The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
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• 260 • Paul Stamper<br />
replanning: the imposition in the first half <strong>of</strong> the tenth century <strong>of</strong> a new lo<strong>ca</strong>l administrative<br />
organization following the reconquest <strong>of</strong> the Danelaw by Wessex. This established the hundred<br />
as the standard lo<strong>ca</strong>l unit <strong>of</strong> administration and the hide, nominally 48 ha, as the basic unit on<br />
which fis<strong>ca</strong>l and military obligations were based. Newly divided up, the lands<strong>ca</strong>pe then be<strong>ca</strong>me ‘a<br />
record in itself <strong>of</strong> dues; a regional imposition for national administrative purposes’. This revelation<br />
<strong>of</strong> a great replanning <strong>of</strong> the countryside in the late Saxon period, at least equal to that which<br />
followed the enclosures <strong>of</strong> a millennium later, is one <strong>of</strong> the great discoveries <strong>of</strong> British archaeology<br />
<strong>of</strong> the later twentieth century.<br />
Just as methodologi<strong>ca</strong>l advances have led to a better understanding <strong>of</strong> the lowland agricultural<br />
lands<strong>ca</strong>pes <strong>of</strong> the Middle Ages, so they are likewise beginning to unravel the stone walled<br />
countryside <strong>of</strong> upland areas. At Roystone Grange, in the White Peak <strong>of</strong> Derbyshire, a multiperiod<br />
lands<strong>ca</strong>pe criss-crossed with dry stone walls <strong>of</strong> various prehistoric to post-medieval dates, <strong>ca</strong>reful<br />
examination <strong>of</strong> wall types, and <strong>of</strong> their relationship to each other and to dated features and sites,<br />
has allowed the reconstruction <strong>of</strong> the lo<strong>ca</strong>l countryside at different times. One phase <strong>of</strong> walling,<br />
for instance, seems to relate to the establishment <strong>of</strong> a Cistercian grange—a monastic farm—at<br />
Roystone in the later twelfth century, while a later one apparently dates <strong>from</strong> the enclosure <strong>of</strong> the<br />
moorland c.1600 (Hodges 1991, ch. 2). Similarly, work in the Lakeland valleys for the National<br />
Trust has been equally successful in identifying several phases <strong>of</strong> walling, which has in turn led to<br />
the ascription <strong>of</strong> functions to the different zones <strong>of</strong> field. <strong>The</strong> most signifi<strong>ca</strong>nt type <strong>of</strong> wall, the<br />
head dykes or ring garths that run continuously along the valleys, separating the cultivated land<br />
<strong>from</strong> the rough pastures above, is now seen as having been established here in the eleventh or<br />
twelfth century.<br />
INDUSTRY<br />
Over the last generation, a much better understanding <strong>of</strong> medieval industry has been arrived at,<br />
largely through the appli<strong>ca</strong>tion <strong>of</strong> what may broadly be termed archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l techniques, including,<br />
alongside ex<strong>ca</strong>vation, the study <strong>of</strong> industrial lands<strong>ca</strong>pes and the scientific and techni<strong>ca</strong>l studies<br />
<strong>of</strong> objects, by-products and residues (Blair and Ramsay 1991). With the iron industry, for instance<br />
(Geddes 1991), it <strong>ca</strong>n now be seen that by the twelfth century ore was having to be got via<br />
tunnels, trenches and bell pits, presumably be<strong>ca</strong>use the easily available surface deposits had been<br />
worked out. While there were few changes in smelting techniques between the Romano-British<br />
period and the late Middle Ages, blast furnaces were introduced <strong>from</strong> abroad in the late fifteenth<br />
century. Newbridge, Sussex, is the earliest known; Henry VIII commissioned <strong>ca</strong>st-iron ordnance<br />
<strong>from</strong> here in 1496, and within a short time the product range included domestic items such as<br />
firedogs, fire backs and tomb slabs. Water-powered forges, where a water wheel was used to drive<br />
bellows and hammers, appeared earlier, the first example being set up at Chingley, Kent, in the<br />
early fourteenth century. <strong>Archaeology</strong> has also shown, in ex<strong>ca</strong>vations at Bordesley Abbey,<br />
Worcestershire, how water power was harnessed <strong>from</strong> the late twelfth century to provide power<br />
in a smithy housed in a mill equipped with wooden cogs and stone bearings (Astill 1993). While<br />
relatively few smithies have yet been ex<strong>ca</strong>vated, the microscopic analysis <strong>of</strong> slags and hammer<br />
s<strong>ca</strong>les seems likely to enable a far fuller understanding both <strong>of</strong> the spatial organization within<br />
individual complexes and <strong>of</strong> the techniques employed there. <strong>The</strong> gradual advances in iron-working<br />
technologies were reflected in the ever-broader range <strong>of</strong> iron and steel goods manufactured,<br />
some advances at least being demand-led. <strong>The</strong> clergy, for instance, needed accurate time-keeping<br />
devices, and between 1280 and 1300 iron horologia begin to be mentioned; the earliest surviving<br />
example is that <strong>of</strong> 1386 in Salisbury Cathedral (Geddes 1991, 178–179).