Waller's Wall

This large red brick wall that is situated on the outskirts of town is all that remains of one of the many market 

gardens that were found in and around the district. Once owned by a couple called Waller it was eventually sold off and built 

on by a local housing association. 

Approximate location of Waller's house

As youngsters my friends and I would run wild through the disused gardens and derelict house that stood in the middle of the land, in - what seemed at the time - to be a terrifying game of cat and mouse with the imagined spectre of  'Waller' the garden‘s owner.

Wall interior.

Wall interior 

Wall exterior facing onto the Council Estate

It wasn’t until recently when I decided to explore the area surrounding the wall that I found out about it's secret history. Talking to a local resident of forty years I was told that a couple called Waller had run the market garden for the large, private estate in the vicinity called Lady Harrowings, (as a point of interest  it appears that there never was a Lady Harrowing and the name was just a product of the local population’s sense of humour). The couple had lived in the house within the garden's walls without gas, electric or running water and I was told that the old lady would have to leave the seclusion of the garden to visit a friend in a near by council house to bathe.



In the above picture you can see what was the entrance to the garden as used by the couple,
blocked up for over twenty years the footpath amazingly is still evident - in fact it had just been
re-seeded that very morning, as it had on a number of occasions with no apparent effect.

View from the council estate looking into Dundas Gardens

After the estate was eventually sold the garden became ever more neglected by the elderly couple and following
the death of his wife the husband (who lived into his nineties) was forced to leave the house and garden through an
extortionate rent increase by the local council.

Having freed up the land the council went on to sell it for a considerable profit to a housing association, who then
built a small housing estate Dundas Gardens on it in the early 1990’s.

Google map image of existing wall and housing estate

Deserted Medieval Village

Wharram Percy is perhaps the best-known Deserted Medieval Village in the whole of England, although there are several others which are in a similarly good state of preservation. The reason for its celebrity is that it was researched each summer by combined teams of archaeologists, historians and even botanists, from circa 1950 to 1990 following its identification in 1948 by Professor Maurice Beresford of the University of Leeds It is mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book as Warran or Warron.

Although the site has apparently been settled since pre-historic times, the village seems to have been most active from the tenth to the twelfth centuries. The Black Death of 1348–49 does not seem to have played a significant part in the desertion of Wharram Percy although the large fall in population in the country as a whole at that time must have made relocation to a less remote spot more likely. The villagers of Wharram Percy seem to have suffered instead from changes in prices and wages in the 15th century, which gave pastoral farming (particularly of sheep) an advantage over traditional cereal farming. The village was finally abandoned in the early 16th century when the lord of the Manor turned out the last few families and knocked down their homes to make room for extra sheep pasturage.

Nearly 700 well-preserved medieval skeletons, excavated in the church and the northern part of the churchyard, have been studied by scientists and have provided detailed information about the lives of the villagers. For example, nitrogen isotope analysis has indicated that children were commonly breast-fed for up to two years, probably contributing to the relatively low incidence of infant mortality. DNA tests on skeletons showing signs of tuberculosis indicated that infection had come from other humans, perhaps in towns, rather than from the cattle with whom the medieval peasants shared their houses.

There was also evidence that medieval surgery could be unexpectedly advanced. An 11th-century male skeleton showed a heavy blow to the head with a blunt instrument. The wound was treated by 'trepanation', the delicate cutting away of bone to relieve pressure on the brain, after which the patient evidently lived for several years.

English Heritage 

The de Percy Family, Whitby & Wharram Percy

In 1070 William de Percy was engaged on works connected with the rebuilding of York Castle after its destruction by the Danes and in 1072 he took part in the Conquerors expedition to Scotland. At the Domesday survey he was tenant in chief in the three ridings of Yorkshire, in Lindsey, with a small holding in Nottingham and of Humbledon Hants which he had received with his wife (Emma de Port). He was also an under tenant of the Earl of Chester in Whitby and in Catton and in the city of York and of the Bishop of Durham in Scarborough and Lund.

He built the castle at Topcliffe and before 1086 he refounded the monastery at Whitby. He was among the Barons present when the Conqueror heard a plea relating to property of the Abbey of Fecamp and he witnessed charters of William II in the period before 1095. In 1096 he set out on the first crusade and died and was buried at Mount Joy near Jerusalem. (This was also the ancient burial site of Samuel of the Old Testament and the hill today is called Nebi Samwel) just 10 km's NW of Jerusalem. Following Williams dying wishes Sir Ralph Eversly a Knight carried his heart back to England and it was buried at Whitby Abbey.

 William had sons Alan, Walter, William, Richard and Arnolde. William became the 2nd Abbot of Whitby in 1102. From Richard sprang the Percies of Dunsley. Arnolde de Percy witnessed his father William de Percy's charter to Whitby and from him came the Percies of Kildale and Kilnwick Percy.William de Percy had 2 brothers. Serlo de Percy became prior of Whitby Abbey and Picot de Percy was a tenant of William at Bolton upon Dearne and Sutton upon Derwent. Picot de Percy donated the church at Bolton Percy to Nostell priory. His son Robert de Percy gave the church at Sutton upon Derwent to Whitby Abbey witnessed by his son William. There was further issue from this branch of the family for in 1266 Piers de Percy held Wharram Percy in Chief and had other lands in Sutton upon Derwent, Carnaby and Bolton Percy which all came under the Percy fee. Piers de Percy was of the direct male Percy lineage, which apparently became extinct in 1168.

Map of the Wharram Percy site

Yet meet we shall, and part, and meet again, Where dead men meet, on lips of living men. - Samuel Butler