Monument record 395/0 - Wilkesley

Wilkesley appears in the Domesday book when it is recorded as being two manors at the Conquest, combined into one after. This has been taken to represent a deserted medieval village at Wilkesley for which no physical evidence is known. Medieval and later villages were abandoned by their inhabitants for many reasons. The effects of disease and poor harvests made rural living difficult, and whole communities are thought to have relocated to urban settlements. Once abandoned the villages quickly became derelict and were not inhabited again surviving only as earthworks, often visible only from aerial photographs. They can also be identified by documentary evidence or the presence of a church where there is no settlement.