The Black Death

Local myth suggests that the village of Bleesby was wiped out in the Black Death plague years between the 1400 and 1600's. It was a period when Lincolnshire slide from the most populous county in England to one of the least populous. Lincolnshire is strewn with ghost villages, the evidence tends to be grassy mounds in fallow fields. These places, however, are still owned. Land ownership is and was an important aspect of English life, and these ghost villages, while they may have disappeared from our memories have certainly not disappeared from the records.

Bleesbay is just one of many silent villages. It happens to lie close to where a friend lives, he took us to the field and I snapped away. The mounds in these photographs have changed hands a few times, since the village fell into disrepair, even turning up in Acts of Parliament (Sir Robert and William Dallison's estate: sale of lands in Bleesby for payment of debts. c.26.)

There is a suggestion that this site may be excavated by archeologists in the next few years to determine what the village might been like, but at the moment it is a simple field in the beautifull Lincolnshire countryside.

Sign detailing where we are and giving information on the site. We had walked along the road that runs in the top 3rd of the map, from left to right. Note the OS Grid ref on map : TF 132 848.

Gully that runs along north side of field.

Looks like a moat surrounding something, more likely just the motte marking a fallen Hall and the streets either side.

View south showing general unevenness of field.

For Gary A.