Beckett

Name: Beckett
Parish: Shrivenham
Reason for desertion: Emparking
Period of desertion: 17th-18th Cs.
Extant: Manor House
Domesday Entry: Becote: Count of Evreux.

A note on lost villages and emparking

Throughout the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries, a common trend among wealthy landowners was to turn their property into a large park. Areas

containing gently sloping hillsides and flowing streams were much favoured for such transformation. Villagers and the residences they lived in made way

along with fields, hedges and the less attractive trees.

Landscape designers such as Lancelot “Capability” Brown became famous by adding ornamental

designs. The main house would be enlarged or replaced by a much grander residence. The only feature likely to be left intact would be any place of

worship. These extant churches are often the only remaining indication that a village once stood there.

Many such estates contained a town or village that might have been in existence for several centuries. The general view taken by emparking landlords was

that such a community was unsightly and would diminish the splendour of their proposed developments. Measures were devised to persuade the residents of

the town or village to move to alternative accommodation.

Source: http://www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/dmv.html