In an age when building developments seem to be advancing on every small plot of unspoiled countryside, it seems hard to imagine times when well-established settlements were declining and dying. Such times did exist, and thousands of villages have perished. Most of the settlements perished in the medieval period, when the dwellings were flimsy and prone to decay. Empty houses only stand at the relatively recently deserted settlements, like failed quarry villages. In several of the more evocative cases, a ruined church presides over the deserted site. When a village's role disappeared it had to discover a new one or perish. There is some unsettling evidence suggesting that the long era of the deserted village may not yet be over. This book is a very generously illustrated study of the lost villages.