Over the centuries, settlements have been deserted as a result of natural events, such as rivers changing course or
silting up, flooding (especially during the wet 13th and 14th centuries) as well as coastal and estuarine
erosion or being overwhelmed by windblown sand. view of the medieval village of Buslingthorpe in Lincolnshire. Many were thought to have been abandoned due to the deaths of their inhabitants from the
Black Death in the mid-14th century. While the
plague would often have greatly hastened the population decline, which had already set in by the early 14th century in England because of
soil exhaustion and disease, most DMVs actually seem to have become deserted during the 15th century. At this time, and other policies allowed land traditionally cultivated for
cereals and vegetables to be transformed into
pastures for sheep. The medieval
ridge and furrow cultivation pattern remains evident in fields, even until today. This change of
land use by landowners, which was to take advantage of the profitable wool trade, led to hundreds of villages being deserted. Later, the aristocratic fashion for grand country
mansions, parks and landscaped gardens led to whole villages being moved or destroyed to enable
lords of the manor to participate in this trend, a process often called
emparkment or
enclosure. == Examples ==