Are there any British settlements that have completely depopulated in modern history?

[PTR 444]

When thinking of abandoned settlements or ghost towns, one tends to think of either the numerous medieval settlements that people left for a better life, or places ordered to be evacuated due to military action such as Imber and Tyneham. With the trend towards people moving away from rural to urban life, are there any settlements that had a stable or thriving population 100 or so years ago, but went into managed decline since and now have a population of close to zero.

Realistically I doubt a settlement could ever reach zero inhabitants unless devastated by a major disaster, however in a hypotheical scenario if one did, would the settlement legally cease to exist in its own right?

 

[steamybrian]

Tide Mills between Newhaven and Seaford went from a thriving village to zero.
It even had its own station (Bishopstone) which closed in 1938 although it did reopen for a short period afterwards.

Tide Mills, East Sussex - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[SJL2020]

That village in Wiltshire where the population was moved out in WW2 for army training purposes and were never allowed to go back.

Oops. That's the Imber you mention. I totally forgot what the name was.

Does St Kilda count? Evacuated in the 1930s.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That village in Wiltshire where the population was moved out in WW2 for army training purposes and were never allowed to go back.

Imber. I suspect it isn't the only one - Top Gear recently filmed at one that I'm pretty sure wasn't Imber.

 

[hexagon789]

That village in Wiltshire where the population was moved out in WW2 for army training purposes and were never allowed to go back.

Which is Imber and which the OP mentioned in the opening post. I don't think that is the type of depopulation that OP is looking for.

I read it as naturally occurring depopulation - ie instead of the local inhabitants being forced to move out, the settlement naturally saw people move away and the population decline.

 

[SJL2020]

Which is Imber and which the OP mentioned in the opening post. I don't think that is the type of depopulation that OP is looking for.

I read it as naturally occurring depopulation - ie instead of the local inhabitants being forced to move out, the settlement naturally saw people move away and the population decline.

Yeah, I realised soon after I posted.

Does St Kilda meet the criteria? They asked rather than were forced to be evacuated as I recall.

 

[S&CLER]

There was a village of Heathrow, Middlesex, which was obliterated to make way for the airport. I recall reading an obituary in the Times of a woman who was one of the last people to be born there.

 

[bib]

Well it's slightly more niche, but there's a few islands that are now uninhabited, eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Stroma , had a population of 375 in 1901 and 12 by 1961, seems to have been abandoned in 1962 or so

 

[SJL2020]

Cwmorthin, west of Blaenau Ffestiniog, high up on the Moelwyns.

The last villagers left in 1948 according to this source.

The abandoned old Welsh village and mine nicknamed 'the slaughterhouse'

It has a tragic past

www.walesonline.co.uk

 

[GS250]

Wasn't St Kilda more to do with the fact the population dropped to too low a level due to those who had volunteered to leave?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Wasn't St Kilda more to do with the fact the population dropped to too low a level due to those who had volunteered to leave?

It was down to just 36 island folk when the last residents of St. Kilda were evacuated in August 1930. An ageing population, a bad winter in 1929-30, and the general remoteness of the island group essentially did for St. Kilda. Those who were left didn't think they could survive another bad winter and petitioned for resettlement.

 

[RT4038]

When thinking of abandoned settlements or ghost towns, one tends to think of either the numerous medieval settlements that people left for a better life, or places ordered to be evacuated due to military action such as Imber and Tyneham. With the trend towards people moving away from rural to urban life, are there any settlements that had a stable or thriving population 100 or so years ago, but went into managed decline since and now have a population of close to zero.

Realistically I doubt a settlement could ever reach zero inhabitants unless devastated by a major disaster, however in a hypotheical scenario if one did, would the settlement legally cease to exist in its own right?

In the 1960s Durham County Council surveyed all the pit villages/settlements in the County, in regards to sustainability, condition of housing stock etc. Some ('Schedule D' I think) were for moving everyone out, demolition and thereby 'eradicated'. These were small settlements (row or two of houses without inside toilets etc) How many and whether actually carried out I am unsure. Of course, this sort of settlement abandonment (mineral extraction no longer economic) is found all over the world.

 

[brad465]

Do villages cleared out to be submerged by a new reservoir count?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Do villages cleared out to be submerged by a new reservoir count?

I would say so. Places like Ashopton, in Derbyshire, which was demolished in the 1940s to make way for the Ladybower Reservoir. Had a population of almost 100.

 

[Strathclyder]

I would say so. Places like Ashopton, in Derbyshire, which was demolished in the 1940s to make way for the Ladybower Reservoir. Had a population of almost 100.

Unless it's a completely false memory and I'm conflating it with Ashopton, there was another village that was cleared out to be submerged by a new reservoir somewhere in Wales.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Unless it's a completely false memory and I'm conflating it with Ashopton, there was another village that was cleared out to be submerged by a new reservoir somewhere in Wales.

You might be thinking of the former Capel Celyn village (near Bala) in Gwynedd in North Wales. About 50 folk or thereabouts had to be moved in 1965 when the Llyn Celyn reservoir was built to supply water for Liverpool.

 

[Darandio]

My mother was born and brought up in a place called Page Bank, County Durham. There was a colliery, housing, school, chapel, cricket club etc etc. After the colliery closed in the 30's the community remained but in the 50's the council changed the status of funding and effectively cut any investment* yet they carried on. In the late 60's there was a major flood, everyone was evacuated and never returned.

Page Bank as a village is now completely gone although a kennel was opened there later on. Maybe a couple of farmhouses remain as well.

*In 1951 the council published a plan which "identified 114 places across the county which should be left to decline and disappear"

 

[Typhoon]

You might be thinking of the former Capel Celyn village (near Bala) in Gwynedd in North Wales. About 50 folk or thereabouts had to be moved in 1965 when the Llyn Celyn reservoir was built to supply water for Liverpool.

There is a lot about it at https://www.herald.wales/north-wale...flooded-to-supply-an-english-city-with-water/
There was something about it quite recently. Still seems to be a great deal of bitterness (understandably).

Edit: I've remembered - The Manics song 'Ready for Drowning' caused me to look into it.

 

[Strathclyder]

You might be thinking of the former Capel Celyn village (near Bala) in Gwynedd in North Wales. About 50 folk or thereabouts had to be moved in 1965 when the Llyn Celyn reservoir was built to supply water for Liverpool.

That's the one I was thinking of, just couldn't remember it's name for the life of me. Cheers.

There is a lot about it at https://www.herald.wales/north-wale...flooded-to-supply-an-english-city-with-water/
There was something about it quite recently. Still seems to be a great deal of bitterness (understandably).

I'm not surprised that it created more than a fair bit of ill will and would leave a bitter taste in the mouth for those who were unceremoniously booted out of their homes. No amount of finanical compensation (if any is forthcoming, let alone if it's sufficient to cover the costs of being uprooted) makes up for this for some people, and quite rightly too.

 

[androdas]

The category D villages in Durham. As mines closed Durham categorised all its settlements A, B C or D to decide how much investment a place was going to get. Those categorised as D were deemed to be unsustainable and were to have council support removed entirely and eventually be demolished. There is an interesting article by the Bennett Institute here https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/category-d-villages/ . There were many colliery villages that met the same fate in Northumberland but they didnt have as well developed a plan as Durham.

 

[Ediswan]

I'm not surprised that it created more than a fair bit of ill will and would leave a bitter taste in the mouth for those who were unceremoniously booted out of their homes. No amount of finanical compensation (if any is forthcoming, let alone if it's sufficient to cover the costs of being uprooted) makes up for this for some people, and quite rightly too.

It wasn't just those relocated who felt/feel offended. A big part of the problem is that, again, Welsh land was drowned for the benefit of the English.

 

[Typhoon]

I'm not surprised that it created more than a fair bit of ill will and would leave a bitter taste in the mouth for those who were unceremoniously booted out of their homes. No amount of finanical compensation (if any is forthcoming, let alone if it's sufficient to cover the costs of being uprooted) makes up for this for some people, and quite rightly too.

Not only were they booted out of their homes but the members of the community were not even relocated to the same place, so splitting it up. It seems like everything was done to treat them badly - the signs announcing the building of the dam were in English, the village was Welsh speaking, to the treatment of villagers who went to Liverpool to protest, hoping for support from the populous there, to not keeping promises about the treatment of graves and stones left behind in the village cemetery.

 

[Strathclyder]

It wasn't just those relocated who felt/feel offended. A big part of the problem is that, again, Welsh land was drowned for the benefit of the English.

Indeed, it'd be outright foolish of me to assert otherwise, especially given what @Typhoon detailed in the following reply. The way the villagers here were treated isn't just scandalous, it was/is flat-out disgusting. And given how it's another example of England shafting Wales for the former's own benefit, I'm not in the least bit surprised that resentment lingers to the degree it does.

 

[StKeverne1497]

Indeed, it'd be outright foolish of me to assert otherwise, especially given what @Typhoon detailed in the following reply. The way the villagers here were treated isn't just scandalous, it was/is flat-out disgusting. And given how it's another example of England shafting Wales for the former's own benefit, I'm not in the least bit surprised that resentment lingers to the degree it does.

One of the reasons this has become quite the rallying call for the Welsh Nationalists is that it wasn't just a community which was destroyed, it was specifically a Welsh-speaking community. Welsh had been actively suppressed since at least the 19th century, with its use for official purposes being outlawed and famously, children punished for being heard to use the language at school, even in to the 20th century.

Events such as the clearance of Capel Celyn were partly responsible for the rise of Welsh Nationalism and gave rise to the famous speech by Saunders Lewis, Tynged yr Iaith which is widely regarded as the starting point for a lot of direct action and the fact that Wales now has a parallel state-funded education system (mostly) which offers education entirely through the medium of the Welsh Language if desired. Even Margaret Thatcher gave in to the Nationalists, allowing the creation of the Welsh-language television station S4C which had its opening night the day before Channel 4 in the rest of the UK.

As we seem to be allowing forced clearances rather than simply settlements which have "petered out", other Welsh clearances include the community in the Epynt Mountiain to create the Sennybridge training camp, the removal of the village of Llanddwyn to create Llyn Vyrnwy and the clearance of the community in the Elan Valley for yet more reservoirs. It's not unusual to have to clear settlements for this sort of purpose, but the manner in which it is done can make a lot of difference and, of course, not all of them were done purely for the benefit of the Saeson!

(most links to Wikipedia, by the way; full disclosure, Cornish-Welsh heritage, educated in Welsh by some rather politically active teachers <ahem> years ago)

 

[roadierway77]

Lassodie, Fife, located east of Dunfermline. Once had a population of around 2,000 who relied on the coal mines, and when the coal began to disappear, so did the village. It was completely demolished by the early 1940s. Nothing remains of it today - the site was later used as an opencast mine which upon closure in around 2010 was partially redeveloped into an area of open space called St Ninian's. Lassodie no longer exists as a settlement, the population is 0, though the name is still shown on Google Maps.

 

[S&CLER]

Flooding a Welsh village to make way for Liverpool's reservoir is the theme of the film The Last Days of Dolwyn, based on a play by Emlyn Williams and shown on Talking Pictures not long ago. I remember it especially for a remarkably touching performance by Dame Edith Evans.

 

[Springs Branch]

Has anyone mentioned Mardale Green and Measand? Two villages in the Lake District flooded by construction of Haweswater Reservoir by Manchester Corporation during the 1930s.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Has anyone mentioned Mardale Green and Measand? Two villages in the Lake District flooded by construction of Haweswater Reservoir by Manchester Corporation during the 1930s.

The well-known outdoor writer Alfred Wainwright was for many years particularly aggrieved that Mardale Green was submerged under Haweswater, if I correctly recall.

Anyone know how many folk once lived at Mardale Green (and nearby Measand) and whether these were stable / thriving communities or more of a rural backwater?

 

[SargeNpton]

In the 1970s the village of Nether Hambleton (and most of Middle Hambleton) was demolished to make way for Rutland Water.

 

[Hassocks5489]

Lowfield Heath, West Sussex (formerly Surrey) was gradually depopulated as a result of the southward expansion of Gatwick Airport.