Medieval greens and moats in the Central Province: Evidence from the Bourn Valley, Cambridgeshire Susan Oosthuizen
ABSTRACT Province, whose predominantly arable countryside is characterised by nucleated Tbis paper considers the evidence, and some settlement and is more or less coincident with explanations, for the suroival into the nineteenth Rackham's 'planned' landscapes (Roberts & century of large, apparently Anglo-Saxon, Wrathmell 2000, p. 3). In their view, each of 'the greens, commons and of moated sites, provinces can be defined in terms of particular traditionally associated with 'ancient' and distinctive associations of landscape landscapes, in west Cambridgeshire, an area of elements' (ibid., p. 39). classic two- and three-field common field This work was based on an analysis of the arrangements. distribution of dispersed and nucleated settlement in England, and may indicate a more KEYWORDS complex result than simply a subdivision into three distinctive provinces. In their opinion, Greens, commons, medieval, Cambridgeshire 'each province is made up of smaller regions or zones, termed sub-provinces, in turn characterised by associations of elements which, INTRODUCTION while in general broad accord with those expected for the province, nevertheless differ in Recent work by Professor Brian Roberts and Dr some proportions' (ibid.). And each sub- Stuart Wrathmell appears to have confirmed province is further divided into local regions, Rackham's division of England into 'ancient' and each with distinguishing qualities. The defining 'planned' landscapes. Their careful analysis of characteristics of the 'champion' landscapes of the distribution of nucleated and dispersed the East Midlands sub-province and the 'ancient' settlement has led them to propose the division landscapes of East Anglian sub-province - of lowland England into three provinces: the those with the most relevance to this discussion South-Eastern, and the Northern and Western of part of west Cambridgeshire - are Provinces, roughly conforming to Rackham's summarised in Table 1.
Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 areas of 'ancient' landscape; and the Central
TABLE 1. LOCALISED CHARACfERISTICS OF 'ANCIENT' AND 'CHAMPION' LANDSCAPES (ROBERTS & WRATHMELL 2000, pp. 41-2, 50)
Anglian sub-province Central East Midland sub-province (part of South-Eastern Province) (part of Central Province) Definitive characteristics • Nucleations Lower densities High densities • Dispersed settlement Medium to high densities Low to very low densities • Deserted villages Not generally significant Thick clusters, esp. in the north • Moated sites Plentiful on central and Few in the north, but high numbers southern clays in the south are more characteristic of the SE Province • Greens and green settlements Significant numbers Apparently few
Associated features • Field systems Fragmented and irregular Regular two- and three-field systems 74 LANDSCAPE HISTORY
It seems that huge greens - occasionally up settlement at, for example, Croydon, Litlington to 100 acres in extent - were also a prominent and Caxton, while settlement on or around element in the south Cambridgeshire landscape others might be the result of post-Conquest before Parliamentary enclosure. In many places settlement mobility as at Borough Green, Weston a small, residual, open space - the relic of a Colville and Haslingfield (ibid.). very large, often irregular, common or green - The definition of, and distinction between, has survived near the centre of many settlements commons and greens can be problematic, to into the present century. There are examples of the extent that 'the whole question of defining these residual greens at Comberton, Harlton and a "green" remains a troubled one' (Roberts Haslingfield in the Bourn Valley, just west of 1989, p. 186). The terms are often used inter- Cambridge. changeably in the literature, but some attempts These large greens are usually interpreted as at definition have been attempted. Rackham one of the defining medieval and post-medieval implies that greens are both smaller than features of 'ancient' landscapes as opposed to commons and generally more 'embedded' in those of the Central Province (Rackham 1986, settlement: p. 343). This attribution seems to be borne out by recent research, which shows that place- Typical of East Anglia is the green up to half a names with the element 'green' are not generally mile wide, grazed by horses and cattle, its long found in the Central Province, but are grass brilliant with cowslip, meadow saxifrage, particularly characteristic of the 'ancient' hay-rattle, cuckoo-flower, and green-winged countryside of the South-Eastern Province orchis; scattered around its edges are ancient (Roberts & Wrathmell 2000, p. 38). It is not houses half-hidden in trees (Rackham 1986, pp. surprising that greens and commons should 343-4). generally be regarded as a feature of 'ancient' landscapes. Their existence is at variance both This description is difficult to use in any way with the geography of common field townships, as a definition since greens and commons can in which up to 90 per cent of the land lay under range in size from just an acre or two to over 900 the plough, leaving little available for common acres, and more quantification is necessary to grazing, and with the system of common field make a clear distinction (Dymond & Martin 1988, agriculture, which supplanted large commons p. 62). Other researchers have used the 1965 with grazing on the fallow field. Their survival in Commons Registration Act which defines 'champion' south Cambridgeshire, where commons and greens in terms of their use: common field agriculture was well established, is commons are land subject to the wide variety of therefore apparently anomalous. common rights, while greens are large open Also present in the Bourn Valley are moated areas used for leisure or recreation (ibid., p. 199, sites situated at least 1 kilometre away from the n. 1). It is not easy to substantiate the validity of nucleated settlement of the township, and these this distinction in the Bourn Valley in the Anglo- too are believed to be an index of 'ancient' Saxon and/or medieval periods since there is no landscape (Table 1 and Fig. 3). This paper evidence on which such differentiation might be examines the evidence for greens and dispersed based, nor is it known to this author whether a settlement within the 'champion' landscape of study of the distribution of 'common' and 'green' the Bourn Valley in particular and south names might reveal regional variations which Cambridgeshire in general, and possible reasons might in turn suggest whether the difference Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 for their survival. between the two might be linguistic rather than functional. The present study distinguishes between GREENS AND COMMONS: DEFINITIONS commons and greens only in terms of their relationship with settlement, and then only in Greens and commons in south Cambridgeshire parochial terms: in the Bourn Valley, greens, exhibit a bewildering variety, ranging in form whether formal or informal, seem usually to be between the extremes of planned settlements associated with nucleated settlement, while similar to those in the north of England and commons are generally located at a distance irregular greens like those on the Suffolk clays. from such settlement. It is important to note that Some appear to be part of planned village this distinction is unlikely to be sustainable 'landscapes, as at Kingston, Eltisley and Reach. further afield. Some are peripheral to settlement, and may be Greens and commons in the valley have been relics of much larger areas, like those at identified by a number of characteristics, apart, Whaddon, Bassingbourn and Comberton of course, from identifying place-names like (Oosthuizen 1994 and 2002). In yet other 'Green', 'Common' or 'End'. Many have a examples, manorial expansion onto earlier characteristic 'irregular concave outline 'waste' - the physical expression of the frequent funnelling out into the roads which cross the subinfeudation of Cambridgeshire manors after common' (Rackham 1986, p. 343). Settlement 1100 - may have led to the green-side often lies at the intersection between the MEDIEVAL GREENS AND MOATS IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 75
commons and the arable fields, as, for example, exception of Comberton Offal, all the examples at Haslingfield (ibid., p. 344). They are often in the study area are located on the relatively flat wholly or substantially bounded by roads, tracks valley bottom south of the Bourn Brook where or other rights of way, and property boundaries the combination of Gault Clay, a spring line within them are often irregular, denoting produced by the proximity of higher Middle piecemeal encroachment, as at Harlton. Roberts Chalk deposits overlying the Gault, and very has identified as a particular form of green those gradual relief meant that this area was difficult to that are linked 'by a web of grass road verges drain and to plough. These areas of pasture and footpaths' (1989, pp. 158, 194). Although his seem to be divided into two categories, whose example demonstrates this principle within an significance is not fully understood: those called agglomerated settlement, the principle is also greens, commons or other names indicating viable on a larger scale, linking the greens and pasture, and those called 'Offal' or 'Offil' of commons of one township with those of its which there are examples at Haslingfield, neighbours. It is possible that many of the Harlton, Eversden and Comberton. commons of the Bourn Valley were part of such Almost all the greens and commons a network. There is little evidence in the valley described below were lost in the process of of the 'curving estate boundaries [of demesne Parliamentary enclosure. This account begins by farm estates which] may well have been formed describing evidence from Haslingfield and in the middle to late Saxon period' that are Harlton, before moving west to examine occasionally found in relation to commons in evidence from Little and Great Eversden, and Suffolk and other parts of Cambridgeshire north to Comberton (Fig. 1). (Warner 1987, pp. 30-3; Oosthuizen 1994). The evidence for greens and commons in the (A) HASUNGFIELD GREAT GREEN Bourn Valley is typical of much of south Cambridgeshire, and simply forms an example A huge 100-acre green survived almost intact from which wider arguments and conclusions at Haslingfield until the mid twentieth century can be drawn. (Fig. 2; RCHME 1968, p. 136). It lay on a narrow outcrop of Middle Chalk immediately below the steep ridge forming the southern boundary of DESCRIPTION OF THE EVIDENCE the Bourn Valley, while its northern boundary coincided more or less with the line along which It seems that, in south Cambridgeshire at least, the Gault Clay emerges from beneath the Middle commons and greens share the association with Chalk (Br Geol Surv 1988). It therefore lay on poorly drained soil that is also a characteristic of the spring line and springs are found within it Suffolk greens (Dymond & Martin 1988, p. 62). (Fig. 2; OS 1999 Explorer 209). Its outline is a They are very often related to the distribution of rough oval, like that of the well-known green at 'hummocky ground', which is most pronounced Barrington (the parish immediately neighbouring at springheads and close to streams all over Haslingfield on the south), but may once have south Cambridgeshire, where freeze-thaw extended further to the east. At the time of conditions of late glacial and peri-glacial times Parliamentary enclosure it was defined by roads created small pingo-like features. These would and tracks; property boundaries within it do not have exacerbated the post-glacial drainage of the display the regularity associated with planned
Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 area, creating ground that was poorly drained settlement, and may imply encroachment on an and difficult to cultivate. This land was more open area (CCRO Q/RDc 36). useful as pasture than as arable, and was often The green was first recorded in the fourteenth the first to be enclosed in the medieval period century, when it was called the 'Great Green' (A. G. Taylor 1981; I am indebted to Mr C. Taylor (VCHCambridgesbire V, 1973, p. 228). There are for drawing this reference to my attention). reasons for thinking that the parish church may Clopton, a deserted medieval village in west have been a relatively early encroachment on the Cambridgeshire, is one of the few local sites green. First, it is situated at a curious angle just where this phenomenon can still be observed. inside the southern edge of the green, compared There, on the slopes below the moated medieval with those properties with regular boundaries manor of Clopton Bury, the pasture is still which are sited facing the southern edge of the waterlogged by water leaking out from the green (Fig. 2; Oosthuizen 1996b). It might be Middle Chalk as it meets the underlying Gault expected that the site of the church would have Clay, itself too saturated to be able to absorb any been more central if much encroachment had more water. This may be a frequent reason for already occurred on the green by the time the the siting of many of the greens and commons in church was erected. There was clearly enough the Bourn Valley. open land still in existence in the sixteenth It seems likely that many of these large areas century for a large moated site to be erected in of common pasture were connected to each the centre of the green, and a substantial open other by green lanes, some examples of which area still remains around the outside of that moat are cited below. It is noteworthy that, with the today. Second, the church is not included in the 76 LANDSCAPE HISTORY Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013
Fig. I. The Bourn Valley: Greens and Offals (CCRO 124/p53 and 124/P2; CUL Ms Plans r.a.2, QC 13 and 15).
block of regular, planned tenements, which lie between the discovery of early and middle along the outside of the southern boundary of Anglo-Saxon pottery both on the green itself, the green, and is therefore presumably of a and on its eastern edge, near the river (Fig. 2; different date.l Third, the southern side of the Haigh 1975; M. Coles, pers. comm.). A churchyard utilises the southern boundary of the substantial pagan Anglo-Saxon cemetery of the green. fifth and sixth centuries lay less than 500 metres This topographical evidence means that the to the north of its northern edge (a distance church may provide a terminus ante quem for based on the most conservative estimate of the the creation of the green, and the terminus green's original size), in much the same should be placed in the late eleventh century relationship as a similar cemetery to Barrington since the church is probably of that date. 2 An green (ibid.; Oosthuizen 2002 and in prep.). This earlier date for the existence of the green may, relationship between greens and early and however, be suggested by the relationship middle Anglo-Saxon settlement may imply that MEDIEVAL GREENS AND MOATS IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 77
settlement
G) 16th century moated manor • • • • probable medieval limits of green * approximate sites of Anglo-Saxon finds
metres
Fig. 2. Haslingfield Great Green (after RCHME 1968, p. 136).
the green was already in existence in the same (C) HARLTON GREEN period as this settlement as it is similar to the relationship between greens and similar Anglo- A large oval green survived at Harlton until Saxon settlement discovered at Whaddon, Parliamentary enclosure. It is similar in size and Bassingbourn, Barrington and Litlington and shape to those at Haslingfield and Barrington, of discussed in section 4 below (ibid.). which it is a close neighbour. It is situated on the same exposure of Middle Chalk at the foot of the southern ridge of the Bourn Valley; its northern (B) HASLINGFIELD OFFAL boundary coincides with the emergence of the Lying to the north-west of, and connected by Gault from under the Middle Chalk, and it lies on access ways to, the Great Green was a large the spring line (Br Geol Surv 1988; OS 1999 irregular common called the Offal during the Explorer 209; VCH Cambridgeshire V, 1973, middle ages, and Cow Common by the time of p. 214). It was connected by wide drifts to Parliamentary enclosure (le Aldefeld(e) 1286: OE Haslingfield Offal (CCRO 124/P52). eald 'old' + feld) (Reaney 1943, p. 78; CCRO As at Haslingfield, encroachment on the
Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 Q/RDc 36 and 124/P53). It lies in a slight green by the parish church indicates that both depression on the Gault Clay of the valley were probably in existence by the late eleventh bottom, from which rise small islands of Middle century, because the tithes of Harlton parish Chalk outcrop (Br Geol Surv 1988). The effects church were mentioned in 1092 when they were of these islands in exacerbating waterlogging on granted away by Picot, the Norman sheriff of the Gault Clays may be inferred from the name Cambridgeshire ( VCH Cambridgeshire V, 1973, of Frog End which lies south-east of the Offal p. 224). It is just possible that the church (ibid.). The way in which the name of this part may have been founded before 1066 to of the parish echoes the feld element in the ornament a late- Anglo-Saxon thegnly estate, place-name of Haslingfield itself may just which comprised 80 per cent of Harlton in indicate that this area was pasture at the same 1066- but there is no other evidence to support time that the place-name itself was coined, a this suggestion, except Picot's contemporary possibility that is explored below. While it was reputation for miserliness which implies that he certainly old by the later thirteenth century, its may have been unlikely to have built the church use in that period is unknown; there is no himself (Rumble 1981, 17:4). There is no other evidence of ridge and furrow on it, which evidence which might allow a date earlier than suggests that it has probably always been used the late eleventh century to be assigned to it. for grazing. (D) HARLTON OFFIL
The site of Harlton Offil is not definitely known. 78 LANDSCAPE HISTORY
Before enclosure a large area of pasture called other Offils in neighbouring parishes, at least Cow Common lay in the north-east of the parish two of which overlie similar geology. The almost immediately beside Haslingfield Cow descriptors listed above seem to indicate that it Common/Offal (CCRO 124/P52 and 124/P53). was arable by the late eighteenth century. The two areas were separated only by New Closes (CCRO Q/RDc 36). The 'New' element in (F) GREAT EVERSDEN LAMMAS MEADOWS the name of these enclosures suggests that they may have been late medieval or post-medieval It seems that an area of common pasture like enclosures: first, because enclosures tended to those at Harlton and Haslingfield, but whose gather pace after about 1350 and, second, original extent is unknown, lay around Great because they were noticeably new compared Eversden parish church until Parliamentary with the rest of the landscape in the township enclosure (colour Pl. I). The geology and physical (Reaney 1943, p. 340). If the area they enclosed conditions of this site are very similar to those had once been part of Haslingfield Offal, then discussed above: the area is generally flat and Cow Common in Harlton will once have formed lies just below the spring line where the a continuous area of pasture with Haslingfield waterlogged Gault Clays have been exposed Cow Common/Offal. While Professor Legge, under the Middle Chalk. In 1811, it lay who has an unparalleled knowledge of Harlton, immediately north of Eastwell spring (CRO has suggested that Harlton Offil may have lain Q!RDc 19). A number of contiguous pasture closer to the green on which the settlement is closes around the church were used for 'lammas' based, the coincidence of situation and of name or hay meadows in the early nineteenth century, between Haslingfield Cow Common/Offal and and documentary evidence suggests that they Harlton Cow Common, may nevertheless were enclosed by the sixteenth century if not indicate that Harlton and Haslingfield Offal!Offil before (Buck Rushing (buckrushin C16, perhaps were subdivisions of a once much larger area of named from rushes), Church Dole (le grazing common to both parishes (A. Legge, cherchedole C16) and Lady Meadow pers. comm.). The geology of the area is similar (Ladymeadow 1738)) (CUL QC13/3 and to that of Haslingfield Offal: Gault Clay, inset QC15/22). Nor are the names of the closes with occasional small islands of Middle Chalk (above), first recorded in the sixteenth century, which may have created small areas of particular very helpful since the elements they employ localised waterlogging. At least parts of the Offil have been in use for many centuries and are were certainly pasture as late as the fourteenth therefore of indeterminate date. It is impossible century, since some arable 'in the brach' (breEch to assess whether this area had been ploughed 'land newly taken into cultivation') was during the middle ages. Although it was mentioned there in 1332 and 1349 (VCH enclosed pasture in 1811, it has been ploughed Cambridgeshire V, 1973, p. 221; Reaney 1943, p. since at least April1947 and contains no traces of 313). ridge and furrow (RAF CPE/UK2024/3008 and This argument may be taken further: if the 3009). Offal!Offils were once one large common, they If these lammas meadows were the last relics have since been divided by the parish boundary of an area of ancient common or green, then the between Harlton and Haslingfield. If this were location of the church within this land is at least so, it would mean that the Offil was probably at consistent with the observation that settlement least late Anglo-Saxon in origin because these avoided taking in arable land if that could be Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 parish boundaries cannot be later than 1092, avoided (C. Taylor, pers. comm.). Since the when the tithes of Harlton church were church is unlikely to be later than the late documented. eleventh century (its tithes were mentioned in 1092), this may just mean that the green (if it (E) LITfLE EVERSDEN OFFIL existed) pre-dated it ( VCH Cambridgeshire V, 1973, p. 65). There was also an Offil in Little Eversden. Unfortunately its existence is only known from (G) GREAT EVERSDEN HE(A)RD COMMON late descriptions of arable land in 1764, 1797 and 1801, which named selions lying near 'Offils A large area of pasture, whose limits are not (Orfields) Way', 'Offils Ditch' and 'Offils Way known, appears to have lain further north-west Balk' (CUL QC15/23, QC 15/52 and QC 15/36). at He(a)rd Common which divided furlongs Other locational descriptors indicate that the along Claypit Hill against Armshold Lane from Offil probably lay near the northern end of Little furlongs just west of the Full Brook. The nature Eversden High Street at the northern end of a of this common land is indicated by the names promontory of Middle Chalk reaching out over of some of the furlongs that adjoined it - the Gault Clay (Br Geol Surv 1988). No maps Foulmire and Betwixt the Holmes (holmr showing its specific location or extent are known 'marshy meadow') - and is explained by its to have survived, and it was lost at the time of situation on a virtually flat piece of land Parliamentary enclosure. It would be immediately below the intersection between a unremarkable were it not for the survival of three narrow spur of Middle Chalk and the underlying MEDIEVAL GREENS AND MOATS IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 79
waterlogged Gault Clays (CUL QC 13 and 15; may throw some light on the ongms of these Reaney 1943, p. 332; Br Geol Surv 1988). large areas of common grazing whose size indicates their importance to the medieval (H) COMBERTON OFFAL farmers of the Bourn Valley (Reaney 1943, p. 78). There are two definitions of feld. The more Until Parliamentary enclosure in 1839 Offal common, and later, meaning is believed simply Common in Comberton was a large, broad to indicate an arable field, perhaps even the first swathe of grazing land running along the parish encroachment of Anglo-Saxon fields on pasture boundary with Hardwick (/e aldefelde c. 1250) land (Gelling 1984, pp. 236-7). It is difficult to (Reaney 1943, p. 74). An extension of this accept this interpretation in this particular common ran southwards into the settlement, context, since one would need to explain why where it was called the green, and on towards these very early fields were created on such the brook; Nicolas ad le Grene lived there in difficult land, particularly since it is believed that 1279 (Rot. Hund. ii. 554). A wide drove called demographic pressure was not sufficiently Great Offal Way linked it with Barton, along a intense in the pre-Conquest period to necessitate minor ridge, while another wide drove called the ploughing of waterlogged Gault Clays. This Little Offal Way linked it with substantial interpretation is supported by the reference to pastures in the north-east. bracb at Harlton in the mid-fourteenth century Starvegoose Furlong, an irregular triangular which implies that at least some of Harlton Offil furlong which lay between Little Offal Way and was not yet arable even by this date - the very North Brook Common in 1839, was probably end of a period of extreme pressure of assarted from the Offal at some time, but there is population on the land. no other evidence for arable cultivation on the Other evidence also suggests that the Offal (CCRO R/53/16/20). This name is a sign of Offai!Offils were primarily areas of grazing. Of the poor crops that could be expected from it, the four Offai!Offils in the Bourn Valley, only bringing to mind the truism that much land was that at Little Eversden was under arable pasture because it was not useful as anything cultivation by the late eighteenth century. They else and perhaps explaining the Jack of further might have been land that had been ploughed in encroachment. the high middle ages and then converted to Unlike the Offals to the south of the Brook, pasture in the fourteenth century or later. Comberton Offal lies exclusively on boulder However, two pieces of evidence, neither clay. It runs at right angles to the spring line and conclusive, suggest that this was not the case. cannot be explained simply in terms of the The first is that the nineteenth-century name of difficulty with which parts of it may have been the Offal/Offils at Haslingfield and Harlton was ploughed. It was already 'old' by the mid- 'common' rather than 'leys' or 'lays', the more thirteenth century. The persistence of its name usual Cambridgeshire word for arable which was indicates that it remained an identifiable area for converted to land for grazing. This is not an a considerable period. A prominent linear land invariable rule, however, and can be no more division, which later became the parish than suggestive. Second, there is no aerial boundary between Comberton and Hardwick, photographic or other evidence for ridge and overlies it and may indicate that it is very old. It furrow on Comberton Offal or on Haslingfield or is just possible that its situation, between the Harlton Cow Common.3 This seems to support
Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 grazing available on Harborough [Field], the argument that none of these was extensively Comberton and near Stockwell and Hardle ploughed during the middle ages. Against this Deans in Hardwick, means that it was the last should of course be set the evidence from Little survivor in the middle ages and beyond of a Eversden, whose Offil was completely more extensive area of pasture which seems to incorporated into the common fields of that have dominated the area by the middle Anglo- township by the late eighteenth century. Such Saxon period. evidence as exists, therefore, hints - but no There is therefore good evidence for large more - that the Offai!Offils were areas of greens or commons at the eastern end of the grazing and were unlikely to be early arable Bourn Valley. This distribution towards the fields. eastern end of the valley may be related to the It is possible, therefore, that the other, earlier way in which the valley floor flattens out over and more unusual meaning for feld, common in Gault Clays south of the Bourn Brook, in an area the sixth and seventh centuries, may be more on which all but one of these commons was suitable: 'open country in sight of woodland' - located. that is, land that was not arable, just as the modern Afrikaans word veld means uncultivated, but generally open, land (Rackham 1994, p. 7). THE OFFAL/OFFIL PLACE-NAME This seems to be the more likely interpretation of the Offai!Offils in the Bourn Valley since it is The name 'Offal' or 'Offil' (/e Aldefeld(e): OE eald related to a pastoral usage appropriate to the + feld 'the old feld') is unusual and its meaning geology and drainage as well as to the later use 80 LANDSCAPE HISTORY
of this land. These areas may therefore represent they cannot be regarded as relics of 'ancient' particularly early areas set aside for grazing, landscapes. since they were already regarded as old in the Generally, it seems that many greens and thirteenth century, presumably by comparison commons in the east Midlands and East Anglia with the other lands in each township, when can be dated to the middle Anglo-Saxon period they were first documented in Haslingfield and or earlier. In south Bedfordshire, for example, Comberton. some very large greens of variable shape still Other evidence relating to the meaning of survive, and are occasionally associated with Offal/Offil may throw some light on the origin of evidence of occupation from the sixth to the these apparently old areas of pasture. It is a ninth centuries A.D. (Lewis et al. 1997, p. 132). In distinctive and unusual name, and may be Norfolk, early and middle Anglo-Saxon related to the ofaldfal of Lincolnshire which has settlement has been found around the edges of been interpreted as land that was 'not manorial low and easily floodable commons away from but communal in origin' (Hallam 1965, pp. 159- the higher heavy boulder clay while, in 60). There, it was land which was very carefully Launditch Hundred, middle Anglo-Saxon surveyed and measured, down to the last foot, settlement generally lay close to, although not at, and was - perhaps significantly in view of the the entrance to large commons in three of the unusual place-name in the Bourn Valley - seven parishes in which middle Anglo-Saxon distinct from the assessed lands of each vill pottery was found (Davison 1990, pp. 18-19; (ibid.). In this it is reminiscent of the meadows Wade-Martins 1980, pp. 55, 65, 73). In the referred to in the late seventh-century laws of 'ancient' landscapes of Suffolk, some greens Ine, which noted 'a common meadow or other were the focus for middle or late Anglo-Saxon land divided in shares to fence' (Whitelock 1955, demesne farms (Warner 1987, p. 32). Only in the I. 403; my emphasis). It is just possible therefore Norfolk silt fens is there contradictory evidence that the Offals/Offils of the Bourn Valley may that irregular greens and commons may be the have been distinctive areas of communally-held result of medieval field creation rather than the early or middle Anglo-Saxon pasture. That such remains of a relic landscape, but this may be areas might survive into the late Anglo-Saxon because pre-Anglo-Saxon landscapes there were period is demonstrated by a reference to open lost to flooding in the Roman and immediately pasture and meadow 'common share land' at post-Roman periods (Silvester 1988, pp. 162-3). Ardington, Northamptonshire, in A.D. 961 Where these greens have been investigated in (Finberg 1972, pp. 488-9). south Cambridgeshire, they have also been Taken together, these fragmentary pieces of shown to have pre-common field origins, that is, evidence may just indicate that the Offal/Offils they appear to be relics of an ancient landscape, were the relics of a very large area of feld, now retained when the common fields were laid out dismembered, which covered most of the Gault in the early middle ages, rather than a planned valley floor and the central and northern slopes element of the landscape of the Central Province of the valley in the sixth and/or seventh (Oosthuizen 1994, pp. 93-100; Oosthuizen 2002). centuries, and which was the distinctive feature The arguments for this conclusion have generally of the territory of the Hceslingas. This possibility been based on the relationships between is particularly interesting given that the Bourn settlement, manorial sites and greens or Valley was also an area dominated by freemen in commons. The results indicate that these greens
Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 1086, some of whom may have been the were probably in existence by the late Anglo- descendents of the kin-groups which had Saxon period at the very latest, and occasionally occupied the valley in the late seventh century. by the middle Anglo-Saxon period. Hooke has concluded that 'one of the oldest At Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, for features of any open field community appears to example, late Anglo-Saxon settlement appears to be the organisation of common pasture on the have been dispersed around an enormous green. waste, perhaps a direct inheritance from a past in At Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, settlement which this was the traditional way of focused on the funnel-shaped entrance to a huge intercommoning seasonal and wood-pasture common shared between three parishes; regions' (Hooke 1998, p. 115). topographical analysis suggested the likelihood that the green was at least of middle Anglo- Saxon date, and was followed by excavation THE ANTIQUITY OF GREENS AND COMMONS demonstrating dispersed Anglo-Saxon settlement IN SOUTII CAMBRIDGESHIRE on the northern side of that common (Oosthuizen 1994, n. 4; Hatton 1995). It has The presence of these greens and commons in already been argued that the relationship the landscape of the Bourn Valley in particular between pagan Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and the and south Cambridgeshire in general is only large oval greens at Barrington and Haslingfield important if they can be shown to pre-date the may indicate that these greens were already introduction of common field agriculture from present in the Bourn Valley by the sixth or the tenth century onwards because otherwise seventh centuries. MEDIEVAL GREENS AND MOATS IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 81
There is, unfortunately, little additional grown on them each year - that is, they may evidence to suggest period(s) of origin for the have acted as a form of water meadow, their greens and commons of the Bourn Valley. There hummocky ground trapping the water which are no ancient buildings on the sites of the flowed onto them both from springs and from Comberton, Little Eversden or Harlton the wash of winter rains from the steep slopes to Offal/Offils. The relationship between the their south (T. Reed, pers. comm.). The pastures churches of Haslingfield, Harlton and Great around Great Eversden church, for example, Eversden and their associated greens has already were referred to as 'lammas meadows' in 1801, been commented on but cannot take the which suggests that they were still being used for argument back before the late eleventh century growing hay at that date (CUL QC13/3 and - although in Suffolk a number of early and QC15/22). important churches on or near greens show that An analysis of the entries for meadow in the these areas were the 'focal points for settlement' valley in 1086 suggests that there was either before the Norman Conquest (Warner 1987, p. massive under-recording of meadow or a 2). The evidence that these commons may pressing need for additional hay-lands at that already have been in existence by the sixth or time. Table 2 shows the number of ploughs seventh centuries is simply that of the associated listed for each viii in the Inquisitio Comitatus pagan cemeteries at Haslingfield and Barrington, Cantabrigiensis (ICC) compared with the and the possible early date of the feld element in available meadow, which was also measured in 'offal'. If this precarious argument is taken to its terms of the numbers of plough teams it could logical conclusion, it is possible that these greens support, thus making it easy to compare the and commons were either created in the number of plough animals and the quantity of reversion to pasture of the sixth and seventh meadow necessary to support them. Table 2 centuries or were survivals of a Romano-British shows that, on the basis of the evidence or even pre-Roman landscape. This is not quite recorded in ICC, about half the plough teams of as far-fetched as it might be if the survival of the Bourn Valley could not be supported prehistoric land divisions across the valley had through the winter from fodder grown on the not already been commented upon. meadows.4 Since the amount of meadow was probably under-reported this figure is probably excessive, but it does suggest that, unless the POSSIBLE REASONS FOR THE SURVIVAL OF under-reporting itself was by a factor of 50 per GREENS AND COMMONS IN SOUTH cent, a shortage of winter fodder probably did CAMBRIDGESHIRE exist. This argument receives added weight when The survival of these greens and commons may the number of animals other than the plough reflect a combination of local geological factors cattle in the viii are taken into account. The need (see above), local tenurial practices and the local for winter fodder for the plough teams must agricultural economy. It has recently been have represented the minimum amount of hay argued that regular two- and three-field common needed in each township, particularly since field arrangements depended crucially on the cattle were vastly outnumbered by sheep. To the ability of a township to produce sufficient hay to known number of demesne animals must be overwinter its plough oxen (T. Williamson, in a added the unknown numbers of cattle, sheep seminar at the Department of English Local and pigs belonging to manorial tenants of
Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 History, Univ Leicester, 7.3.2002). The high differing social status, which are assumed to be degree of waterlogging of the Offal/Offils and, significantly greater in total than the demesne perhaps some of the other greens and commons, beasts, especially because the numbers of cattle may have made it possible for hay to have been recorded on the demesnes were insufficient for
TABLE 2. THE ABILITY OF PASTURE AND MEADOW TO SUPPORT PLOUGH-TEAMS IN THE BOURN VALLEY IN 1086 (DOMESDAY BOOK; ICC) Parish Pasture Meadow in No. of ploughs % of ploughs for which in DB ploughs on arable meadow was lacking Comberton 4 12 66% Eversden c. 5'/• c. 13'/z 57% Haslingfield c.B 22'/, 64% Harlton c. 3'/, 7 50% Barton 3'/z 12 70% Bourn yes 23'/z 25'/z 7% Caldecote 4'/z 4'/z 0 Grantchester 2'/, 12'/z 85% Kingston 3'/, c. 10 62.5% Toft/Hardwick 8 c. 16 50% 82 LANDSCAPE HISTORY
the plough teams recorded. The numbers of (ibid.). This section examines these contentions these non-demesne animals may not necessarily in the context of evidence from the Bourn Valley. related to the amount of arable land held by a It has been suggested in discussion that the tenant. distribution of the moated sites in the valley At Great Abington, for example, a sokeman demonstrates that the valley was also called Sygar had just 15 arable acres before 1066 characterised by dispersed settlement. This but he also owned a substantial flock of at least conclusion cannot, however, be sustained if the 380 sheep and at least eight cattle (he may in fact criteria suggested by Roberts and Wrathmell, have had even more than this since the ICC above, are used as the basis for analysis. As records that Aubrey de Vere 'still retained' that Table 4 and Fig. 3 show, all the outlying moats number of Sygar's animals, implying that he in the Bourn Valley were manorial in origin, might previously have returned some animals to rather than those of freemen, that is, they are more characteristic of the nucleated settlements TABLE 3. DEMESNE ANIMALS IN THE BOURN VALLEY IN of the Central Province than the dispersed 1086 (DOMESDAY BOOK; ICC) settlement of the South-Eastern Province. Similarly, those belonging to freemen were Parish Sheep Pigs Cattle Cattle necessary to exclusively to be found within the nucleated pull ploughs settlements of the valley - emphasising both the strength of the pull of nucleation and a general Comberton 109 43 2 96 lack of large areas of assartable land. Barton 190 36 2 96 Most outlying moats in the Bourn Valley Grantchester 153 32 3 100 appear to have represented the demesne of post- Haslingfield 234 118 6 180 Conquest, subinfeudated manors in each Harlton 20 22 6 56 township created by granting away portions of Eversden 233 53 10 108 older manors. The lords of Kingston Wood Kingston 40 44 2 80 manor (itself created after 1066), for example, Toft/Hardwick 90 41 128 granted part of their estate to the nuns of St Mary, Clerkenwell, in the twelfth century; two Bourn nk at least nk 204 20 large, adjoining blocks of land given to St Neots Caldecote nk nk nk 52 Priory (Swansley Manor) in Bourn and Caxton in the twelfth century were originally part of the Scalers demesne in those townships, also created Sygar) (ICC, p. 408). after 1066. The persistence of greens and commons in The outlying moats are therefore unlikely to the Bourn Valley - and, perhaps, the rest of be the remnants of a pre-Conquest dispersed south Cambridgeshire - may therefore be settlement pattern surviving into the medieval related as much to the combination of a potential period since every one is the site of a manor first inadequacy of hay meadows in the area, founded, or created by sub-infeudation, after together with the problems associated with 1066 ( VCH Cambridgeshire V, 1973, parish ploughing particularly waterlogged sections of essays). Their siting probably results from the the Gault Clays of the valley floor, as to particular combination of several factors: the pressure to pre-Conquest social and tenurial conditions. find non-arable land for the construction of a
Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 moat, the situation of a manorial site in dose proximity to a block of demesne land granted at MOATED SITES AND NUCLEATED the time of subinfeudation, and the more SETTLEMENT IN THE BOURN VALLEY practical necessities of proximity to a water source and favourable siting on day, respectively As Roberts and Wrathmell have noted, the high needed to fill the moat and to prevent the water numbers of moats in parts of south from draining away (colour Pl.II). Cambridgeshire are more characteristic of Those moated sites which lie within the 'ancient' than 'champion' landscapes, since they nucleated settlements are also overwhelmingly are often set away from nucleated settlement and manorial; the remainder are those built by can therefore be taken as a specialised index of wealthy and aspiring twelfth- or thirteenth- dispersion (Table 1). century commoners (Table 4). Those outlying Moats cannot, however, be taken as a moats which represented twelfth-century straightforward indicator of 'ancient' landscapes. secondary manorial sites set within blocks of The moats of the Central Province largely independent demesne tend to be those of represent the dwellings of manorial lords, 'set in monastic houses (St Neots Priory's holding at or near villages', but in those provinces where Swansley, Caxton, and that of the Nuns of St 'ancient' landscapes are more common, they Mary, Clerkenwell, on the edge of Eversden were more commonly the homesteads of Wood). These sites seem to have been freeholders and were situated on assarted constructed purely to administer the respective holdings at some distance from the settlement estates of these houses, and there is no evidence MEDIEVAL GREENS AND MOATS IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 83
•N
+ Church • Manorial 0 km o Freeman
1 Swansley manor 8 Clerkenwell manor 15 Burwash manor 2 Brockholt manor 9 Eversden manor 16 Origin not known 3 Caxton manor 10 Origin not known 17 Grantchester manor 4 Colne manor 11 Little Eversden manor 18 Haslingfield manor 5 Bourn manor 12 Ely manor 19 Origin not known 6 Geoffrey de Soham 13 Greens manor 20 Harlton manor Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 7 Kingston wood manor 14 Burdelys manor 21 Coton manor
Fig. 3. The Bourn Valley: Distribution of moated sites (RCHME 1968, parish essays; CCC SMR).
that they formed the focus for settlement. On the dispersal (if, indeed, the two sites were occupied contrary, they appear to have been quite in the same periods). There is no evidence of isolated. Of these, only Swansley Manor, Caxton any settlement associated with the other outlying and Kingston Wood Farm, Kingston, are set moats in the valley. within their own field systems, which might There is therefore no convincing evidence of indicate an incomplete process leading towards dispersed settlement in the Bourn Valley in the the development of multiple townships in some late Anglo-Saxon or medieval periods. All the parishes. However, both sites still represent outlying sites are manorial, none is associated nucleation as the dominant - if not only - with freemen, none is associated with freeman form of settlement. There does not appear to assart of uncultivated land, and none is have been any other settlement at Swansley associated with any other settlement. apart from the moated manor. Pincote, the only Furthermore, none of these sites pre-dates the settlement name associated with the moat at Norman Conquest and all can be shown to be Kingston Wood Farm, lies so close to the site of the sites of new manors created in the late the moat as to suggest nucleation rather than eleventh century or by subsequent infeudation. 84 LANDSCAPE HISTORY
TABLE 4. CHARACTERISTICS OF MOATED HOMESTEAD SITES IN THE BOURN VALLEY
Township No. of moats moats within settlement moats outside settlement
Manorial Non-manorial Manorial Non-manorial or not known
Barton 2 1 1 0 0 Bourn 1 1 0 0 0 Caxton 4 1 0 3 0 Comberton 2 2 0 0 0 Grantchester & Coton 2 2 0 0 0 Gt Eversden 2 1 1 0 0 Hardwick 1 1 0 0 0 Harlton 2 1 1 0 0 Haslingfield 1 1 0 0 0 Kingston 3 0 1 2 0 Lt Eversden 1 1 0 0 0
TOTAL 21 12 4 5 0
Source: RCHME 1968, parish essays; VCH Cambridgeshire V, 1973, parish essays; CCC SMR; Palmer 1927, p. 53.
On the contrary, all the evidence indicates that That is, before the introduction of common settlement in the Bourn Valley has been highly fields, the arrangement of fields and settlements nucleated since the late Anglo-Saxon period, and was sufficiently uniform in each prehistoric that - as far as the criteria relating to settlement period to imply a general landscape across are concerned - this area conforms clearly to lowland Britain as a whole. This is related to a those defining the Central Province. second premise - in this case convincingly The use of moats as an indicator of dispersed supported by sound research - that while settlement is not therefore as straightforward as common field arrangements erased all trace of it might appear. The distinction between preceding field layouts in the Central Province, manorial and freeman moats is crucial, as is the these older fields generally survived in the landscape context within which each moat is set ancient landscapes of the other two Provinces - its relationship with nucleated settlement and (Hall1995; Williamson 1988a and 1988b; Rippon with assartable land. 1991 and 2000b). What has not been shown is that the pre- common field landscapes were indeed uniform 'TRANSITION' AS AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS across lowland Britain; nor has the role of CONTINUITY regional influence in differentiating prehistoric Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 landscapes been much explored, except in the An anomalous feature of this continuity of use of context of marginal areas such as wetlands and greens and commons is that, while on the one estuaries (e.g. Rippon 2000b). For example, the hand these elements are regarded as type- suggestion that 'a typical model of dryland features for the ancient landscapes of the South- settlement in the later prehistoric period would Eastern and Northern and Western Provinces, in include a permanent domestic site surrounded this context they lie, apparently atypically, in the by its fields, with more distant resources used for Central Province, an area of classic common field pasture, wood and other resources. The systems (Roberts & Wrathmell 2000, p. 2). evidence for extensive field systems around The most obvious and widely-held settlement sites . .. in turn surrounded by . .. areas explanation for this anomaly is that the Bourn with limited use . . . might be seen to fit this Valley is representative of a 'transitional zone model' is not unusual (Lacock 2001, p. 126). In between two major regions' (Postgate 1973, another example, the results of excavation at five p. 281). specific sites have been used to exemplify the The problems with the argument for landscape of lowland Britain as a whole across transitional landscapes lie both in its premises five different prehistoric periods (Bradley 2000, and in the argument itself and these problems pp. 2, 9). Only recently have the regional are discussed below. differences between prehistoric landscapes been The first premise is that the major differences explored, and then implicitly and briefly rather in landscape between ancient and champion are than explicitly and at length (Thirsk 2000). only as ancient as the common fields themselves. To some extent this criticism is unfair, partly MEDIEVAL GREENS AND MOATS IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 85
because the aims of much archaeology has been period in time. The complex interplay of these to summarise and generalise from what is known factors and the differences that they have about the vast area of lowland England, rather generated between different landscapes have than to distinguish between regional landscapes. been explored in much detailed research (e.g. Partly, too, because archaeology is still a Dyer 1991; Lewis et al. 1997). relatively young discipline in which the The same academic rigour has not been similarities between the results of excavations of brought to similarities between different the same period have necessarily been more landscapes. On the contrary, these have been important than the differences in order to allow explained simply in terms of 'transition' near the a synthesis of data to create an overarching boundary between ancient and 'champion', a no- framework for the discipline. Only recently have mans-land between provinces where the 'rules' the differences between sites, and the appear to be 'relaxed'. This 'fuzziness' makes it a differences between regions, become a viable difficult concept to test or explain in detail, since question for research. it is not defined nor has it been the subject of the Nevertheless, a consequence of this synthesis same detailed analysis or deconstruction as the has been to generalise a more or less common factors involved in generating differences ancient landscape of fields and settlement across between types of landscape. It is analogous to all three Provinces before the introduction of the the philosophical critique called the 'God of the common fields. The problem with this Gaps' which is usually applied to scientific assumption is, however, that differences enquiry: when no scientific explanation for a between the South-Eastern, and the Northern phenomenon is apparent, that phenomenon is and Western Provinces are such that Roberts and called upon to demonstrate the existence of God Wrathmell have concluded that they are (M. Hesse, pers. comm.). Differences between sufficiently different as to represent different the Provinces have been explored rationally and kinds of landscape (Roberts & Wrathmell 2000, explained on the basis of evidence and p. 2). This means that, if the centuries after the argument. Transition is an explanation of introduction of common fields treated these similarities; it is unsupported by argument, and landscapes so lightly that ancient landscapes can until the similarities between Provinces have still be discerned in them, these two outer been subjected to the same academic rigour as Provinces were likely to have had different the differences, the argument for transition has landscapes before the Central Province was the same status as that for the 'God of the Gaps'. created. An alternative model for the persistence of The second premise is that there was features characteristic of both Provinces in the relatively little major change in the landscapes of Bourn Valley may be found in the work of the two outer Provinces in the centuries Roberts and Wrathmell, who have identified following the watershed introduction of common regional variations within their sub-provincial fields in the Central Province, since landscapes. In their view 'the provinces can be arrangements of ancient fields are still defined in terms of particular and distinctive discernable in these areas. This seems intuitively associations of landscape elements; each unlikely given that these areas were as subject to province is made up of smaller regions or zones, those influences stimulating change in the termed sub-provinces, in turn characterised by landscape - for example, climate, lordship, associations of elements which, while in general economic imperatives, agricultural innovation, broadly accord with those expected for the Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 and population growth and change in the province, nevertheless differ in some centuries after about A.D. 850 - as the Central proportions' (Roberts & Wrathmell 2000, p. 39). Province, and it is a conclusion which needs to The South-Eastern Province, for example, has be demonstrated rather than inferred. been divided into six sub-provinces which have There are problems with the argument for been further divided into fifty-three local regions transitional areas or zones as well as with the (ibid., p. 67).5 premises underlying the argument. The difficulty Roberts and Wrathmell have suggested that with the argument of transition lies in its the differences between Provinces are also differential treatment of differences and visible, certainly on the broader scale, in the similarities between the Central and the outlying distribution of high-status Romano-British sites Provinces. Differences have quite properly been and early Anglo-Saxon place-names and explained in terms of the effects on landscape archaeology (ibid., pp. 29-34). For example, they use of different local geographies and conclude that 'some parts of England [like the environments - such as geology, relief, access Bourn Valley] which were largely clear of to water - combined with the effects of woodland in Roman times remained in variations in population and manorial holdings, cultivation through the fifth and sixth centuries, and the management of the local agricultural and became the areas most closely associated resources, within the wider context of what is with Anglo-Saxon material culture; whereas known about national and regional economic, other regions, some of which had supported social and political processes at any particular large numbers of villas, ceased to be farmed, and 86 LANDSCAPE HISTORY
saw a regeneration of woodland, which in some fields after about A.D. 850. cases .. . set the trajectory for those regions for It may rather be that, in the Bourn Valley, as the next fifteen hundred years' (ibid., p. 34, my in other parts of lowland England, there were addition). If they are right, then the fundamental always distinctive regional landscapes whose distinction between the provinces, perhaps character had been formed by a complex down to the level of their 'local regions', may be interplay of cultural and physical factors, some very ancient. local, some regional and some national, over Their work confirms the conclusion, reached many millennia. These factors might include, for independently, that a complex regional example, the history of prehistoric and Romano- landscape in south Cambridgeshire, of which the British exploitation, the survival of archaic Bourn Valley is part, has very ancient roots since Anglo-Saxon patterns of land-holding and social at least some of the greens in this area may be of structure into the eleventh century, and the more Anglo-Saxon or earlier date (Oosthuizen 1994). It deterministic influence of the relationship is unlikely that regional characteristics had not between pasture, meadow and arable, as well as developed before about A.D. 850, given that many others. This landscape may not be arable and pastoral exploitation of the landscape 'transitional' in character, but a landscape form in was already at least 5,000 years old before the its own right, exemplifying 'intermingled common fields were introduced. Furthermore, regional and transregional cultures' (Wrathmell Rackham has pointed out that even the 1994, p. 192). wildwood into which the earliest human agency That the landscape of the Bourn Valley may intervened was not a uniform landscape, but a not be unique is hinted at in the observation that mosaic of groves of different tree species 'a regular arrangement of fields is sometimes depending on variations in soil, underlying found associated with ample areas of permanent geology, topography, relief and local micro- pasture' in north-west Bedfordshire (Lewis et at. climatic differences (Rackham 1986, p. 79). Once 1997, p. 175). This may intimate that subsequent these differences interacted with the intensifying testing of the detail of Roberts' and Wrathmell's demographic, social, cultural, political and conclusions might yet reveal further economic processes resulting from human complexities, since their work explicitly raises interaction with the landscape over the millennia the possibility that, within broad parameters, since Mesolithic societies began to make their there have always been regional pays which mark on the land, it seems unlikely that a demonstrated as many differences in the uniform landscape will have covered the whole prehistoric and Roman periods as they did in the of lowland England for the 5,000 years or so middle ages and after. before the introduction of the first common
Christopher Taylor has taught me a great deal about the James, Dr Max Satchell, Dr Tom Williamson and Mr Michael geology and topography of greens. Dr Tim Reed and Coles have been kind enough to discuss my work with me. Professor Tony Legge were most generous with their Infelicities and mistakes remain my own. Phillip Judge kindly expertise concerning meadows and the archaeology of undertook the drawing of the maps. Harlton, respectively. Professor Mary Hesse, Dr Nicholas Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013 NOTES I. There is also some evidence that these regular ovals may 4. This calculation has been based on a comparison of the once have been larger and less regular than their mid- number of ploughs required for the arable of each twentieth-century appearance would suggest township and the number of ploughs that the meadow (Oosthuizen, 2002; CCRO 124/P52). The suggestion that of each township could support, both listed in they originated as arable units is at variance with the Domesday Book. influence of both geology and drainage, both of which 5. Roberts' and Wrathmell's Atlas has only recently been suggest that these areas would be more useful as pasture. published (2000), and publication of the accompanying 2. The first known priest - Robert, a Norman name - was volume has been delayed by the publishers, so scholars recorded in 1086 and his antecessor does not appear to have not had very much opportunity to test the have been a priest (Rumble 1981, 14:36). The earliest hypotheses, methods and conclusions presented in this architectural evidence in the church dates from the innovative work. Nevertheless, it is work which, for the twelfth century, but this is typical of most first time, has collated a wide range of detailed data from Cambridgeshire churches and little can be inferred from all over England using a clearly described and easily it ( VCH Cambridgeshire V. 1973, p. 237). Most replicable methodology, and its results are therefore to Cambridgeshire parish churches were probably in be taken seriously. The general confirmation of these existence by the late eleventh century (Oosthuizen 2001, results in Norfolk and Suffolk by the English Heritage p. 57). project on the Historic Field Systems of Eastern England 3. Harlton Cow Common was the site of extensive works is interesting and makes further testing of these during the Second World War. Although there is no conclusions the more urgent (M. Satchell, pers. comm.). evidence for ridge and furrow there in 1947 or later, it may be that there was much destruction of earthworks during the war years (RAF I06G/UK/1490 and CPE/UK/2024). MEDIEVAL GREENS AND MOATS IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 87
ABBREVIATIONS
CCC SMR Cambridgeshire County Council Sites and CUL Cambridge University Library Monuments Record ICC Inquisitio Comitatus Cantabrigiensis (see CCRO Cambridge County Record Office Bibliography) CUCAP University of Cambridge Committee for Aerial OE Old English Photography OS Ordnance Survey
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Plate I Great Eversden, Cambs.: StMary's Church on the ploughed-up site of Lammas Meadows, just below the spring line. Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 12:03 01 March 2013
Plate II Great Eversden, Cambs.: Moated site of medieval freeman homestead, in the centre of the village and demonstrating the strong impetus to nucleation rather than dispersal of settlement in the Bourn Valley.