Development and the environment: Perception and opinion in St Andrews,Scotland

In 2003, three proposals were being mediated through the planning system in the peri‐urban environment of St Andrews, Fife: a large housing development, a rail link, and a Green Belt. Using questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews with key stakeholders, we investigate the ways in which diverse conceptions of ‘the environment’ shaped public reactions to these proposals, and evaluate the fit between these and the respondents’ stated environmental perceptions. 98% of local residents surveyed describe themselves as ‘concerned about the environment’. However, large majorities conceive of the environment as a local rather than a global phenomenon, and regard it primarily in terms of personal benefits (such as landscape aesthetics or traffic considerations). By exploring the environmental perceptions in the light of the planning proposals, the study supports the contention that the ‘local environment’ is a socially constructed phenomenon which can be fashioned and re‐fashioned according to local perceptions of threats and opportunities.     

The Hall of Oakham

In February 1980 the Winchester City Archaeology Office undertook the excavation of a burial discovered by workmen in the south aisle of Winchester Cathedral. A partly decomposed skeleton and the remains of woollen clothing and leather shoes were found contained in a stone coffin. Analysis of the skeletal material, textile and leather combined with the evidence of its location suggest the burial of a man of high status in medieval society. On the basis of the clothes and in the absence of any ecclesiastical parallels he seems likely to have been a layperson rather than a cleric. The style of shoes and coffin make a date of burial before the mid-thirteenth century likely.     

On the “Belgic Ditches,” and the Probable Date of Stonehenge

The acceptance of Caerlaverock castle into guardianship was followed by consolidation of the masonry and the clearance of the silted moat. In parallel with these operations, a series of excavations was carried out to investigate the nature of the outer defences and any surviving evidence for earlier bridges. Four different phases of timber bridges had crossed the moat to the gatehouse; the first three were dated by dendrochronology to 1277, 1371 and to the second quarter of the fifteenth century. An outer earthwork, originally intended purely to retain the water of the moat, was remodelled in the sixteenth century as an artillery defence. The approach to the castle was remodelled with an additional rock-cut moat, crossed by a timber bridge dated by dendrochronology c. 1559–94. Documentary evidence is examined for the use of these artillery defences, especially in the final siege of Caerlaverock in 1640. A rich assemblage of finds was recovered, mainly from unstratified contexts, both from the excavation of the bridges and from the general clearance work of the moat.