Bixley medieval settlement

Bixley medieval settlement lies two miles south-east of Norwich in Norfolk. It is a deserted medieval village, marked by earthworks and the ruins of a church. The site once belonged to the parish of Bixley and is now protected as a Scheduled Monument. Nearby vanished villages include Arminghall and Belhawe, both lost around the same time. Historians believe people moved into Norwich as the city grew in the late medieval period. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded nineteen adult males living in Bixley. Tax records from the 14th and 15th centuries show the village remained small compared with others in the hundred. By 1524 only five taxpayers remained. The church of St Wandregeselius stands on the western edge of the site. Its tower dates from the early 14th century, though the rest was rebuilt in 1868 after a fire in 2004 damaged the roof and interior. The earthworks at Bixley are among the most extensive in East Anglia. They include groups of two or three homesteads spaced between eighty-five and one hundred and fifty metres apart. Traces of small fields and old lanes can still be seen between the groups. A former road from Norwich to Bungay once passed west of the church before it closed in 1800. The layout reflects the village’s population of bordars and sokemen recorded in the Domesday survey.