Medieval villagers farmed open fields, cultivating strips of land, making collective decisions on local matters. From Tudor times enclosure summarily took communal land into private ownership, extinguishing commoners’ rights and dramatically changing the course of English society. From the 1750s, enclosure by parliamentary Act became the norm. Between 1604 and 1914 over 5,200 enclosure Bills were enacted by Parliament relating to over a fifth of the total area of England, some 6.8 million acres.

Many communities disappeared completely, such as the north west Norfolk village of Holt near Leziate which became depopulated after Thomas Thursby, a local landowner, enclosed the traditional open field system as pasture for his sheep. Wool production was very profitable in the medieval period and many arable fields were converted to grazing for flocks. Villagers no longer had anywhere to graze their own livestock and had little choice but to leave their homes in search for work away from the land. Holt House, is the only reminder a village ever existed. The Leziate Circular Walk passes from a landscape pock-marked by modern sand quarries, some of which have become lakes, into countryside still dominated by farmland.

Thomas Thursby also owned land around Glosthorpe but a search for Glosthorpe on modern maps would be in vain. All that remains are cropmarks tracing the layout of the lost village in fields to the south-west of All Saints’ Church. Once the heart of the community, All Saints’ now stands remote and alone in empty fields.