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Sulh – the Anglo-Saxon plough c. 1000 A.D.: David Hill The form of the Anglo-Saxon plough has been a source of controversy for academics for many years. This note returns to review the sources, mainly from circa 1000 A.D. These sources are archaeological, literary, manuscript illustrations and comparison with medieval and later examples. The form and function of the late Saxon plough is suggested.
Domesday land measures in Suffolk: Mary Hesse Domesday Book for Suffolk and Norfolk is unique in including, for most vills, measures of ‘lengths’ and ‘widths’, expressed in leagues and furlongs. If multiplied together, these give areas smaller than the nineteenth-century parishes and amount to only about one-third of each hundred. The only plausible interpretation is that the linear measures are estimates of the extent of a vill’s arable land, and might be numerically related to its caracute-value. This hypothesis is tested for fourteen Suffolk hundreds together with the relation of Suffolk linear measures to the ‘ploughlands’ of other counties. It is concluded that the linear measures may give a more accurate picture of the extent of arable exploitation than any other measures available in Domesday Book.
Population density and Norman castle building: some evidence from East Anglia: Robert Liddiard This paper challenges the widely held belief that castles were necessarily raised in areas that allowed them to dominate the population. It examines the relationship between Norman castles and population in East Anglia: a region that had the highest population density in eleventh- and twelfth-century England, but also the lowest number of castles. It argues that areas of high population, particularly those which also had large numbers of freeholders, were unattractive to castle builders as buying out other landowners was a costly and time-consuming exercise, particularly when a large regional residence was being planned. What was more attractive were less populated areas where the space needed for large-scale building operations was more readily available. It therefore casts doubt on the common assertion that castle building in the years following the Norman Conquest was necessarily concerned with the control of population.
Medieval upland cultivation on the Berwyns in North Wales: Robert J. Silvester While historians have increasingly appreciated the role of agriculture in the medieval Welsh economy, even in some upland areas, the physical remains have been little studied. This paper identifies three areas of relict medieval cultivation, together with associated habitation sites, at high altitude in the Berwyn mountains of North Wales. Their characteristics are considered and it is argued that they reflect the discrete expansion of existing settlements in the valleys on to more marginal hill areas prior to the climatic changes and natural disasters of the fourteenth century. There are hints of similar patterns of medieval upland exploitation elsewhere in Wales, and this suggests that models illustrating the progressive expansion of land intakes in a series of stages from valley floor to hill top during the medieval and post-medieval centuries need to be revised.
‘John O’Gaunt’s House’, Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire: a fifteenth-century landscape: Susan Oosthuizen and Christopher Taylor This paper describes a remarkable archaeological site at Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire. It is interpreted as the remains of a late medieval house and elaborate garden of a type hitherto unknown in Britain. The documented history suggests that it was created by John Tiptoft, Early of Worcester, between 1461 and 1470. It may partly have been based on the then new gardens of the Renaissance that Tiptoft had seen during a visit to Italy in the late 1450s.
Patterns of parliamentary enclosure of waste in Cumbria: a case study from north Westmorland: Ian D. Whyte Compared with the amount of research on the enclosure of open field arable, research on the parliamentary enclosure landscapes of upland waste in northern England has been neglected. Using a case study from north Westmorland, this article examines the chronology and geography of parliamentary enclosure, identifying and explaining the main periods of activity, and the resulting landscapes, as well as looking at the differing experience of neighbouring communities. The significance of private enclosure is emphasised, together with the influence of pre-enclosure features in shaping the patterns of later landscape development.
Review section |
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Landscape History
Volume 22 (2000) |
