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Hoskins' england class 8
1. W.G. Hoskins and the Making of
the English Landscape
Class 8. A desirable spot to build upon.
Bricks, mortar and the coming of industry
Tutor: Keith Challis
hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk
2. Recap: Last Week
(A Curse Upon the Land)
• Nostalgia and the immemorial past
• A curse upon the Land: Parliamentary
Enclosure
• 60 years on: Critique of Hoskins and a
counterpoint
• Researching Enclosure and Tithe
Commutation
• Laxton Group project: Tracing Enclosure at
Laxton
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3. Class Summary
Structure
• A Desirable Spot to Build Upon
• An Unexpected Corner
• 60 years on: Critique of Hoskins and a counterpoint
Coffee Break
• What did WG Hoskins ever do for us?
• Laxton Castle
• Fieldtrip
Hoskins’s England hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk
5. A Desirable Spot to Build Upon
The Industrial Revolution and the Landscape
• The Early Industrial Landscape
• Water Power and the Early Mills
• Steam-Power and Slums
The Unexpected Corner
• The Planned Town
• The Open-Field Town
• The Market Town
Hoskins’s England hoskins-
6. A Desirable Spot to Build Upon
The Early Industrial
Landscape
• Early industry was small-
scale, cottage based and
had relatively limited impact
on the landscape (cite
Defoe p 212
• It was based on individual
endeavour not mass labour
• Often part of a subsistence
economy that mixed farming
and industry
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7. A Desirable Spot to Build Upon
Water Power and the Early
Mills
• The advent of water
power presaged the
factory, often in remote
areas
• Capital investment
necessitated shift working
• Mill-factories led to
population explosion to
service their needs
• Entrepreneurial industry
leaders built new great
houses, often close to
their mills
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Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg,
Coalbrookdale by Night
8. A Desirable Spot to Build Upon
Steam-Power and Slums
• “Dirt and overcrowding came
with the steam age in the 19th
century”
• Steam power ushered in large
scale industry, waste tips and
slums
• Industrial landscapes achieve
“their final horrific form”
• Green spaces in towns are
absorbed by the spread of
housing for workers
• Poorly build back to back
housing became the norm
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9. An Unexpected Corner
Hoskins on Towns
• “There are many different ways
of looking at a town for the first
time. One of them – a little old
fashioned perhaps, for I do not
see many people doing it
nowadays – is to walk around it
guidebook in hand…(p270)
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10. An Unexpected Corner
The Planned Town
• Planned towns – largely
of the 12th
and 13th
century mark a small and
distinctive group of
English towns
• Town planning requires
seigniorial oversight and
single ownership of land
• After 1300 there is no
significant urban
planning until the 18th
century
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11. An Unexpected Corner
The Open Field Town
• An opaque class of
town that grew in the
midst of their open
fields
• Agricultural rights
dominate town life
• Exemplified by three
East Midlands
examples,
Nottingham, Leicester
and Stamford
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12. An Unexpected Corner
The Market Town
• Towns whose plan is
dominated by a market
place
• Market charters and
market rights are
central to the early
history of these towns
• Well preserved
examples typify the
English idea of
townscape
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14. A Desirable Spot to Build Upon
“Since the year 1914, every single change
in the English landscape has either
uglified it, or destroyed its meaning, or
both.”
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15. A Desirable Spot to Build Upon
The Industry of
Heritage
• Industrial heritage has
become a significant
and valued aspect of
English landscape
history
Hoskins’s England hoskins-
16. A Desirable Spot to Build Upon
Unending
Archaeology
• The “atom men's”
revenge – modern
perceptions of
historic values
include the recent
past
• Archaeological ideas
can be applied to
every aspects of 20th
century landscape
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17. An Unexpected Corner
The Archaeology of Towns
• The explosion in urban
archaeology has
demonstrated the rich
complexity of English towns
• Hoskins anticipated
examination of towns has
been largely fulfilled
• Simple classification is
untenable
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19. What Did…?
Everything is Much older
than we thought!
• Hoskins introduced the
idea of the antiquity of the
English landscape as we
now see it
• This simple but
revolutionary concept has
shaped much subsequent
thinking about landscape
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20. What Did…?
Landscapes
Not Monuments (or mansions)
• Hoskins landscape focus is a
counterpoint to the focus on
buildings that has driven 20th
century heritage
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21. What Did…?
A Conservation Ethos
• His emphasis on the
historical depth of
landscape coupled with
a valuing of the ancient
and an eloquent popular
voice (although largely
forgotten) helped shape
public and official
perceptions of
landscape
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22. What Did…?
The “Common Man” as
Expert
• Hoskins stressed simple,
patient research and
common sense skills
• His research valued first
hand, on foot, encounter
with the past and claimed
no special knowledge but
rather suggested that the
transition from ignorance
to knowledge was open to
all
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26. “The interrelationship between any given castle and its surroundings can
be essentially understood from two perspectives: the impact of the castle
on the landscape and the impact of the landscape on the castle.”
Oliver Creighton (2002)
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Location Analysis
27. “As a type of fortification, the real strength of castle architecture lay in its
symbolic, not military value…As a symbol of authority, the visual appearance
of the castle was synonymous with the castle holder’s claim of lordship.
Medieval castle were constructed for those who wished to be seen…the
constituents of a visual programme…there to express a message about rule,
society, military might and money.”
McGrail 1995
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Location Analysis
28. “Positioning a castle so that it visually dominated a particular area was only
one way of advertising the seigniorial presence…castle builders were
conscious of the visual benefits to be gained from their choice of site…
The advantages of a hilltop site were not, as might be expected, simply
military; rather, the placing of a castle on an elevated site was a metaphor
for physical strength”
Liddiard, 2005
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Location Analysis
48. Self Assessment
Learning Outcomes
• As a result of attending this course it may be possible for you to:
• Understand the role and importance of W.G. Hoskins in English
Landscape studies
• Appreciate the broad chronological development of the English
Landscape
• Appreciate the development of landscape studies after Hoskins, in
particular what characterises contrasting modernist and post
modern approaches to landscape
• Appreciate how our perception of landscape underpins national
identity
• Identify and explain evidence for landscape development in the field
and on cartographic and photographic sources
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