Tradition and Transformation in Anglo-Saxon England

Archaeology, Common Rights and Landscape

Susan Oosthuizen

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781472509475
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

Most people believe that traditional landscapes did not survive the collapse of Roman Britain, and that medieval open fields and commons originated in Anglo-Saxon innovations unsullied by the past. The argument presented here tests that belief by contrasting the form and management of early medieval fields and pastures with those of the prehistoric and Roman landscapes they are supposed to have superseded. The comparison reveals unexpected continuities in the layout and management of arable and pasture from the fourth millennium BC to the Norman Conquest.
The results suggest a new paradigm: the collective organisation of agricultural resources originated many centuries, perhaps millennia, before Germanic migrants reached Britain. In many places, medieval open fields and common rights over pasture preserved long-standing traditions for organising community assets. In central, southern England, a negotiated compromise between early medieval lords eager to introduce new managerial structures and communities as keen to retain their customary traditions of landscape organisation underpinned the emergence of nucleated settlements and distinctive, highly-regulated open fields.

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Tradition and Transformation
in Anglo-Saxon England

Archaeology, Common
Rights and Landscape

Susan Oosthuizen

Bloomsbury Academic

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square	175 Fifth Avenue
London	New York
WC1B 3DP	NY 10010
UK	USA

www.bloomsbury.com

First published 2013

© 2013 Susan Oosthuizen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Susan Oosthuizen has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Oosthuizen, Susan.

Tradition and transformation in Anglo-Saxon England : archaeology, common rights and landscape / Susan Oosthuizen.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4725-0727-3 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4725-0947-5 (epub) -- ISBN 978-1-4725-0536-1 (epdf) 1. Land tenure--Law and legislation--Great Britain. 2. Inclosures--Great Britain--History. 3. Commons--Great Britain--History. 4. Agriculture--Great Britain--History. I. Title.

HD1289.G7O57 2013

333.2--dc23

2013000384

ISBN: 9781472509475

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Prologue

1	Introduction
Part I Tradition
2	Common pasture
3	Arable laid out in open fields
Part II Transformation
4	Innovations in agricultural management
Part III Explaining Continuities and Transformations
5	Continuities in common pasture and open-field systems under narrow CPrRs
6	Transformation into open-field systems under wide CPrRs

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

List of Figures

Figures

1	Map of Ancient pastures
2	Aerial photograph of Neolithic and Iron Age earthworks at Hambledon Hill, Dorset
3	Map of open fields in England under narrow CPrRs
4	Maps of ancient fields
5	Map of open fields in England under wide CPrRs before about 1350
6	Maps of innovation in the Anglo-Saxon landscape
7	Aerial photograph of Medieval cultivation remains at Baggrave, Leicestershire
8	Map of the kingdom of Mercia in the long eighth century
9	Map of nucleated settlement in England in the nineteenth century
10	Map of substantial Romanised buildings and villas in England
11	The distribution of Anglo-Saxon woodland
12	Monastic foundations in England before about 900

Acknowledgements

I am most grateful to the colleagues who have generously made their work available for reproduction here, particularly Professor Brian Roberts and Dr Stuart Wrathmell (Figures 3, 5, 9, 10 and 11, and the underlying map on Figure 12). Professor Martin Millett, Professor Simon James and the Royal Archaeological Institute were kind enough to allow reproduction of the reconstructed Anglo-Saxon hall at Cowdery’s Down (Figure 6(a)). The University of Cambridge Committee for Aerial Photography in the person of the Librarian, Mr Alun Martin, provided copies of two air photographs reproduced here in Figures 2 and 7, and gave permission for their reproduction. Ms Sarah Wroot and Dr Dora Kemp assisted with the production of other figures, the former generating Figures 8 and 12, and the latter Figures 1, 4 and 6. The University of Cambridge McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research made a generous grant towards the...

Table of contents

• Debates in Archaeology