England - Aerial view, Deserted Village. Middle Ditchford, Gloucestershire. The geometric shapes mark the medieval community of Middle Ditchford, a village that was abandoned in the 15th century for the benefit of a local gentry family. During this period, wealthy landowners bought up country manors whose lands included villages, sometimes forcibly evicting the inhabitants. Throughout England there are many sites of deserted medieval villages, but most were obliterated by the advance of the Black Death during the years 1348 - 1352.