The settlement of Bransby is documented from 1086 onwards. It was always small and has remarkably little documented size variations through time. It lies very close to the southern boundary of Sturton by Stow parish, and is (and was in the 19th century) a single street village, with farms and cottages dotted along it, their properties forming no coherent pattern. There are traces of lost property boundaries in the south on early aerial photographs, and at its north end the street seems to have opened into a green or common before enclosure. Possible medieval earthwork boundaries have been noted, some of which are indicated as a moat on the Ordnance Survey 1:10560 plan, although this interpretation has since been rejected as an identification. The feature was thought to more likely represent the remains of an L-shaped pond. {1}{2}{3}{4}{5}