The past in the present – remnant open field patterns in England
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56617/tl.4048Keywords:
open fields, England, landscape evolution, countryside characterAbstract
The agricultural landscape forms an important part of Britain’s cultural heritage. Relict field systems cast light upon landscape evolution, often showing the special connections between landscape and people over time. Medieval open field systems represent a method of farming that endured for many hundreds of years, produced through, and dependent upon, community involvement. Most of these landscapes were lost in the period of enclosure in the 18th and 19th centuries as individually held farms replaced such systems; later, the large estates themselves were also frequently broken up. The few survivals of open fields in England are discussed here and the cultural changes associated with landscape change, culminating today in conservation measures to protect such features. Thus the rural landscape reveals the depth of its evolutionary history, contributing towards the rich diversity of England’s regional landscapes and the maintenance of a sound ecological balance, thereby contributing towards the preservation of cultural identity and heritage.
References
Beresford, M.W., St Joseph, J.K.S. 1979: Medieval England, an Aerial Survey, 2nd edition: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Chambers, J.D. 1928: The open fields of Laxton, Transactions of the Thoroton Society 32, pp. 102–125.
Chapman, D. 2007: Wild about Cornwall: Alison Hodge Publishers, Penzance.
Griffith, F. 1988: Devon’s Past, an Aerial View: Devon Books, Exeter.
Herring, P. 2006: Cornish strip fields, in Medieval Devon and Cornwall. Shaping an Ancient Countryside, ed. S. Turner: Windgather Press, Bollington, Macclesfield, pp. 44-77.
Hooke, D. 1998: Anglo-Saxon England: Leicester University Press, London.
Hooke, D. 2006: England’s Landscape. The West Midlands: English Heritage/Collins, London.
Middleton, B. 2002: Agri-environmental schemes, Conservation Bulletin 42: Rural Matters, pp. 16–21.
Stocker, D. 2006: England’s Landscape. The East Midlands: English Heritage/Collins, London.
Wood, P.D. 1963: Open field strips, Forrabury Common, near Boscastle, Cornish Archaeology, 2, pp. 29–33.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2010 Della Hooke
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
A folyóirat Open Access (Gold). Cikkeire a Creative Commons 4.0 standard licenc alábbi típusa vonatkozik: CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0. Ennek értelmében a mű szabadon másolható, terjeszthető, bemutatható és előadható, azonban nem használható fel kereskedelmi célokra (NC), továbbá nem módosítható és nem készíthető belőle átdolgozás, származékos mű (ND). A licenc alapján a szerző vagy a jogosult által meghatározott módon fel kell tüntetni a szerző nevét és a szerzői mű címét (BY).
