England’s history lies in the turn of every street, in the fabric of castles and villages, the lay-out of fields, the names of places, even in patterns of plants and trees. Town and country have been shaped by millennia of planning and of accidents, of agreements and conflicts, by policies and technologies, by work and by play, by fashions, even by worship, and, above all, by changing climate, population and economies.
Our course will consider the evidence in six main chapters:
(i) the long and diverse period before recorded history, up to 2000 years ago, for which archaeology provides the only information;
(ii) the Roman period, commonly imagined as one of radical change under a new world order but now seen, by some scholars, as a mixture of innovation and tradition;
(iii) the Saxon period, which witnessed both the collapse and the reinvention of state government and towns;
(iv) the later Middle Ages, bringing first growth and then decline and a long struggle of social and economic adjustment;
(v) the Early Modern period of urban and rural development under new concepts of civilisation;
(vi) the industrial era of massive growth, technological change and revolutionary policy which continues to this day.
Each of these phases has left its marks, and most can be detected in every district. Some of them were imposed from abroad, while others, indigenous to England, were taken overseas by colonists.
Landscapes are artefacts. The principles for studying them are simple but the analysis of causes can be complicated. Landscape history is an engrossing and satisfying method that can work in any other country too.
