How the Land Lies: The Origins of Regular Landscapes in the English Lowlands [Paperback]

Challenges the assumption that regular historic landscapes result from deliberate planning, showing that topography, drainage, and gradual expansion often shaped their apparent order.The assumption that regular landscapes containing seemingly ordered arrangements of boundaries and lanes could only arise through deliberate planning has been a central pillar of relict field systems  the survival of organised prehistoric and Roman field systems in the framework of the medieval and modern landscape. Similar ideas underpin arguments for the planned origins of open fields. How the Land Lies argues that the notion that regularity must indicate landscape planning is flawed without careful consideration of the environmental context. Combining archaeological, historical and environmental sources in a number of case studies, this book presents evidence for the importance of topography, drainage and environment to the location and direction of boundaries in lowland England.Considers the notion that regular landscapes could only arise through deliberate planning, and argues that the appearance of regularity can derive through piecemeal expansion over many years.Presents a unique interpretation of the origin of regular landscapes  that it does not necessarily stem from deliberate planning, and that this interpretation overlooks topography and the natural environment as fundamental influences.Argues for the importance of topography and drainage in the organic development of regular boundary patterns.Uses case studies from Northamptonshire, West Cambrideshire and Marshland and cites examples from the East Riding of Yorkshire, the Midlands, and North Yorkshire.List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Interpreting patternsPart One: Reassessing 'relict field systems'1. 'Rough grids': Prehistoric boundaries and 'ancient' fields2. The 'relict field systems' in West Cambridgeshire3. Revisiting some famous 'relict field systems'4. Summary and conclusion to Part OnePart Two: PlannelS