Deserted villages are a feature of the British landscape – most, I think, as a result of the Black Death in the 14th Century. There are other reasons of course – the local gentry preferring to have a clear view of their estates, or the general running down of a particular site over the years, or in the Highlands of Scotland the desire of landowners to run sheep rather than people over their lands.
What is common is that these desertions usually took place long ago. More modern sensibilities react badly to moving entire populations from where they have lived for generations.
Here in Wiltshire, within 10 miles of Swindon, is a village that was depopulated within the last 100 years.
Snap was first mentioned as Snape in the 13th Century. Always small, it did have a school in the early 19th Century, although it was subsequently moved to a nearby village. Nothing much ever happened here and it would seem that the adult population of around 25 remained fairly constant over the 600 years of its recorded history.
Snap fell victim to sheep farming – villages existed primarily to give housing to workers on arable farms – livestock farming, particularly sheep, doesn’t require a settled workforce in close proximity to the fields. The agricultural depression of the late 19th Century and the desire of rural dwellers to share in the prosperity of the towns hastened the flight from the land.
But there was also a villain of the piece – Henry Wilson, butcher, of the nearby village of Ramsbury. In 1905 Wilson bought the 2 largest farms in the village which had been untenanted since 1890. He needed them to house his large flocks of sheep. This encouraged the departure of the remaining villagers and in 1909 only 2 people remained. In 1914, the last remaining villager, Rachel Fisher, an elderly woman, was persuaded to move to Aldbourne and Snap was deserted and abandoned.
The local MP described the actions of Wilson as oppressive and tyrannical. He was successfully sued by Wilson’s sons. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
"The site of Snap is, today, a moving place full of that peculiar melancholy which is often evoked by places that have been inhabited for centuries past but which are now deserted. The sites of the cottages, their gardens, and to a lesser extent the farmyard, are all covered by trees and undergrowth including a number of garden shrubs that have survived almost a century of neglect." ….. Kenneth Watts - 'Snap - the history, depopulation and destruction of a Wiltshire village'.
In my preparatory visits here I didn’t see many remnants of the village apart from along the lane which leads through the site – but an enquiry at the Wiltshire Museum Service makes me hopeful that more will become apparent in the winter months.