Hoskins' england class 3

W.G. Hoskins and the Making of
the English Landscape
Class 3. Becoming a land of villages
The English settlement

Tutor: Keith Challis
hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk

Recap
Last Week (Darkening Hills)

• Hoskins and the Romantics
• Hoskins on early Britain
• Field archaeology
• Introduction to Laxton

Hoskins’s England hoskins-

Class Summary
• Hoskins and Englishness
• Becoming a land of villages
• 60 years on: Critique of Hoskins and a counterpoint

Coffee Break

• Working with aerial photographs
• Laxton Group project: Working with photographs,
and published mapping

Hoskins’s England hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk

Class Summary
Learning Outcomes
• Appreciate Hoskins’s view of England as
personified by landscape.
• Explore aspects of landscape and national
identity
• Understand Hoskins’s view of Anglo-Saxon
England.
• Explore ways in which new evidence has revised
our view of this period.
• Appreciate some of the uses of and evidence to
be gleaned from aerial photography in
landscape studies.


Section 1:
Hoskins and Englishness


• What is Englishness?


An English Landscape?


Hoskins’s Englishness
(from One Man’s England)
• “I have explored England, or parts
of it, now for sixty years, for pure
pleasure, often not knowing what I
was really looking at…” Hoskins
1978
• “Every few square miles of England
has its own marked character…”
Hoskins 1978
• “There is not just one English
landscape, there are probably a
hundred or more, and man’s making
of them has taken very different
forms in different parts of England.
The process of creating England as
we know it, tackling the great
wastelands of heath and moor…
began much farther back in time
than we thought.” Hoskins 1978


An English Landscape
• To Hoskins the English landscape was essentially
a manufactured thing (contra Romanticism)
– Largely the work of the Middle Ages
– Progressively destroyed since the enclosures
– With nothing of value after 1914
– Ruined by the modern era and polluted by visitors
• But where do these ideas come from and how
have they influenced us?


Landscape and National Identity
• Obsession with landscape as a facet of
national identity is largely a 20th century
phenomenon
• 1920s and 30, emergence of movement for
preservation of landscape through
progressive change. Council for the
Protection of Rural England (CPRE). The
Planner-preservationist.
• The face of the land, the Design and
Industries Association yearbook for 1929,
included electricity pylons and arterial
roads as examples of modern elements
bringing ordered beauty to the landscape.
• Organizations like the CPRE sought not
only to manage the landscape but to codify
ways in which it was used by the urban
population increasingly using the
countryside for leisure.


• In contrast to the organic earth
movement, the counter-current of
Englishness, promoted the vision of
an organic England.
• Emphasised the preservation of a
natural cycle, in which national
health was promoted through the
consumption of pure, unimproved
organic foods produced by manual
toil.
• Englishness as deep rooted in
‘English Earth’.
• War and reconstruction transformed
the understanding the English
landscape
• The second world war allowed the
planner-preservationist vision of
landscape and Englishness to
achieve a position of dominance.


• Hoskins was writing in this social and intellectual context
from the 1950s
• His views were shaped by his own experience and a
dawning historical vision of the character of a vanishing
England
• “It was the signal achievement of…Hoskins, to have
revolutionised the historical perceptions of his fellow
countrymen…What informs the most fertile years of his
writing is nothing less than a new vision for the whole of
English history” (Pythian-Adams 1992)


Landscape and Decay
• Hoskins’s great obsession was with
the impact of the 20th century on
English landscape.
• “I had the good fortune to be born in
a part of England which had suffered
very little change over many
generations, in a small and ancient
city with unravished country all
around it.” Hoskins 1978
• “…in so many parts of England I
cannot help feeling that its fate today
may be in the balance…” Hoskins
1978.


Hoskins’s Developing Vision of England



Hoskins in 1949



Quote from historian C.P Skrine in Hoskins’s notebook, 1940s



Hoskins’s notebook 1940s



Notice for one of Hoskins’s Leicester Evening Classes (1947)


Book Recommendation
Landscape and
Englishness (Picturing
History), David Matless
David Matless argues that landscape has
been the site where English visions of the
past, present and future have met in
debates over questions of national
identity, disputes over history and
modernity, and ideals of citizenship and
the body. Landscape and Englishness is
extensively illustrated and draws on a
wide range of material - topographical
guides, health manuals, paintings, poetry,
architectural polemic, photography, nature
guides and novels.


Section 2:
Becoming a Land of Villages

A Land of Villages
Hoskins on the English Settlement
• “The Anglo-Saxon settlement was spread over
some twenty generations between about 450
and 1066. During this time England became a
land of villages” (Hoskins 1955)
• The Anglo-Saxons covered the whole of
England with their villages…”(ibid)
• Axe, fire and animals combined to reduce the
dense and continuous woodlands of Anglo-
Saxon England.” (ibid)


A Land of Villages
Scandinavian Settlement
• “From the late ninth century onward the
Scandinavian conquest of a good deal of
England resulted in a great number of new
villages being founded…” (Hoskins 1955)


A Land of Villages
Village Layout
• “There are three great types into one of
which most villages fall: the village
grouped around a central green or square,
the village strung out along a single street,
and the village which…consists of
dwellings planted down almost
haphazardly.” (Hoskins 1955)


A Land of Villages
• The Anglo Saxons • Scandinavian
gave us the pattern of settlement topped up
villages we know the distributions of
today by colonising villages and added
the post Roman wood outlying subsidiary
and waste. settlements
• The open fields were • Villages fall into
the product of several relatively
generations of simple plan forms
progressive clearance which may be used to
explain their origins


A Land of Villages

• Discussion…


Section 3:
60 Years on: The Myths of
the English Settlement

The English Settlement
Origins
• Post Roman
settlement from
Denmark and
north Germany
• Co-existence
with native
Romanised
British
populations
• Complex social
and racial
mixing


Material Culture
• Highly distinctive
material culture,
largely evidenced
in grave goods
• Architectural
innovation
• Language


Death and Burial
• Large cremation
cemeteries imply
substantial immigrant
population
• How much is a
processes of
acculturation of
collapsing Romanised
British population?


Settlements
• Not villages!
• Small clusters of simple
dwellings (Hall
House/Grubenhaus)
• Local clearance or
adoption of existing
agricultural lands
• Revealed by later 20th
century archaeology
(West Stow, Mucking,
etc)


Mucking


Catholme
• Middle Saxon
settlement
• Hall houses with
enclosures
• No evidence of
continuity with later
villages


Middle Saxon England
• By mid 7th century
emergence of larger
polities
• Kingdoms documented
in Tribal Hidage
• Increasing social
complexity
• Towns and trade


Christianity and the
State
• Promotion of ideal of
kingship
• Innovation in land
holding (and
influence on
organisation of land?)
• Role in cementing
emerging polities


Late Saxon England
Scandinavian Settlement
• Raiding, organised
campaigns of conquest
and settlement
• Socially complex
• Uncertain impact on
landscape
• England part of
Scandinavian hegemony
of northern Europe


Late Saxon England
Late Saxon England
• Complex society part of
European and Scandinavian
political and economic milieu
• Beginnings of evidence for
settlement continuity (10th/11th
century activity in many
excavated village sites)
• Character of settlement
remains uncertain


Origins of Villages
• The origin of villages
remains uncertain
• Important to draw a
distinction between
the legal entity of the
vill and a nucleated
settlement
• Village plans are
vastly more complex
than Hoskins
suggested!


• Coffee Break


Date of field trip
• Revised to 23rd March if consensus


Hoskins, Crawford and Field
Archaeology
• Crawford codified the method of Field
Archaeology in his book Archaeology in
the Field (1953)
• Combination of map and documentary
research, aerial photography and field
work
• Central concept was that of landscape as
palimpsest, ie a document erased and
written on over and over again


Aerial Photography

Vertical Oblique


Aerial Photography
Vertical Photography
Usually for mapping or reconnaissance purposes, not
often archaeological.
Fixed camera mounted on plane flying at constant height.
Photographs contain inherent distortions due to curvature
of lens and irregularity of ground surface.
A series of overlapping photographs are usually taken for
large area coverage. By overlapping photos by c.60%
each part of the ground is covered by at least two images
which can then be combined using a stereoscope to
create a three-dimensional model.
Vertical photographs can be used for producing accurate
plans, providing the images are adequately
georeferenced.
However, since they are not flown specifically for
archaeological purposes the information they contain may
not always be as clear as with obliques.


Aerial Photography
Oblique Photography
Handheld camera used to record a specific
site/monument as it is being flown over.
Provides a perspective view that can often
emphasise and clarify the nature of a site far
more than vertical shots.
The elevation and angle of the shot can be
more easily manipulated to obtain the best
conditions for the photograph.
Oblique photography is far more difficult to
georeference, sometimes limiting the use of
the technique in providing archaeological
plans.
Oblique photography is most often taken
from low flying light aircraft, but can also be
taken from any elevated position (e.g.
buildings/hilltops…).


Aerial Photography
What we can see: Cropmarks

Visible variation in the growth of
plants due to buried features.
Positive cropmarks = The plants
grow taller due to negative
archaeological features such as
ditches, pits, postholes. Provide
increased moisture retention and
higher nutrient content.
Negative cropmarks = The plants
growth is reduced due to
subsurface features which block the
root system. Provide reduced
moisture and nutrients than the
surrounding soil.
The window of opportunity in which
to see cropmarks depends on a
variety of factors: soil type, crop,
climate…


Aerial Photography
What we can see: Soilmarks

Some archaeological sites become visible in a field that has been
ploughed in preparation of sowing.
Features are usually apparent through colour changes between the
archaeology and the surrounding soil.
Negative features such as pits or ditches often contain humic-rich fills
which show up as darker tones. Equally, plough damage to walls or
rubble can bring some of this material to the surface.
Soil marks are at their clearest immediately after ploughing, with
subsequent mixing of layers obscuring the newly revealed features.
It is important to note that soil marks reflect the actual archaeological
deposits themselves, rather than their effect on overlying vegetation or
topography. If a site is visible as a soil mark then it is already being
eroded.


Aerial Photogrphy
What we can see: Shadow Sites

Earthworks can be visible through aerial photography as shadow
sites. The topographic changes cause variation in the extent and
position of shadows.
The height and position of the sun is crucial in determining how well
an earthwork site can be seen. Low winter sunlight (either early
morning or late afternoon) is often the best, creating long shadows
and picking out even microtopographic changes.
The direction of the sun in relation to the orientation of the
earthworks is another key factor.
The presence of snow cover on archaeological sites can help to
emphasise any earthworks due to the contrast between the highly
reflective snow and the dark shadows. Likewise, standing water
following heavy rainfall will accumulate in earthwork depressions.


Aerial Photogrphy

• As well as the visibility of archaeological sites requiring very
particular environmental and atmospheric conditions, the
interpretation of visible features should be treated with
caution.

• Potential pitfalls in interpretation can be caused by the
presence of geological features, agricultural activities and
modern land use practices.


Aerial Photogrphy
Groups of ring earthworks
similar to those shown in this
photography are known from
the Yorkshire Wolds, East
Anglia and the Trent Valley
south of Derby.

Site of searchlight batteries
from WWII.
The eastern bias of their
distribution is due to the
direction of the perceived
threat.
Soil marks of ring earthworks ENE of Bishop Wilton, Humberside (SE
825564), 12 May 1969.
Photo : University of Cambridge, copyright reserved


Aerial Photography
Densely concentrated
arrangement of ring ditches
suggestive of Iron Age /
Migration Period cemeteries in
Denmark.

But…arrangement and
overlapping features reveals
they are actually the effects of
irrigation using lines of rotary
sprinklers.
The two water jets were
misaligned causing a ring of
soil that was not as heavily Crop marks WNW of Store Anst, Ribe amt, Jutland, 27 June 1967.
watered. Photo: University of Cambridge, copyright reserved


Aerial Photography
The National Air Photo Library
Based at NMRC in Swindon.
Consists of c. 2.7 million photographs divided
into vertical and oblique collections.
Vertical collection comprises reconnaissance
and survey photography and covers whole of
England. Most flown by RAF but others by OS,
Meridian Airmaps Ltd, EA, etc.
Oblique collection contains photographs of
particular sites, initially cropmark
reconnaissance but now also industrial and
agricultural developments. Oblique
photography covers c.66% of England.
Oblique photographs from 1880 – present,
mainly taken by RCHME/EH but also by
independent fliers and from historical
collections (e.g. OGS Crawford).


Aerial Photography
To access the NMR aerial
photography a coversearch is
carried out based on an OS NGR
(e.g. SK423 890 + 500m).
Once a search has been made an
appointment to view the
photographs has to be made.
The oblique collection is open for
public browsing at the NMRC.
The photographs can be supplied
as photocopies (black+white,
photographic and colour). These
services incur a cost.
The NMR do not always hold
copyrights for the photographs and
so photocopies are not always
available.


Aerial Photography
• The Cambridge University Collection of Aerial
Photographs (CUCAP) is held in the photographic
library of the Unit for Landscape Modelling (ULM).

• The catalogue has its origins in the pioneering work
of Dr J.K. St Joseph. As lecturer in geology at
Cambridge University, St Joseph was provided with
access to an RAF aircraft and pilot for ten days in
July 1945. This process continued until in 1948 he
was appointed Curator in Aerial Photography, a
post designed to manage and control the
increasing library of images.

• The library now contains c. 500,000 photographs,
approximately half of which are vertical (blue) and
half are obliques (red).

• Appointments have to be made to view the
photographs and charges are applied for obtaining
copies (digital or photographic prints).


Aerial Photography

http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/cucap/


Aerial Photography

Open sources such as GoogleEarth/Maps and Bing Maps


Aerial Photography

1948 1971 2000

Using a time series of photographs reveals recent landscape change


Aerial Photography

Systematic transcription of evidence to a map is crucial


Laxton


Aims Today

• Examine maps and photographs
• Familiarise self with topography of Laxton
• Make observations


Self Assessment
Learning Outcomes
• Understand the influence of the romantic
movement on shaping Hoskins’s thinking
and hence contemporary landscape
archaeology
• Recognise the limitations in Hoskins
1950s view of early Britain
• Understand how aerial photography an be
used in landscape studies

Further Study
Suggested Reading
Matthew Johnsons’s blog post on Hoskins
Charles Pythian-Adams’s appreciation of
Hoskins in TLAHS
(see blog for both)
Self Study Themes
Making of the English Landscape, Chapters 3
and 4

Hoskins’ England hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk

Hoskins' england class 3

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