crop mark

Late medieval farmstead in Lavenham, Suffolk, 2015. Artist: Damian Grady. Late medieval farmstead in Lavenham, Suffolk, 2015. This aerial photograph shows the buried remains of a late medieval farmstead revealed as cropmarks. You can see some of the farm's field boundaries and a trackway which linked this farm to its neighbours. They are reminders of the generations of families who lived and worked the land here. These farms were abandoned after changes in farming practice and illustrate the widespread changes that have affected the rural landscape of Suffolk over the last 500 years. This is a good example of the many Suffolk farmsteads Historic England has discovered from the air in recent years. It looks similar to prehistoric settlements found in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire but is more typical of late medieval farmsteads still in use elsewhere on the Suffolk clay lands.