NZ 128704. Deserted medieval village at Dissington, South. (1)

South Dissington consists of a farmstead at NZ 12207008. There is no visible evidence of depopulation either on the ground or on available aerial photographs (RAF 1946) and the !village! may have been of the non-nucleated type. (2)

Originally a member of Seaton Delaval lordship, South Dissington was granted to Tynemouth Priory c.1085. The Subsidy of 1296 records nine taxpayers. A rental of 1378 listed seven bond tenants and several freeholders. Five tenants listed by the Ogle family in 1517. A certificate of decay in 1584 recorded that five of the eight tenements which existed in 1535 were 'decayed'.
Few estate documents have been found from the 17th century and it is unclear whether the village had already been depopulated. In the 18th century only the hall stood on the village site.
A series of tofts is visible in the most westerly of three closes in line with the hall. Large earthworks to the north represent the remains of croft boundaries, ending in a bank running along the south side of the Medburn. (3)

Medieval settlement is visible as earthworks on air photographs taken in 1988, centred at NZ 1257 7037. It lies on the south bank of the Med Burn, north-west of Dissington Old Hall. Parallel linear banks extend down to the river flood plain and represent croft enclosures. Broad medieval ridge and furrow (recorded in HER 31282) is associated with the settlement. (4a)