The deserted village of Wythmail is located 4.5 miles south of Kettering in the English county of Northamptonshire. The village of Orlingbury is 1.1 miles to the east. Wythmail was part of the parish of Orlingbury.

Wythmail
Lost settlement
The location of Wythmail
The location of Wythmail
Wythmail is located in Northamptonshire
Wythmail
Wythmail
Wythmail within Northamptonshire
Coordinates: 52°20′30″N 0°46′0″W / 52.34167°N 0.76667°W / 52.34167; -0.76667
CountryEngland
StateNorthamptonshire
RegionEast Midlands
DistrictNorth Northamptonshire
MunicipalityOrlingbury
Map Ref: SP842721

History edit

In the Domesday Book, it is recorded that there were 17 inhabitants in Wythmail and was assessed for 2½ hides; the village was also recorded as having a priest, however the manor was certainly included as part of Orlingbury.[1] Records of 1220 rate the village as having 12 ploughs and it was mentioned in the Nomina Villarum of 1316. A manorial chapel was referenced here in 1357. The village was assessed in conjunction with Orlingbury in the 1334 Subsidy Returns and in the 1377 Poll Tax. By 1614 the land here had become a park which existed until 1657. By 1720 only one house was left in the village.

What remains edit

Today there are no traces of the village to be seen, having been obliterated by modern farming methods. However traces of the earthwork outline of the village and its streets can be clearly seen on an aerial photograph of the site taken by the RAF in 1947.

References edit

  1. ^ An Inventory of Archaeological Sites in Central Northamptonshire (1979) HMSO, page 118, ISBN 0-11-700842-7