Ebbsfleet Style

261 Chapter 17 The Post-Medieval and Modern Period (AD 1540 onwards): Resource Assessment by Jill Hind Introduction hamshire too was changed by the creation of the Milton Keynes Unitary Authority. Portsmouth and The period from 1540 to the present encompasses a vast Southampton are also now Unitary Authorities. amount of change to society, stretching as it does from the end of the feudal medieval system to a multicultural, globally oriented state, which increasingly depends on Inheritance the use of Information Technology. This transition has been punctuated by the protestant reformation of the This period begins in c. 1540 when Henry VIII was 16th century, conflicts over religion and power carrying out his reformation of the Church of England structure, including regicide in the 17th century, the and following the dissolution of the monasteries in Industrial and Agricultural revolutions of the 18th and 1536-39. The Church had been a major landowner in early 19th century and a series of major wars. Although the Solent-Thames region. The change to secular land battles have not taken place on British soil since the ownership initially had little impact on the pattern of 18th century, setting aside terrorism, civilians have settlement and land use that existed in the mid 16th become increasingly involved in these wars. century, although those areas that had been directly The period has also seen the development of capit - farmed as part of monastic estates naturally saw some alism, with Britain leading the Industrial Revolution and change as a result. becoming a major trading nation. Trade was followed by A bigger change was the deliberate slighting of former colonisation and by the second half of the 19th century monastic buildings, many of which were plundered for the British Empire included vast areas across the world, their materials or converted to new (usually domestic) despite the independence of the United States in 1783. uses. Hampshire in particular contains some fine The second half of the 20th century saw the end of examples of former monastic buildings transformed into imperialism. London became a centre of global fine country houses, examples including Mottisfont, importance as a result of trade and empire, but has Netley and Titchfield. Further changes occurred with maintained its status as a financial centre. the dissolution of chantries and hospitals after 1547, The Solent-Thames region generally is prosperous, several of which found new uses in endowing new or benefiting from relative proximity to London and good existing alms houses and hospitals. communications routes. The Isle of Wight has its own There were a number of thriving market towns in all the particular issues, but has never been completely isolated counties by this period, some such as Burford, Oxfordshire from major events. The historic counties of Oxfordshire, and Newbury, Berkshire, made pros perous by the wool Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and the Isle of trade. Larger urban settlements existed at the ports of Wight were already long established political units by Southampton and Portsmouth, at the historic centres of the start of the period, although the Isle of Wight was Winchester, Reading and Oxford, the last boosted by the officially part of Hampshire from the late 19th century growth of the University in the 16th century. until 1974. The boundaries of the other counties also A number of forests survived across the area, remained essentially unaltered until the second half of including the New Forest and those in the hands of the the 20th century. three principal landowners: the crown, monastic houses Since then the biggest changes have taken place in and the Bishop of Winchester, whose estates extended Berkshire. In the 1974 local government reorganisation well beyond Hampshire itself. Within these forests there a large area of land in the Vale of the White Horse was were still extensive areas of woodland. Across most of transferred to Oxfordshire, and at the same time the the area there was a mixture of open fields, common Slough area was transferred to Berkshire from grazing lands and water meadows. Bucking hamshire. At this point Bournemouth was also The majority of the population still lived in the transferred from Hampshire to Dorset. In 1998 Berk - countryside at the beginning of this period, governed by shire was split into six Unitary Authorities, Bracknell the manorial system. This feudal way of life gradually Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and broke down, but some elements of its influence persisted Maidenhead and Wokingham (Fig. 1.1). Bucking - into the 19th and even 20th centuries. 262 Solent-Thames Research Framework for the Historic Environment Plate 17.1 Estate map of Dorney, Buckinghamshire, copyright Buckinghamshire County Record Office, Buckinghamshire County Council Chapter 17 The Post-Medieval and Modern Period: Resource Assessment 263 Nature of the evidence of Wight is complete and Oxfordshire and Bucking - hamshire are underway. The parallel programme of more The amount of historical source material for the post- intensive studies of larger towns and cities has covered medieval and modern periods is enormous. Rocque, Oxford, Win chester and Southampton, for the first two of surveyor to Henry VIII, made detailed surveys of which an Urban Archaeological Database (UAD) is Abingdon, Newbury and Reading at the time of the available, complementing the HER. Dissolution. Antiquaries, starting with Leland, wrote Another relevant research programme is Historic about visits and journeys and many published their Landscape Characterisation (HLC). This has been surveys of particular counties (Sweet 2004). For the carried out for Hampshire, West Berkshire, Bucking - Solent-Thames region the picture is mixed: for hamshire and the Chilterns (the last extending to areas Buckinghamshire there are Browne Willis in the 18th beyond the Solent-Thames Region). There has also been century, Lipscomb (1847) and Sheahan (1861); for the Hampshire Villages survey and the Whittlewood Oxfordshire Plot (1677) and Wood in Oxford itself Project, which covers parts of Buck inghamshire. (1674); for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Woodward The Defence of Britain Survey was a national initia- (1861-9); for Berkshire King (1887). Speed’s 18th- tive to record military remains, ranging in scale from century history of Southampton was published by anti-tank trenches to airfields. This huge database is a Davies (1883). Local societies have long existed and valuable resource, although not in fact covering the Isle their archives and the journals they established and of Wight, and the project has generated a number of continue to publish remain an important resource. Maps published syntheses. A new project to extend the scope are another valuable resource, mainly of 17th century or of the defence record, now including air raid shelters later date, although Agas produced his map of Oxford in and other civilian facilities, was launched in 2007. The 1578. Tithe maps, enclosure maps, estate maps and area has also featured in a number of the thematic county maps all predate the Ordnance Survey, whose syntheses produced by English Heritage, eg Dangerous tremendous coverage began in the early 19th century Energy (Cocroft 2000) and Cold War (Cocroft and (Plate 17.1). Thomas 2003) as well as non-military themes such as One of the most useful published sources is the Hospitals (RCHME 1998). Victoria County Histories, which provide an overview Individuals and local groups have also carried out on a parish by parish basis. Unfortunately, those for research projects. A Historical Atlas of Berkshire was much of the region were produced at a fairly early stage compiled by Joan Dils (Dils ed. 1998), one for when the scope was generally limited to manorial and Oxfordshire by Tiller and Darkes (2010), and a study of church history. For Oxfordshire there is almost the Buckinghamshire mills was masterminded by Mike opposite problem, as here coverage is very broad but the Farley (Farley 2007). series is still incomplete. Buckingham shire and Oxford - The weakest aspect of evidence is almost certainly shire were also included in The Landscape of Britain that from archaeological excavations and surveys. series (Reed 1979, Emery 1974). Building studies are becoming more common, but there For the built environment there are Pevsner’s have only been a limited number of major excavation Buildings of England (those for Hampshire and the Isle programmes on sites from this period, such as the of Wight are currently being revised) and for Buck - Newbury Wharf area, and most are in urban contexts. inghamshire and Oxford City the RCHME Inventory Excavations of post-medieval manor houses, like that at volumes. The Beeches, Wokingham, Berkshire, have been few During the 20th and 21st centuries there have been (Plate 17.2). The bulk of post-medieval work has been numerous publications of county, parish and thematic on industrial sites. histories, for example The Story of Victorian Shanklin Although the contribution of environmental archae- (Parker 1977) and the many ‘Books of’ various towns ology and geo-archaeology is significantly less for this published by Phillimore. Some care is needed with period than earlier ones, there is still knowledge to be some of these recent local histories, as there is often an gained. In addition to changes in the landscape, emphasis on photographs, spiced with personal industries and the economic marketplace environmental reminiscences,

Load more