues and darkness, so it seemed like a good idea a few months later to make it a destination for the daytime and proper research. So we looked up the carpark and made it the first site to hit after the Egton churches on day 2 in NY.
This site fascinated us as any deserted village would, however it isn't quite as intact as the name leads you to believe. Almost all the buildings aside from a few recent farm buildings and the ruins of the church are nothing but earthworks now, but the site still dates back to the 10th century.
We, incorrectly, assumed that the plague was to blame for the village being abandoned but it turns out that this was not the case. Don't get us wrong, the Plague along with various raids played their part in reducing the village population, but it wasn't the reason for its demise. In reality the Percy's exchanged the land in the area with the Hylton family who wanted it to raise sheep as this was more profitable than crops during the 15th century. Because of more and more of the land being dedicated to sheep and the decrease in agriculture labour employment by the family, by the 16th century there were hardly anyone left, and those who were got evicted by the Hylton's and their homes demolished to make way for sheep. Rumour has it that one particular resident refused to leave without a fight and remained in the house when it was demolished!
You may wonder why the church remained when there was no one left in the parish. Well it was an ancient parish that had accumulated quite a few other parishes. Not only did Wharram worship here, but St Martin's was responsible for Burdale, Raisthorpe, Thixendale, and Towthorpe, so the church had to be left standing even if it was the last building left among the sheep.
In 1866 the parishes all became separate, but Wharram Percy wasn't absorbed by Raisthorpe, Burdale, and Wharram le Street to form a new parish known simply as Wharram until 1935. We assume this is when use of the church ceased and it was left to ruin, as it became of archaeological significance in the 1950s, despite Wharram and Thixendale transferring parishes to the new country of North Yorkshire in 1974.
The church was changed on six separate occasions in order to meet the changes within the parish and the need for the church between the 12th and 17th centuries. When the tower collapsed in 1959 and archaeologists investigated, they found that within the church there was evidence of a smaller 11th century stone church, and further back still a 10th century timber building.
The Domesday Book of 1086 has the village down as Warran or Warron instead of the more recent spelling of Wharram. It's speculated that the name either means cauldron if you translate it from Old English, or if you go down the Norse avenue it becomes bend. The Percy obviously came into play due to the family that owned it before the Hylton's.
It is a little bit of a walk to the site, and there are hills involved, so we wouldn't recommend it if you have mobility issues. But it makes for a nice dog walk just be aware that you are miles from any loo so like Ren, you will need to hold it in until you return to the car to make it to the nearest services.
Having been dubbed 'the Yorkshire ghost village', despite no one dying untoward here (just the usual TB and poor diet according to excavations within St Martin's churchyard), you'd be silly to think that this place isn't haunted. In the 1960's archaeologists uncovered a pit full of over 100 sets of human remains, but it wasn't within the churchyard.
This was unusual, as during medieval times being buried within hallowed ground was quite important, so having a pit with several bodies in, out of practice with their belief system, raises a few eyebrows. Because of this, it was assumed that these bodies pre-dated the medieval settlement but when the bones were carbon dated they found that they were from the same period as the villagers who lived there. So what happened for there to be a mass grave? It doesn't seem to be a plague pit and some have said that the bodies show evidence of a brutal death or even ritualistic ones supposedly to stop the dead from rising again. But in truth no one knows, there is no evidence to why these bodies are here, it isn't a plague pit either although that was our first thought. The fact that there are several bodies here for an unknown reason, plus exceeding the population of the village is a mystery and an unsettling one at that, so obviously this is where the ghost stories come in.
Those brave enough to ghost hunt here in the dark have noted voices being heard from within the church and a general uneasy feeling. There are shadows on the hills and behind the church walls that flit around, noises that don't belong to any physical being. Long story short, at what is probably a mile or so away from the car park, including being uphill and having several gates, you don't want to be rushing away from here as you'll never make it. We wouldn't be brave enough to visit after dark, especially not after our most recent ghost experiences, so we're quite glad we never got to the site the first time around, as even in the daylight it is a bit unsettling!
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