Houghton, Cambridgeshire (medieval village)

Houghton is a deserted medieval village located one mile to the west of present-day Brampton, Cambridgeshire.[1] Unlike many such villages which became deserted following the black death, Houghton was abandoned earlier when Henry II declared the county of Huntingdonshire a royal forest, forcing the villagers to move elsewhere to obtain food and fuel.[1] The village was discovered during work to upgrade the A14 road which commenced in 2016.[2]

This article is about the deserted medieval village west of Brampton. For the village east of Brampton, see Houghton, Cambridgeshire.

Houghton began as an unenclosed Anglo-Saxon settlement in the sixth century, eventually by the ninth century consisting of around forty houses and other buildings.[1][2] By the early Norman period the village was centred to the north of the Anglo-Saxon site with more formalised plots and trackways.[1]

References
  1. "Discovering Deserted Medieval Villages on the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Improvement Scheme". MOLA Headland Infrastructure. 13 June 2018. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  2. Hilts, Carly (3 May 2018). "A landscape revealed: Exploring 6,000 years of Cambridgeshire's past along the A14". Current Archaeology. Retrieved 3 November 2020.


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