The lost village of Onley is in the parish of Barby in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. The site is bordered on the north by the

M45 motorway The M45 is a motorway in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, England and is long. It runs between junction 17 of the M1 motorway south east of Rugby and a junction with the A45 road southwest of Rugby. It has one of the lowest traffic volumes ...

. On the east are Onley and

Rye Hill HM Prison Rye Hill is a Category B men's private prison, operated by G4S. Rye Hill has exclusively housed sex offenders since 2014. The prison is next to HMP Onley and Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre, south of Rugby, in the parish of Barby, ...

prisons, and on the south-west is the

A45 road A45 or A-45 may refer to: * A45 Infantry Support Tank, the chassis of which was developed into the Conqueror tank * A45 Records, a German record label notably producing the band Real McCoy * Article 45 Concern Group, a political party in Hong Kong * ...

. The

Oxford Canal The Oxford Canal is a narrowboat canal in central England linking the City of Oxford with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury (just north of Coventry and south of Bedworth) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Thame ...

and the disused trackbed of the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

run close to the eastern boundary.

History

Onley was presumed to be included under entries for Barby in

taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal person, legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regiona ...

records before 1272. The first known mention of Onley is in 1272, when it was recorded as being in the possession of George de Cantelupe along with the manor of Barby. The entry records that "

Virgate The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( la, virgāta was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal ...

s in

villein A villein, otherwise known as ''cottar'' or ''crofter'', is a serf tied to the land in the feudal system. Villeins had more rights and social status than those in slavery, but were under a number of legal restrictions which differentiated them ...

age are valued at 9 shilling per annum". Records in 1345 mention ‘Tenements in Onle’, which may imply that at that time the village was still viable. There is no further record of Onley until the early part of the 18th century, when the village was described as only a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of seven shepherds' houses, which implies that the site had become pasture land for sheep. Records of 1841 show that 19 people lived on the site of Onley in five scattered farms which still exist on the land.

Remains

The earthwork remains lie either side of a

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

that runs from south to west across the site with the north-eastern end of the stream now in a

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

. The whole area of the village site covers 28

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s with much of the earthworks well preserved. There is some difficulty in interpreting some of the earthworks due to the site being over

plough A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

ed in narrow

ridge and furrow Ridge and furrow is an archaeological pattern of ridges (Medieval Latin: ''sliones'') and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in Europe during the Middle Ages, typical of the open-field system. It is also known as rig (or rigg) and fu ...

which has smoothed and flattened some of the earthworks of the village. The features of this site combine to make Onley lost village one of the most important sites of this kind in the country, despite the lack of documentation.An Inventory of Archaeological Sites in North West Northamptonshire, Page 13, Statement of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments

References

{{reflist Former populated places in Northamptonshire