Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1998

Abstract

Historic Building Investigations and selective excavations carried out during recent conservation works have shed new light on St Mary's Guildhall, Boston (Lincolnshire), built by an internationally significant religious fraternity in one of the most important ports of medieval England. Dendrochronological dating of the guildhall indicates a construction date of c 1390. This is significantly earlier than had previously been supposed and suggests a close link between the construction of the guildhall and the grant of a royal licence of incorporation to the guild in 1392. It makes the guildhall one of the earliest securely dated brick buildings in Lincolnshire and is important evidence of investment during a period when Boston was experiencing severe economic decline. Multidisciplinary analysis of the archaeology of the building and some of the guild's surviving documentary records enables a reconstruction of the original form and function of the guildhall and its now-lost material culture. Comparative analysis of Boston with other surviving provincial guildhalls begins to shed light on the emergence of a distinctive type of public architecture in pre-modern England.     

Place,identity and social conflict in post-industrial England: cases from South Lincolnshire in the 1980s

ABSTRACT

This article examines a case of social conflict in an overlooked corner of England (Lincolnshire) in the late 1980s when self-described ‘local’ people opposed private housing developments and the migration of ‘southerners’, ‘townies’ and ‘commuters’ into their towns and villages. Protestors lamented change and disliked newcomers. This was a reaction to the arrival of affluent, ‘post-industrial’ workers on the back of a booming service sector. They personified a series of complex, interconnected socioeconomic and cultural changes which disrupted patterns of life rooted in disappearing productive industries and destabilised communities amidst factory closures, agricultural mechanisation, job losses and now suburbanisation. This affected meanings ascribed to places and introduced hierarchies and conflicts structured around Britain’s transition towards a service economy. Opposition was expressed through nostalgia, conservationism, inverse snobbery, anti-metropolitanism, attachment to ‘local’ identities, and concerns about declining independence, community and power. This paper argues that these protests demonstrate the emergence of new ideas about social relations, difference and distinction in post-industrial England. The findings also highlight feelings which would slowly seep into a new, reactionary politics foreshadowing the way that many towns and rural areas (including Lincolnshire) embraced a new political right in the first decades of the next millennium.     

Remarks on British and Roman Urns

The parish church of St Andrew at Irnham in Lincolnshire possesses a richly carved stone monument dating to around 1340 which bears the arms of Sir Geoffrey and Agnes Luttrell, associated with the celebrated Luttrell Psalter. The form, imagery and function of this monument are problematical and are discussed first in order to create a context for an unusual aspect of its architecture, namely that its inner vault is a miniature copy, unique in this part of England, of the main vault of the choir of Wells Cathedral, a so-called ‘net’ vault. Amongst the reasons for such an unusual citation may be the existence in Somerset, in the diocese of Wells, of one branch of the Luttrell family at the time this monument was raised.     

Pollen analytical investigations at Crosby Warren, Lincolnshire, in the Vicinity of the iron age and Romano-British settlement of Dragonby

Open-cast ironstone mining at Crosby Warren, near Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire exposed an extensive section through “cover sand” deposits. revealing buried podzol soils and peat layers. Stratigraphic studies, pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating have been carried out on three representative profiles. From these investigations it would appear that the “cover sands” in this area were stabilized under mixed oak woodland by c. 300 BC. After c. 100 BC woodland clearance and farming activities have been distinguished. Local alterations in land-use may be linked with cultural developments at the nearby Iron Age and Romano-British settlement of Dragonby. It is suggested that the impact of man upon the vegetation during Iron Age and Romano-British times probably facilitated podzolization and sand blowing.     

Beowulf and Archaeology

THIS SHORT CONTRIBUTION discusses an early medieval copper-alloy disc with polychrome enamel from Lincoln (England), held by ‘The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire’, and identified as a brooch dated to the 10th century and of probable continental manufacture. Only four brooches of this type are currently known, three of which were found in England, with a fourth from France. Following discussion of its stylistic characteristics and metallurgical composition, we discuss the implications of the Lincoln find for the understanding of the relationship between the area of the Danelaw and the Continent, highlighting a growing body of evidence for the popularity of continental ‘fashions’ in areas of Scandinavian settlement.     

Communities of kin and English landed gentry families of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

This article focuses on the kinship networks of the landed gentry of Devon, Lincolnshire and Hertfordshire in the modern period. Using national census household returns, the visitors’ books of a Devon gentry family and correspondence the article reveals dense and meaningful kinship networks centred on the main country house but also woven into the wider familial world of the gentry. Whenever possible, the inheritance of landed estates passed through the male line. But kin networks were bilateral, founded on both birth and marriage, on relations both through the male and the female line. Kin relations provided a range of services within a culture of visiting, epistolary practice and affection, which generated close and cherished family ties.     

Excavations at the Medieval Village of Wythemail,Northamptonshire

EXCAVATION of a single enclosure revealed a sequence from early 13th-century timber buildings to structures with stone foundations, or completely stone-built, in the later 13th and 14th centuries. A two-roomed long-house was replaced by a more complex four-roomed long-house built on a different alignment. Also in the enclosure were a sequence of six outbuildings rebuilt in various positions. In the 13th century there were changes in property boundaries and in the 14th century a road was cut obliquely across the enclosure leading to fundamental changes in planning. Evidence for climatic deterioration was given by the increasing use of drains and of paved and cobbled surfaces in the early 14th century. Finds included metal objects, animal bones, local shelly pottery, and 12th- to 14th-century sherds from Lincolnshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.     

Fragments of a Hanging-Bowl from Bekesbourne,Kent, and Some Ornamental Problems

ENGLAND IN THE 9TH CENTURY witnessed a revolution in pottery production. For the first time since the Roman period, pottery was wheel-thrown and produced on a near industrial scale. Research into this ceramic revolution has focused on chronology and, in particular, whether the technology was introduced before Scandinavian settlement. Yet, little attention has been paid to technological choices made by the potters or how these choices were influenced by wider societal changes. This paper takes a holistic approach to production, employing a range of analytical techniques to reveal the production sequence followed by potters working at one of the new industries — Torksey (Lincolnshire). With new insights into raw material choices, processing procedures, vessel forming practices and firing regimes, the paper challenges long-standing assumptions about manufacturing practice and the spread of the potters’ wheel. Opening a window into the mind of the potter, this article offers a greater understanding of the mechanisms that facilitated the diffusion and ultimate success of this new technology.     

Whose cultural value? Representation,power and creative industries

ABSTRACT

The debate around ‘cultural value’ has become increasingly central to policy debates on arts and creative industries policy over the past ten years and has mostly focused on the articulation and measurement of ‘economic value’, at the expense of other forms of value—cultural, social, aesthetic. This paper’s goal is to counter this prevalent over-simplification by focusing on the mechanisms through which ‘value’ is either allocated or denied to cultural forms and practices by certain groups in particular social contexts. We know that different social groups enjoy different access to the power to bestow value and legitimise aesthetic and cultural practices; yet, questions of power, of symbolic violence and misrecognition rarely have any prominence in cultural policy discourse. This article thus makes a distinctive contribution to creative industry scholarship by tackling this neglected question head on: it calls for a commitment to addressing cultural policy’s blind spot over power and misrecognition, and for what McGuigan (2006: 138) refers to as ‘critique in the public interest’. To achieve this, the article discusses findings of an AHRC-funded project that considered questions of cultural value, power, media representation and misrecognition in relation to a participatory arts project involving the Gypsy and Traveller community in Lincolnshire, England.     

In view and under foot: the hidden story of fallow deer,knuckle-bone floors and British estates

SUMMARY: The chance discovery of an 18th-century knuckle-bone floor at the National Trust property of Belton House in Lincolnshire prompted a review of all known post-medieval knuckle-bone floors in Britain to examine their date, context of creation and species composition. The identification of fallow deer bones within the Belton floor became the focus of genetic analysis to examine the relationship between ancient and modern deer from the estate and how these deer related to other medieval/post-medieval populations. This paper argues that both fallow deer and knuckle-bone floors were important elements of post-medieval estate landscapes and that more could be done to present their significance to the public.     

The Parliaments of Cambridge

Re-examination of St-Brieuc and Wilburton metalworking shows they cannot align, and this requires a general reordering of the Atlantic Late Bronze Age sequence. They have many differences, principally sword types. St-Brieuc always has U-butt Kerguérou (Limehouse in Britain) swords, whereas Wilburton always has Wilburton swords. Wilburton must follow St-Brieuc, so a new Limehouse stage is inserted between Penard and Wilburton, to align with St-Brieuc. The combination of U-butt sword and straight-mouthed chape of St-Brieuc and Limehouse is consistent throughout Atlantic Europe. So too are the characteristics of Wilburton metalworking which followed, and its Brécy equivalent in France. In Britain the contemporaneity of Wallington and Wilburton is reaffirmed. Both played a part in the emergence of Ewart Park 1 metal-working, with South Yorkshire/Lincolnshire a vital contact zone. The Atlantic Late Bronze Age unravelled after Wilburton. Iberia effectively dropped out after Huelva, diverted by Phoenician influences. Links between Britain and Atlantic France declined, and their sword and axe preferences diverged. The various weapon complexes of Ewart Park 1 in Britain have no equivalents in France. Ordering and sub-dividing this final phase of the LBA has always been imponderable but has been helped by the identification of St-Philbert (Huelva) swords, which show what are Ewart Park 1 hoards in Britain and contemporary Longueville hoards in France. They also make clear that the Carp's tongue complex must be relegated to the last part of the Late Bronze Age.     

The application of histomorphometry and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to the analysis of early Anglo-Saxon burned bone

Macroscopic examination, histomorphometry and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) are applied to the analysis of burned bones from the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Elsham in Lincolnshire, UK. These methods were undertaken to gain a greater understanding of pyre conditions from an archaeological context and the effects of burning on bone microstructure. Sixteen samples were employed for thin-section analysis while eight samples were used with FTIR. The results suggest that these methods correspond well with macroscopic examination, though anomalies did occur. The techniques employed in this paper have demonstrated that the temperatures reached on the funerary pyres at Elsham ranged from 600 °C to over 900 °C under oxidizing conditions.     

Recent Archæological Researches in Rome

Luminescence dating has been applied to ceramic bricks sampled from a selection of English medieval ecclesiastical and secular buildings in Essex, Kent and Lincolnshire, ranging in age from the fourth to the late sixteenth centuries. The results obtained for the Anglo-Saxon churches, which included Brixworth, confirmed the reuse of Roman brick in all cases. The dates for the earliest medieval brick type indicate that brick making was reintroduced during the eleventh century, a century earlier than previously accepted, and dates for bricks from the same secular Tudor building indicate that the practice of recycling of building materials during the late medieval period was also applied to brick.     

Illustrations of Medieval Manners and Costume from Original Documents

The Coningesby family connection with Guy of Warwick is recorded in a pedigree of the family in the Lincolnshire Record Office. The will of Sir Henry Coningesby, knight, indicates that he built the present house at North Mymms Park, probably in the 1580s. It is suggested that the ‘Warwick’ worthy depicts Sir Henry's thirteenth-century ancestor, Sir Roger Coningesby, knight, Steward of the house to Guy of Warwick. There was a connection by marriage between the house at North Mymms, Hertfordshire and Nether Hall, Essex, where similar wall paintings had existed. The association between the Coningesby family, when at the Manor of Weld and the Cutts family, when at Salisbury Hall, both in the parish of Shenley, Hertfordshire, probably accounts for the similarity of the frieze in the Oak bedroom and the frieze in Childerley Hall, Cambridgeshire.     

Going round in circles: Some new evidence for population in the later middle ages

The Myntling Register contains some little known and, in some respects, highly unusual demographic evidence relating to the period from around the later fourteenth century up to the 1970s and to the wealthy Lincolnshire Priory of Spalding. It is in the form of hundreds of ‘family trees’ relating to the villein families of the priory's major manors. It has evidence of interest to economic historians of medieval England on several fronts, the three of which dealt with here are proportions of males to females, percentages of females marrying, and most particularly numbers of surviving children per family. This evidence, whilst by no means perfect, is of a much more direct kind than that often used in attempts to calculate later medieval population. As such it has a contribution to make to the very vexed question of later medieval demography.     

Reflections on the historical origin of regions and pays

This paper examines the historical origin of two related but distinct types of country-side or pays in England: those based on early-settled river-valleys and those associated with areas of wold. W. G. Hoskins has pointed out that in Devon early places like Tawton and Taviton derived their names from rivers and were associated with outlying stocks or cattle-farms—Tawstock and Tavistock—which originally formed distinct but related parts of the same river-estate.A similar association is found in many areas. Two examples in Kent, where the evidence for early settlement is unusually abundant, are examined in detail: the estates of the Darenth people and the Bourne people. In both cases settlement pressed inland from the river itself, far up into the wooded Downland or wold. As well as their original river communities they thus developed an outlying area of summer pasture based on isolated forest shielings. The former may have originated before the English invasions and were certainly very early. The development of the shielings into permanent farms occurred later, mainly in the middle- or later-Saxon period.The Kentish evidence is significant for three reasons. First, there can be no doubt that in the county as a whole the wold region or Downland originated as the outlying summer pasture of the river-estates. Secondly, as the isolated shielings evolved into permanent farms, the region developed an independent life of its own, with distinct characteristics from those of the parental river-settlements. Thirdly, the word wold occurs widely in the Downland place-names of East Kent, where it definitely denotes woodland or forest, and not simply the “elevated stretch of open country” which it is often said to signify. Did other areas of wold, now largely woodless, such as the Cotswolds and Lincolnshire Wolds, also originate as the outlying wood-pasture of early river-peoples?     

Boston and Grimsby in the middle ages: an administrative contrast

Study of the Lincolnshire towns of Boston and Grimsby throws light on the question of borough status in the middle ages. Both towns shared the basic liberties which made urban life possible in the middle ages: personal and tenurial freedom, freedom from tolls and other economic privileges such as the right to hold fairs and markets. Although contemporaries had no clear definition of ‘the borough’ and boroughs were not a distinct legal category, historians have profitably employed this concept to draw attention to these fundamental tenurial and economic liberties. However, the privileges held by individual boroughs varied enermously. Royal boroughs, such as Grimsby, tended to be marked by an administrative independence where the community of burgesses were free to elect their own mayors and bailiffs, and paid salaried officials from a common purse. In many seignorial boroughs, including Boston, the burgesses enjoyed less self government. Here the town's overlords maintained a more active interest in administration through their control of the town courts and their appointment of officers. Nevertheless there is little evidence for conflict between lords and burgesses at Boston (as there was in many monastic boroughs) and the town flourished. Urban liberties were the essential pre-condition of town life but there was no necessary correlation between urban growth and town franchises. Boston was a wealthier and more populous town than Grimsby and yet enjoyed less administrative independence. The extent of urban liberties reflected lordship rather than economic importance.