Abandoned Farms and Houses in Lambston Parish since the early 19th Century
We don’t know how many abandoned farms and farmsteads there have been over the centuries in Lambston. We do know that the Tithe Map in 1840 showed around 24 farms, cottages and houses on sites that are no longer in occupation. Names such as Gibralter, Lammack, Glebe, Little East Hook and East Hook Cottages, Upper and Lower Plash (More recently Ash Vale), Lambston Mill and Lambston Hill have faded from both the map of the parish and from local memory. But they were all once someone’s home and those people would perhaps have been amazed and appalled to find the centre of their world now vanished.
It seems odd that in a time of national population growth this number of houses should be lost in only 180 years. But in Lambston census data suggests that 1840 was a high point in the parish population. Even today the population has probably not reached the 1840 level.
It is worth thinking however that if, in 180 years a parish can lose 24 dwellings, how many other sites in the parish might have been occupied over the centuries? There is a tendency to think of a steady increase in population through time. However, for example in the 13th century, we know that the population of many parishes halved. May there be lots of old dwelling sites that are not known?
If you are a farmer and have ever ploughed up building remains in odd places – please let me know; we might find somewhere new!
Abandoned Farmsteads rather than farmland
The abandoned farms should perhaps be better described as abandoned farmsteads in that they have not been associated with any abandonment of land. In most cases the land has been taken over by neighbouring farms.
In the twentieth century there has been a further change in that working farmhouses have been changed into residential houses. Once again the neighbouring farms have expanded. This means that there are now no working farmsteads in Sutton, a village which owes its origin and history to farming. Both Westhill Fold Farm and Sutton Farm are occupied by non-farming residents. The farm buildings of Sutton Farm were demolished and built over for residential use in the 1980s and although the farm buildings of Westhill Fold are still in use by neighbouring farmers, the land is managed from elsewhere.
If you want to know the detail of individual abandoned sites in the parish you can find each of the sites on this map on this page which works around the whole parish from the north-west in a clockwise direction.
Farmsteads and sites abandoned since 1840