The Bulletin of CSLH
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Landscape History Today: the Bulletin of CSLH January 2017 Number 60 New publication—and matching cake Page Contents Chair(s Message 3 Editor(s Desk 4 ,hank -ou to Dr Sharon .arey 5 0esiden%al 0e orts 1 2Water, Stone and Wall Pain%ngs( by M 4 M ,aylor 20 5aunch of New Publica%on 27 Joint Conference with S5S 28 Book 0eview 32 ,he -ear Ahead 5ecture Programme 34 Field .isits Programme 40 Booking Form 44 End Piece 45 Please make sure all contribu%ons for the Se tember edi%on of the Bulle%n are with the editor by 30 June 2017. Editor: Mrs Julie Smalley 2 Farley Close Middlewich CW10 0PU Email: [email protected] Web: www.chesterlandscapehistory.org.uk Page 2 Chair’s Message First of all, a big 2thank you( to everyone who ;lled in a ques%onnaire to hel us with our future lanning. We received a good res onse and are leased to announce that the 2,o 3( CS5H ac%vi%es unsur risingly are lectures, ;eld visits and the Bulle%n. One of the things members ar%cularly a reciated was our forthcoming rogramme of events, so this bum er edi%on contains those all im ortant dates for your diary. ,he autumn season is o?en a busy one for the Planning ,eam and this year has been no exce %on with our 30th anniversary celebra%ons and the launch of our most recent ublica%on 5andsca es Past and Present: Cheshire and Beyond. Members may have seen the icture of a number of the contributors and the anniversary book sha ed cake which a eared in the Chester Observer. ,his event was followed by a very successful Aoint conference with the Society for 5andsca e Studies. As you are aware, both Mike (HeadonC and I are ste ing down at the forthcoming AEM in January. ,he exis%ng Planning ,eam have been working very closely to ensure there is a seamless handover. I know that they, and many of you, will a reciate the valuable contribu%on Mike has made to the Society. Having held every 2oFcial( role on the Planning ,eam, and lenty of others besides, Mike(s knowledge and ex erience will be hard to re lace. So from all of us, a huge 2,hank you( for everything you have done for CS5H. Finally, I would like to take this o ortunity to thank the various lanning teams I have worked with during my %me as Chair. It has been a great leasure to have been Chairman of a Society with so many talented, su or%ve and a recia%ve members. With very best wishes to you all for the forthcoming year, Sharon Page 3 Editor’s Desk Ha y New -ear to all members. Here we are with the ;rst of our two Bulle%ns for 2011Gand what a mammoth edi%on to ut together this %meH January(s issue contains lenty to share from last year(s series of highly interes%ng events. As usual we now look ahead to a fresh rogramme of lectures and ;eld visits, ably ut together by a IesJul Planning ,eam. Some changes are on the wayK but as always we are striving for con%nuity. ,o those contributors who su lied ar%cles, re orts, ersonal im ressionsK many thanks. ,o those who have not yet done so, maybe this is a resolu%on to make L and kee H In our recent survey 2variety( to ed the list of ex ecta%ons of our Bulle%n. 5et(s kee aiming for that. One editorial leaGbe sure to clearly iden%fy and date all your submissions. ,his hel s enormously. So...at last, enAoy this readH Julie Page 4 A Thank You to Dr Sharon Varey One of my (very fewC du%es as President of Chester Society for 5andsca e His- tory (CS5HC is to ste forward at each AEM to conduct the elec%on (or usually the re-elec%onC of our Chairman. For the ast seven years, since 200N, it has been my leasure to announce the elec%on of Dr Sharon .arey, who is now standing down a?er a eriod of outstanding rogress for the Society. We have been extremely fortunate as a Society in the calibre of our Chairmen - Monty Cordwell, Mike Headon, 0ay Jones, to name only those since the turn of the millennium - all of whom have brought energy, ex er%se and vision to their leadershi of the Society. However, I am sure that they would wish to Aoin me in aying tribute to Sharon(s exce %onal contribu%on, highlighted by - but not con;ned to - her oversight of the 25th and 30th anniversary celebra%ons, her Aoint-organisa%on of the associated conferences (or 0esearch DaysC and her Aoint-editorshi of the accom anying books of members( a ers, ublished by the University of Chester Press. Having graduated with a dis%nc%on from Chester College(s MA in 5andsca e, Heritage 4 Society, Sharon became a commiOee member of CS5H in 2001 and immediately set about develo ing the website from scratch. In due course, she also took over the editorshi of the Society(s NewsleOer, considerably ex and- ing its content and revam ing its resenta%on, so that it is now rebranded as a Bulle%n, 5andsca e History ,oday. She con%nued in both roles a?er she be- came Chairman in 200N, only relinquishing them as art of the reordering of Planning ,eam du%es which has been a feature of the ast year. And through- out her decade-and-a-half on the commiOee (or Planning ,eamC, she has been a fount of ideas, a .(modernising force( and a keen romoter of social events for what is widely regarded as one of the friendliest learned socie%es in the area. Page 5 In the year Sharon became Chairman, she com leted her doctorate on 2Society and the 5and L the Changing 5andsca e of Baschurch, North Shro shire, c.1550 -2000(. In the years since then she has built on this work, with further research and ublica%ons, and she has now been invited to contribute to the revivi;ed .ictoria County History of Shro shire. We wish Sharon every success with her future scholarshi in the ;eld of landsca e history and thank her wholeheart- edly for all that she has done for CS5H as commiOee member and Chair. Eraeme White Sharon—Our outgoing Chair Page 6 Residential Reports 16th, 17th, 18th Sept 2016 Derbyshire: the Power and People of the Peak – Residen$al 2016 Friday We began at the beginning, with a visit to the rehistoric henge monument at Arbor 5ow. Most of the grou had for%;ed themselves against the early rain with a visit to Brierlow Bar Bookstore near Buxton en route to the mee%ng- lace. ,he weather began to im rove immediately and we had a ;ne weekend. Arbor 5ow is an im ressive monument, a stone circle set within a bank and ditch, at an elevated loca%on with views for long distances so likewise visible for long distances. ,he stones are now fallen, making it harder to get an overall im ression of the site under wet grassP on the southwest, the henge bank is interru ted by a large and later round barrow. At the centre are a grou of stones called a cove, likewise fallen but erha s originally forming an u right box. A?er a close ins ec%on of the henge, our grou rocessed a few hundred metres southwest to Eib Hill, a Neolithic long barrow with a BronIe Age round barrow su erim osed. ,he monuments each have a single inter reta%on board, and there was some discussion of the fu%lity of trying to illustrate the su osed rites taking lace at the monuments L even more so because not only were the com onents of this site constructed over more than a thousand years, but also no excava%on had taken lace here for more than a hundred years. Pondering these dee s iritual maOers, we made our way to the Bull(s Head at Monyash, where we for%;ed ourselves cor oreally with an excellent lunch. ,here was %me too to visit St 5eonard(s church, grade II* listed, with a Norman iscine and sedilia, a 15th-century font, interes%ng Roor %les, a large 0oyal Arms board, and a uIIling mixture of architecture of diSerent eriods. Page 7 One reason for the ros erity of Monyash was the lead ores beneath the soil, and the next visit was to Mag ie Mine near Sheldon, now cared for by the Peak District Mines Historical Society. ,he surface remains are the best exam le in Britain of an 18thT1Nth-century lead mine. Ueith Eregory of the PDMHS was our guide, the ;rst of a series of excellent guides throughout the weekend, and he took us on a tour that was com rehensive enough for us to icture exactly what went on beneath the surface. One of the most remarkable features of the Derbyshire mines are the underground drainage channels or soughsP the one at Mag ie runs 2km and the ouJlow into the river Wye near Ashford-in-the -Water can s%ll be seen. Another no%ceable as ect of the tour was the way the word VCornishW ke t recurring L Cornish engineers, Cornish um ing engines, Cornish-style owder house.