Knaptoft is a deserted medieval village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire and lies approximately 9.7 miles (15.6 km) south of the city of Leicester, England.

[5] 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.

[8][9] It is believed that evidence of what is possibly the mill mound has been located at the eastern end of the deserted medieval village grid reference SP 63105 89408, opposite the new Knaptoft Hall Farm complex.

[10] A map of Warwickshire and Leicestershire, produced by Christopher Saxton as part of his Atlas of England and Wales in 1576 clearly shows Knaptoft,[12] but no indication of the village size shown.

[15] Prior to 1066, Harding (son of Alnoth) was the Anglo-Saxon Lord over numerous settlements within the Guthlaxton Wapentake (Hundred) which included Knaptoft.

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.

[14] It is thought, however, to have been sacked and destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's Roundhead forces after the Battle of Naseby in June 1645 whilst in pursuit of the fleeing defeated Royalist army.

[14] Renewed interest in the village manifests itself when consolidation of the church walls, as a measure to preserve the remaining structure was funded by the wealthy philanthropist and former High Sheriff of Leicestershire, Henry Truman Mills, in 1932.

[19] In 1954, the site of the deserted medieval village (located east of the Church car park) was formally listed as a Scheduled Monument.

[29] 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.

[10] A few years later, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee, a commemorative plaque of Knaptoft and its church was installed in the ruins by the Harborough District Council in 1977.

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.