This is an extraordinary journey around the lost communities of Norfolk which you can enjoy from your armchair and then…take a look at some for yourself.

It is one of the best and most informative local history books to have appeared in recent times and we have much to thank author Cameron Self and aerial photographer John Fielding for.

The Lost Villages of Norfolk is fascinating, taking us across  of the county looking at where and how we lived in different times and the photographs are brilliant.

Norfolk has more than 250 lost, shrunken or shifted medieval villages, which is more than almost any other county in England with the possible exception of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

(Image: John Fielding)

As Cameron says: “To have lots of lost villages, you have to have had lots of actual villages in the first place and, prior to the 14th century, Norfolk was one of the most prosperous and densely populated parts of England.”

The population of Norfolk started to expand during the Anglo-Saxon period 410-1066 AD and continued apace during the two centuries after the Norman conquest.

The climate was warmer in those days and the county had an abundance of fertile land ideal for growing barley and rye. It also had a network of rivers  which provided transport links with Europe,

(Image: John Fielding)

Via the Glaven Ports (Blakeney, Cley, Wiveton and Salthouse), King’s Lynn and  via the Great Estuary at Great Yarmouth,

Norwich was at this time the second city in England after London and as the population of Norfolk grew so did the demand for new arable and pastureland, with new settlements springing up to keep pace with this demand.

We discover what happened as medieval Norfolk grew and then, the cycle of expansion came to a shuddering halt as the climate started to deteriorate.

Climate and soil issues were  only one of the problems facing the rural population of 14th century Norfolk. The Black Death, introduced by infected rats in Asia, entered Norfolk via the ports and spread across the county with devastating effect.

During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries  “emparkment” – the name given to the enclosing of land to create country parks or estates -  was another major cause of  lost villages across Norfolk.

(Image: John Fielding)

And what of Norfolk today? Another time of great change…and development.

“Many Norfolk villages are now simply commuter zones, populated by people who work in Norwich or King’s Lynn or Thetford or even London,” writes Cameron. “Many are no longer the close-knit communities that they once were and certainly not people where people need to work together to survive.

Religion is no longer the glue that holds the communities together and many villages are losing their schools, shops, pubs and bus services.

“Some also have a high concentration of second homes such as Thornham, Blakeney and the Burnhams. These places, although not lost villages, are certainly in danger of becoming hollow villages,” say Cameron.

*The Lost Villages of Norfolk is published by Waterland Books and is on sale at Book Hive (Norwich and Aylsham), City Books, Norwich, and at By the Book in Hunstanton. You can also get a copy on line  at waterlandbooks.co.uk

(Image: John Fielding)