'Closure' and the urban Great Rebuilding in early modern Norwich

Abstract

Urban buildings have been largely ignored in the debate over the 'Great Rebuilding' of vernacular houses in 16th- and 17th-century England and in Matthew Johnson's influential thesis of 'closure'. This paper reviews the extensive archaeological evidence (from both standing buildings and excavations) for houses in post-medieval Norwich, focusing on the dwellings of the prosperous 'middling sort'. Norwich experienced a significant period of housing development between the late 15th and mid-16th centuries, with rebuilding continuing through the later 16th and 17th centuries. Accordingly, the concept of 'closure' must be adapted to incorporate the distinctive character and chronology of urban buildings.     

A map of Germany made after the Swedish Campaign of 1630–48

Summary

The Elizabethan small‐scale maps of towns, beginning with Cuningham's Norwich (1559) and ending with Speed's collection in his Theatre, are often underrated by historians. If used intelligently, these maps, which combine a ground plan with perspective drawing, can give much useful historical information, particularly about the main street pattern; fortifications or other buildings, since demolished; and the extent of suburban development. Large‐scale maps of this and later periods provide not only a reliable record of the changes in the street plan, but often depict the structure of houses or the various kinds of industrial undertakings, and give historical or statistical details of great importance. Many have borders filled with accurate engravings of buildings, since demolished. From the time of Leake's great survey of London (1665), but especially in the second half of the 18th century, an increasing number of towns had accurate surveys made at a scale of approximately 1: 5,000. The best of these show the house plots in detail, the relation of the built‐up area to the open spaces, and land use in the environs. In the first decades of the 19th century plans of the greatest detail and reliability were made for some of the larger towns on a scale of 1 : 2,500. All are valuable material for the student of social and economic history.     

Asymmetry and activity-related change in the male humerus

Some previous studies of activity-related change in the human skeleton have been of doubtful validity because specific changes have been related to particular tasks. Claims to establish such relationships have often concentrated on the development of entheses. Such work is marred by the incorrect assumption that muscles work in isolation in the performance of a single activity. In addition, normal skeletal asymmetry is often ignored, as is age and sex. In the present work, paired humeri of males from two medieval British sites, Norwich and Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, were compared using a series of measurements. Comparison of left and right sides demonstrated that humeral asymmetry decreases with age. Comparison of the sites showed that the Norwich males were more asymmetric than those from the Mary Rose. All asymmetries exhibited a right-sided dominance. The majority of the species is right-handed: the Norwich males followed this trend. The general lack of asymmetry in the Mary Rose males suggests that they were using their arms more equally. When left and right sides were compared directly, a new measurement of the greater tubercle (where three muscles insert) and measurement of the diameter of the head demonstrated that the Mary Rose males had significantly larger dimensions of the left shoulder than the Norwich males. These results extend earlier work, which had suggested a correlation between the use of heavy medieval longbows and os acromiale. Statistical comparison of the sites demonstrated that such work can indicate patterns of activity but not individual occupations.     

Working Museums and Historic Mills in the Textile Industry

Abstract

The making of worsteds was critical to the economic success of Norwich from 1400 to 1550, replacing woollens as the town's main industry. Critical to this success was the development of very high quality double worsted, woven and finished to give it qualities similar to silk. It was used for both clothing and home furnishings. In the second half of the fifteenth century double worsted became an important and profitable export. Double worsted declined in the second quarter of the sixteenth century as cheaper, continental light draperies entered the market. Historians have underestimated the importance of the double worsted, and have incorrectly viewed the early sixteenth century as a period of rapid decline. However, there is evidence that Norwich was reasonably successful in diversifying its worsted cloths to sustain its textile manufacturing, and that this prepared it for even greater success in the seventeenth century.     

A medieval bladder stone from Norwich,Norfolk

A fragmented bladder stone was recovered from the pelvic cavity of a medieval mature male buried in the Franciscan cemetery of St Faith's, Norwich. A review of other British archaeologically derived bladder stones is also included. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A bipartite patella in a juvenile from a medieval context

One hundred and thirty six well‐preserved medieval skeletons were excavated in advance of re‐development in Norwich. The right patella of a 13–15 year old skeleton (SK 65) displays a ‘fracture line’ running through the supero‐lateral pole. This represents the fusion of a secondary ossification centre, a condition known as bipartite patella. It should not be confused with other anatomical variants or with pathological processes. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Right to the City and Critical Reflections on China's Property Rights Activism

Wholesale clearance and eviction that typify China's urban development have often resulted in discontents among urban residents, giving rise to what critics refer to as property rights activism. This paper is an attempt to critically revisit the existing debates on the property rights activism in China. The paper refers to the perspective of the “right to the city” to examine whose rights count in China's urban development contexts and proposes a cross‐class alliance that engages both migrants and local citizens. The alliance itself will have substantial political implications, overcoming the limited level of rights awareness that mainly rests on distributional justice in China. The discussions are supported by an analysis of empirical data from the author's field research in Guangzhou, which examines how local and non‐local (migrant) residents view nail‐households resisting demolition and forced eviction.     

Marginalized for a lifetime: The everyday experiences of gulag survivors in post-Soviet Magadan

Over the past decade notions of social capital have become embedded in the social development lexicon, often presented as the ‘missing link’ within development theory. Much social capital‐based research takes Robert Putnam's theorization of the subject as its starting point. Putnam's work argues that social capital can be measured by a region's levels of trust and civic engagement. While its use, and conceptualization, has undergone much academic debate, often formal institutions still employ this very narrow, and arguably Western‐centric, reading of the subject. This paper argues that while at the micro‐level social capital has little to do with the civic engagement and trust theories posited by Putnam, it still has relevance to the lives of marginalized individuals and is an important factor in their continued survival. To explore this, drawing on extensive qualitative research conducted in Magadan, Moscow and St Petersburg, I critically examine the construction of everyday survival strategies among Gulag survivors living in Russia's far northeast city of Magadan. Denied a return to their ‘homeland’ upon their release, this group experienced considerable marginalization in the post‐Stalin period. This was exacerbated when the collapse of the Soviet Union saw pensions in the far northeast of Russia fall to below 50% of the state‐set subsistence minimum. The paper demonstrates the importance of social capital to this group by showing how their survival is based on far more than interactions with formal and informal organizations.     

Re‐valuing the Fringe: Some Findings on the Value of Agricultural Production in Australia's Peri‐Urban Regions

The agriculture that occurs in Australia's peri‐urban regions is not well understood, nor has its economic value ever been examined systematically. Using a spatial frame derived from research into population change, Agricultural Census data are used to calculate the value of this agricultural production. The analysis suggests that peri‐urban regions in the five mainland States produce almost 25% of Australia's total gross value of agricultural production. Evidence gathered from other surveys suggests that, in some respects, this may be an underestimate. Although qualified and provisional, these findings have important strategic implications for agricultural development, urban and regional development and, ultimately, sustainable development. However, peri‐urban issues are often submerged in public policy deliberations, and peri‐urban agriculture is poorly served by the Agricultural Census.     

Precarious Lives in the Global South: On Being Disabled in Guyana

Most of what is known about disabled women's and men's lives is based on research conducted in the global North despite the fact that 80% of the world's one billion disabled people live in countries of the global South. This article addresses this gap in our understanding of disabled people's lives by examining impairment and disability as outcomes of processes of social embodiment that unfold in an unequal global capitalist order. Drawing on 87 interviews conducted with disabled women and men in Guyana, the article illustrates how colonial and neo‐colonial relations of power and processes of development give rise to material conditions of life such as extreme poverty and male violence that contribute to impairment and disability. The article concludes by discussing the article's contributions, challenges in developing southern perspectives on impairment and disability, and the need to address socio‐spatial injustices experienced by disabled people in the global South.     

John Bolton's Cinder Oven: An eighteenth century industrial re-use of a mediaeval tower

Abstract

In one of the two mediaeval towers built to defend the River Wensum in Norwich there is a beehive coke oven. Documentary evidence suggests that this 'cinder oven', as it is known locally, was built in c. 1792 by John Bolton to produce coke for his nearby maltings. Although unused for over a century, it is still intact and in relatively good condition. This short paper describes its history and structure.     

Daily,Immediate Conflicts: an Analysis of Villagers' Arguments about a Multinational Nickel Mining Project in New Caledonia1

Local communities are not the homogenous entities, unanimously opposed to industrial development, that academic and popular literature often portray them to be. In this paper, I discuss my research in New Caledonian villages near a potential mining project. I analyse the diversity of individuals' responses to industrial activities, the intra‐community conflicts that this development triggered or exacerbated, and the discourses that people implemented to support their positions. Specifically, people's statements — and, presumably, beliefs — about dangers from ecological damage and ancestral anger reflected their expectations of the project's consequences for their sub‐group's social status. I argue that, through their interactions with the mining company, what many if not most of these villagers primarily sought was respect of their social positions and control of their own destinies. They especially aspired to determine what happened to their land, the source of their identity and dignity.     

Writing about a different kind of medical history: a critical review of Zaizao bingren by Yang Nianqun

After the implementation of China's Reform Policy and the dissolution of the Cold War system, the conditions in Japan for conducting scholarly research on China's modern history changed drastically. We can categorize Japanese research on China's modern history since the 1980s into two components: the relativization of the Chinese Revolution and a rediscovery of the uniqueness of Chinese society. Some historians, however, continue to point out that an alternative vision of history that integrates detailed research results already achieved within individual areas of history has not yet replaced the conventional revolution‐based paradigm. It is indisputable, as they emphasize, that breaking away from the so‐called revolution‐based viewpoint of history in Japan has created diverse visions of history and has contributed to a more substantial body of work pertaining to China's modern history. The question of what kind of new vision we should search for, however, remains unanswered. Recent overviews of modern Chinese history in Japan were expected to answer this question. This paper is intended as a general review of recent trends and expected developments in Japanese research on China's modern history by introducing the most important overviews written by Japanese scholars. We are not concerned here with individual case study research.     

English towns in the late middle ages: the case of Great Yarmouth

Historians are divided over the economic fortunes of English towns in the late middle ages. Many argue for a ‘general crisis’ while others emphasize the variety of urban experience. Great Yarmouth is a striking example of a town facing protracted difficulties. Its decline in relation to other English towns between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries is particularly marked. Fourth among provincial towns in the 1334 tax return, Yarmouth ranked eighteenth in 1377 and twentieth in the subsidies of the 1520s.Yarmouth's problems become apparent soon after 1350, but while the Black Death may have killed one-third of its inhabitants, it is not the main cause of the town's misfortunes. Yarmouth depended heavily on two industries: shipping and fishing. The former was undermined by the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the latter by competition from the Low Countries. A silting harbour which drove away trade and the high cost of building and repairing the town walls added to Yarmouth's difficulties.Whether economic decline is measured in terms of totals, for example total volume of trade, or in terms of individual production or wealth, Yarmouth fared badly. In the second half of the fourteenth century, Yarmouth's trade was much reduced and the town's leading burgesses seem much poorer than their counterparts before 1350. While Yarmouth clearly was in decline from about 1350 onwards, the town's experiences cannot be used to prove the case for a ‘general crisis’. They have to be seen in the context of the continuing prosperity of Norwich and the revival of Ipswich.     

A review of China's foreign policy decision‐making during the Cold War

In the past 10 years or so, gradual declassifications of official foreign policy documents in the Soviet Union, in China and in the United States have provided opportunities for research in the various fields concerned. More importantly, in the realm of China's international relations theory this has been a period for “letting a hundred flowers bloom” through translation, study, argument, and reflection. Particularly worth noting is that in recent years, research in China's decision‐making in foreign policy, which had hitherto been off‐limits, has been gradually opening up, resulting in many publications. An example is China's Foreign Policy Decision‐Making during the Cold War written by Professor Niu Jun of The School of International Studies of Peking University, and published by Japan's Chikura Publishing Company in September 2007.     

Incentives for the Iranian Chemical Boom: A Strategic Motivation or Applied Needs?

Iran's scientific impact has suffered hard from decades of imposed and self‐elected isolation from Western influences and international collaboration. Lately, however, the world has witnessed a remarkable increase in scientific publications from Iranian scientists in fields like nanotechnology; material science; and, perhaps most pronounced, chemistry. In this article, the factors behind this “publication boom” are discussed and examined together with an analysis of the coherence between the country's long‐term research strategies and short‐term needs in relation to present organic chemical research conducted at various Iranian universities and institutes. Organic chemistry is a keystone in important Iranian industrial sectors like the petroleum and agricultural industries, and also in the growing field of life science and pharmacology. The development of the petroleum industry and further refinement of raw oil into value‐added fine chemicals holds a key position in the reinforcement of the Iranian economy and labor market, thus motivating a governmental investment in chemical science and research. Taking an approach to find a reasonable balance with the impact from Western and Far Eastern scientific communities, Iran's own scientific roots and Islamic ideology could well be the success factor in becoming a worthy player on the international scientific arena.     

From Greek Boar's‐Tusk Helmets to the First European Metal Helmets: New Approaches on Development and Chronology

After more than a century of research into Bronze Age helmets throughout Europe, both the development and chronology of conical helmets with spool‐shaped sockets still remain unclear. The comprehensive studies and analysis of the helmet from Biecz have not completely resolved the discussions. Other helmets, when not solitary finds, have been usually dated according to their alleged associations in a hoard but have never been extensively discussed as a single helmet type of one date range. By introducing to the discussion a Greek bronze helmet with incised boar's tusks as well as those boar's‐tusk helmets with bronze cheek plates, more light is shed on the development and chronology of these very first European bronze helmets.     

Western Australia's Royalties for Regions program: a policy response to growth,regional neglect,and perceived disempowerment

Under the right conditions, compounding socio‐political and economic change can dramatically alter government policy. From 2000, Western Australia, a resource‐rich jurisdiction, experienced significant change owing to a once‐in‐a‐generation resources boom, which forced a break with earlier development approaches. In 2008, regional interventionism returned to the State via the State Government's Royalties for Regions program. Departing from the neo‐liberal tradition, the program allocated 25 per cent of the State's royalty income to non‐metropolitan regions, over and above existing regional allocations, and its success remains disputed. While it is easy to question the program retrospectively, the socio‐economic and political circumstances from 2000 to 2008 reveal a “perfect storm” of conditions enabling the transition from neo‐liberalism to interventionism in regional development. This paper sets out to understand the multi‐faceted conditions that enabled the dramatic paradigm shift embodied by the program. To this end, it examines the State's rural–urban settlement dichotomy, its staples economy, and the policy context leading up to the program. Following that, the paper proposes a causal framework mapping out the factors driving and rationalising the program. These factors are then examined in detail and include perceived rural voter disenchantment, ineffectual regional development policy, the State's mining boom, inadequate regional development funding, the contrasting fortunes of two regions (illustrative of the impact of growth, and the lack thereof), and the political manoeuvring during the 2008 election. Finally, the paper concludes by considering how the conversion of these conditions resulted in the State's most significant regional policy redirection in decades.