The Deserted Medieval Village of Little Broughton is a Scheduled Monument about half a mile East of Great Broughton. It was part of the old Medieval Manor of Little Broughton that was owned by Hexham Priory from about 1190 to 1536. Apart from some aerial photographs taken in the 1970s and small-scale amateur digging over previous years, nothing much was known about the DMV at Little Broughton.
In 2024 one of our new committee members decided to investigate the history of the old Manor of Little Broughton, and whilst doing so became aware of the Deserted Medieval Village that had been part of the manor. An ongoing project was thereafter established by our group to study the DMV in more detail, within the context of the old Manor.
Grants were obtained and a professional company, AOC Archaeology, was engaged to conduct Magnetic and Resistivity Surveys of the Scheduled Monument site after successful applications to Historic England to do so. These were conducted in April 2025 and revealed the remains of extensive ‘probable’ and ‘possible archaeology of the Deserted Medieval Village on the site.
Documentary research has continued into the history of the site and in January 2026 a LIDAR Drone Survey of the site was carried-out by Historic England, the results of which were provided to our history group. Also in January 2026, a presentation was given by Robin Daniels (retired head of Tees Archaeology) and Brian Barker (our current chairperson) updating the membership on all these recent developments.
The project is ongoing and further investigations are planned. Sources of funding are being sought and the project will include local community and school input, as part of the wider study of Little Broughton and its Deserted Medieval Village.