Mike Laycock travelled to the Wolds to visit one of Britain's best-known deserted medieval villages.

It was once - some 600 years ago - a bustling village of 30 peasant homes, along with a manor house, parish church, mill pond, fishery, corn barn, common oven and kiln. Then, like an estimated 3,000 other medieval settlements across England, Wharram Percy was simply abandoned.

New owners switched from arable to sheep pasture farming, and the peasantry gradually lost its livelihood. In about 1500, the final four families were evicted and their homes pulled down. And the settlement, which dates back to the Bronze Age and was also occupied in the Roman period, has been deserted ever since.

It might have remained an obscure and little-known grouping of earthworks but for economic history lecturer Maurice Beresford who, in 1948, decided to study what was there before. Exploratory excavations began in 1950, and continued on an annual basis right up until 1990, involving hundreds of volunteers and professional archaeologists.

Today their work has given an intriguing glimpse into the life of a lost community from the Middle Ages. And it has created a very pleasant venue for a Sunday afternoon country stroll; a tranquil scene well away from the bustle of 21st century city life.

Wharram Percy, looked after by English Heritage, is situated in the middle of the Yorkshire Wolds, nestling at the foot of one of its distinctive steep-sided valleys.

You park about three quarters of a mile away in a free car park (but lock your vehicle securely and don't leave any valuables inside - car thieves sometimes target such spots).

You walk along a track across the fields and a stream, with the air full of birdsong and wild flowers growing in the verges and the trees and hedges in blossom.

In the secluded village, parts of the Church of St Martin remain standing. Founded in the 10th century, it developed into a large parish church in the 14th and gradually fell into disuse and disrepair in the 20th.

Only half of the tower is still standing. Most of the walls are still there, but little of the roof is left after lead thieves struck just after the Second World War. More than 1,000 skeletons have been excavated in the grave yard, and analysis of the bones has revealed a grim story of a peasantry struggling for survival against disease, food shortages, sinusitis and even osteoporis.

The archaeologists have calculated that only half the babies born at Wharram managed to reach their 18th birthday.

The only domestic buildings still standing are nearby - cottages which originated as outbuildings to an 18th-century farmhouse. The buildings look fine, and it seems odd that no one is living in them now.

The foundations of more than 30 peasant homes can be seen on a chalk plateau just above the valley.

But to get the best view of the church, walk round the nearby mill pond, which was a focal point of medieval life, used for everything from cooking to washing and fishing. Today it's a nice mirror to catch a reflection of the church. And there's another fine view of the village from above if you walk up the hillside nearby and sit among the cowslips.

Fact file

How to get there: Take the A161 road to Bridlington from York via Stamford Bridge. Turn left at Fridaythorpe and then almost immediately turn right, and follow signs to Wharram Le Street.

Car park is situated on a minor road off the B1248, half a mile south of Wharram le Street.

Open: all the time.

Admission: free.

Disabled access: very difficult.