Synopses & Reviews
Champion: The pattern of nucleated settlements and extensive open fields most commonly found within the landscape of the Midlands. This book presents a radical reinterpretation of the origins of villages and open fields, and their development in the late medieval and post-medieval periods, in the Midland, 'champion' areas of England. Most landscape historians believe that villages were created in the middle or later Saxon periods through the 'nucleation' of a formerly dispersed pattern of settlement, that many villages were initially laid out as planned, regular settlements and that open fields probably came into existence at the same time. Re-examination and mapping of the data suggests 'nucleation' is a myth, 'village planning' an illusion and open fields were created, at least in their classic, 'regular' forms, only in the eleventh or twelfth centuries.
Review
"... the review quote to use is 'A substantial contribution to the literature ... Few studying the subject will be able to ignore such a book.'--Landscape History
Synopsis
Focusing on Northampton,
Champion offers a radical reinterpretation of the origins of villages and open fields, and their development in the late medieval and post-medieval periods in the Midlands. Instead of the commonly accepted belief that villages and open fields were created in the middle or later Saxon period through a process of “nucleation,” or village planning, the authors of this volume suggest that these settlements only emerged in their classic, regular forms in the eleventh or twelfth centuries. Their findings are based on an innovative use of digital mapping and geographical information systems, and they cast new light on the agricultural practices in the post-medieval period.
About the Author
Tom Williamson is Professor in Landscape History at UEA and published 'The Transformation of Rural England: Farming and the Landscape 1700-1870' (University of Exeter Press, 2002). Robert Liddiard completed a PhD at UEA in 2000 and has published on high-status landscapes in the Middle Ages. Tracey Partida is a consultant specializing in geographical information systems (GIS) and her PhD is in progress at University of Huddersfield.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Why Northamptonshire?
Debating the Medieval Landscape
The Post-Medieval Landscape
Methodology
Chapter 2: Structures of Landscape
Geology and Topography
Climate and Soils
Territory and Topography
Late Prehistoric and Roman
Settlement
Early and Middle Saxon Settlement
Territorial Organisation
Demographic and Agricultural
Expansion
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Medieval Settlement
Introduction
Dispersion and Nucleation
Villages: Geology, 'Cores' and Expansion
Village Plans: Patterns of
Earlier Land Use
Geology, Land Use and Plan Form
Regular Tofts and 'Planning'
Dispersed Settlements
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Medieval Land Use: Field and Forest
Introduction
Arable
Pasture
Meadow Woodland and Forest
Heaths
The Antiquity of the Open Fields
Conclusion
Chapter 5: The Post-Medieval Landscape
Introduction
Tenure and Ownership
Enclosure
Modifying the Open Fields
The Chronology of Northamptonshire Enclosure
Enclosing the Forests
Enclosure and Land Use Change
The Impact of Enclosure
The Development of Rural Settlement
Conclusion
Chapter 6: Northamptonshire in Context
Woodland and Champion
The Characteristics of 'Woodland' Landscapes
Variations in the Medieval Landscapes of the Midlands
Variations in Post-Medieval Landscape and Agriculture
Woodland and Pasture
The Origins of Regional Variation
Explaining Regional Variation
The Implications of Post-Medieval Developments
Chapter 7: Landscape: Time, Agency and Character
Historic Landscape Character
Northamptonshire Field Patterns
Landscape and Agency