Кнаптофт: Тарихи ортағасырлық ауылдың зерттелуі

Knaptoft is a deserted medieval village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire and lies approximately 9.7 mile (16 km) south of the city of Leicester, England. According to the University of Nottingham English Place names project, the settlement name Knaptoft could mean "cnafa" (Old English) for 'a boy, a young man, a servant, a menial, or a personal name' and 'toft' (Old English), the plot of ground in which a dwelling stands. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 47.

Knaptoft is situated on a ridge due south of Shearsby 0.85 mile (1 km), between the villages of Bruntingthorpe 1.51 mile (2 km) to the west and Mowsley to the east 1.31 mile (2 km). The soils are "Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base rich loamy and clayey soils", according to UK Soil Observatory results. The site of the settlement is mainly situated on Till (a superficial deposit formed up to 2 million years ago in the Quaternary Period), with a strip of Lacustrine deposits on the western end that is underpinned by Dyrham Formation (grey siltstone, 183 191 million years old), with Charmouth Mudstone (105 180 million years old) to the western end of the village.

Mentioned in the Domesday Book Survey of 1086, Knaptoft was a settlement in the Hundred of Guthlaxton, Leicestershire. It had an estimated population of 22 households including a priest, in 1086. Evidence of activity prior to this is very slim, but a piece of Saxon pottery of 8th 9th century date was recovered by archaeologists on the site of the old manor in 2011. By 1279, the number of households increased to 32. A survey drawn up in 1301 after the death of Richard Gobion (the lord of the manor), lists that the village had a manor, windmill, 2 fish ponds and 20 tenants. It is believed that evidence of what is possibly the mill mound has been located at the eastern end of the deserted medieval village , opposite the new Knaptoft Hall Farm complex. By 1507 the lord of the manor, William Turpin, enclosed the open fields in favour of sheep farming. Following the death of William Turpin, in 1523, a subsidy assessment the following year listed only five labourers and the lord of the manor. but no indication of the village size shown. A survey in 1624 again lists five labourers alongside a church and a manor. A visit by the printer and author John Nichols noted that five freeholders were polled in Knaptoft in 1719, and by 1775, there were none. In 1778, it was recorded that out of the 1,370 acres of parish land, 141 belonged to Thomas Turvile, esq. and the rest belonged to the Duke of Rutland, as ‘Lord of the Manor’. By 1790, the village had 7 houses but the manor Hall was now in a derelict state.

Prior to 1066, Harding (son of Alnoth) was the Anglo Saxon Lord over numerous settlements within the Guthlaxton Wapentake (Hundred) which included Knaptoft. By the time of the Domesday survey, the Earl Aubrey (of Coucy), of Norman origin, was recorded as the Lord of the estate. During the reign of Henry III, the Gobion family took lordship of the Manor up until 1300 when through marriage to Elizabeth Gobion, the Paynel family claimed lordship of the manor. By 1417 the lordship moved to the Turpin family, again through marriage via Margaret Paynel’s daughter. It was during the time of the Turpin’s that a significant change of farming practice signalled a decline in the village population. In 1507, William Turpin enclosed the fields around Knaptoft for sheep pasture, and most of the inhabitants were relocated. Between the years 1525 1530 the manor house is believed to have been destroyed by fire, Archaeological evidence reveals that the “Hall was built of red brick with stone quoins and mullions, with a slate roof.” The hall remained in the Turpin family until 1648, where it is locally believed that the Hall, along with the church, was sacked by Oliver Cromwell's Roundhead forces in June 1645 whilst in pursuit of the fleeing defeated Royalist army. After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the Hall and lands were passed to the Duke of Rutland. and in 2019, the farmhouse and its associated buildings were demolished to make way for new housing. All of the surviving Grade II listed structures from the old Tudor Manor were preserved and incorporated into the new buildings as testament to their historical and architectural significance.

The village Church of St. Nicholas is now a ruin and is a Grade II listed building. The earliest reference to the parish church is 1143, and the surviving remains of the church do appear to be of 13th century date, but work made to consolidate the remaining walls in the early 20th century has made it difficult to confirm. In 1625, the village purchased a bell for the church and in 1630 the church was noted to be still standing. A few years later, research by the economic geographer and historian W. G. Hoskins, brought attention to numerous deserted medieval villages throughout Leicestershire including Knaptoft and encouraged research on the subject. It is understood that the landscape historian and archaeologists John G. Hurst and Maurice W. Beresford formed the ‘Deserted Medieval Village Research Group’ while on visit to Knaptoft in 1964. There is a free car park next to the church that is capable of holding up to 26 cars. The Grade II listed remains of the Old Tudor Hall can now be observed incorporated in the new housing, situated behind the Church ruins. If you walk to the end of the lane and head left down the public footpath, you will find the two original fish ponds. Coarse fishing at the Knaptoft medieval fishponds further downhill (Knaptoft Hall Farm) are commercially open. These ponds were individually restored between 1976 and 1981, and were populated by a small number of Roach, Rudd, and Tench that were brought in from the existing medieval fishponds downhill from the new houses built on the site of the old Tudor Hall.

Sir George Turpin (1529–1583), was an English Member of Parliament. John Moore (d.1619), was an author, church minister and Parson of Knaptoft.