The deserted village of Wythmail is located 4.5 miles south of

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of ...

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 A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

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 village of

Orlingbury Orlingbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Northamptonshire. It is between the towns of Kettering and Wellingborough. Administratively it forms part of North Northamptonshire but was in the borough of Wellingborough until ...

is 1.1 miles to the east. Wythmail was part of the parish of Orlingbury.

History

In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, 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.''An Inventory of Archaeological Sites in Central Northamptonshire'' (1979) HMSO, page 118, Records of 1220 rate the village as having 12 ploughs and it was mentioned in the

Nomina Villarum ''Nomina Villarum'' was a survey carried out in 1316 and contains a list of all cities, boroughs and townships in England and the Lords of them. The document was compiled for King Edward II. The survey was a feudal aid, a payment which by traditi ...

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

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 Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing ai ...

of the site taken by the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

in 1947.

References

Deserted medieval villages in Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire {{Northamptonshire-geo-stub