List of Shropshire deserted villages and lost places

Shropshire in England is a county rich in abandoned, modified or lost settlements. This list of settlements includes deserted, lost or shrunken places in the county. They span the period from Neolithic times to 1952 when a landslip into the River Severn destroyed a large part of Jackfield, which was part of Broseley at the time. Included are Iron Age Hill Forts, Romano-British sites, Domesday Manors, Deserted Medieval Villages, Lost Settlements, Shrewsbury Medieval Suburbs and 19th century industrial settlements. They have provided homes for Shropshire people of their time, have changed in some significant way, and have left documentary and/or landscape clues to their history and, for most, their location. A brief outline of such factors is given for a large proportion of sites.

Contents

• Top List of Shropshire Castles
• The sites
• References

It is significant that a large proportion of Deserted Medieval Villages in the south of the county were at higher altitudes, many on the slopes of the Clee Hills. These are the highest points in Shropshire and it is likely that their medieval inhabitants were literally pushing the boundary of cultivation and occupation into ever more marginal territory. So, when the economic decline and successive crop failures of the 13th and 14th centuries occurred, these places fell into decline. Contemporary technology and farming methods did not permit their successful cultivation, so their people withdrew to sustainable locations, often lower down. As in other counties, though, considerable desertion was due to piece by piece consolidation of land into extensive tracts by single owners, often monastic, as seen for example, in the estate of Wenlock Priory which subsequently became the nucleus of the scattered Borough of Much Wenlock.

The entities identified as Former Domesday Manors in historical records might presently correspond to individual structures bearing the same name, though it is evident that some never extended beyond this scale. The designation 'lost' is applied when the current status is ambiguous; in certain instances, these sites are genuinely untraceable, with their exact locations unknown. Nevertheless, for a number of these Lost Settlements, it is possible to infer their general vicinity as contemporary landmarks and toponyms often hint at their original locations. In some of these cases the description 'lost' is used to identify original settlements whose location is known because of modern redevelopment of the area but where there is a lack of continuity in habitation. Where a site has no known name, the nearby significant place is given in brackets. Ordnance Survey grid references are given where possible. In a few cases this is for the approximate, rather than precise location.