TOPOGRAPHY and REGIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS by Philip Sidebottom
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CHAPTER III TOPOGRAPHY AND REGIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS by Philip Sidebottom TOPOGRAPHY (Fig. 7) some is also present in a small part of north-eastern Staffordshire, around Ilam and Alstonefield, for The county of Derbyshire altered little as the result example. of county boundary changes in 1974. A small area in To the east and west of the Millstone Grit and the north west was transferred to Greater Manchester Carboniferous Limestone are the Coal Measures when it was formed, but Derbyshire gained a small sandstones, around Blackwell to the north of Derby area of Cheshire, nearby, and no monuments included and in the Stoke-on-Trent area of Staffordshire. in this volume of the Corpus were excluded or gained The landscape of the Coal Measures is undulating by these boundary changes. In south Staffordshire, but less severe than that of the Millstone Grit. It is part of the county was included in the West Midlands better drained to an extent, but the soils are rich in conurbation in 1974, incorporating Wolverhampton clay and, therefore, generally quite heavy. Within this and its surrounding area, and this part of the ‘old’ region, extensive woodlands developed as the result of county includes the sculptures considered here at regeneration after the collapse of the Roman economy Wolverhampton, Upper Penn and Bushbury. (cf. Rackham 1986, 75–83). Evidence for this is also The southern Pennine uplands extend to include found in the numerous place-name elements found in the northern parts of both counties and much of the the Coal Measures region which refer to woodland: Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire Elmton and Ashover are prime examples. In addition, and a small part of northern Staffordshire. In both there are place-names suggesting poor agricultural land, counties, there is a distinct upland and lowland such as Heath, Clay Lane and Brackenfield (Fellows- division, with the higher ground of the Pennines Jensen 1978, 257). In the extreme east of Derbyshire in the north and lower land in the south, especially a thin ridge of younger Magnesian Limestone runs around the Trent and Tame valleys. This landscape close to the county boundaries with Nottinghamshire division is determined by the geological structure of and south Yorkshire, forming an edge overlooking the the region (see Chapter II, Fig. 5). The northern parts river valleys of the Coal Measures immediately to the of Staffordshire and Derbyshire are shaped largely by west. To the south of the Pennines in both counties, the Carboniferous rocks of the southern Pennines much younger sandstones are present, typified by red where, in the northernmost parts of both counties, Sherwood Sandstone used extensively for building Millstone Grit landscapes are typified by heather in the region. The landscape here is less severe with moorlands and steep valleys, at the highest point only minor undulations rising, typically, from around rising to around 635 m. It is an area which is badly 50 m—for example at Derby—to around 120 m at drained, where the soils are poor and leached. Still Norbury or Checkley in Staffordshire. This relatively within the northern parts of the counties, but a little low-lying land extends over much of Staffordshire to the south, the Millstone Grit has been eroded to and across the southern part of Derbyshire where the expose the Carboniferous Limestone below, forming soils are comparatively rich and arable agriculture has the so-called White Peak limestone dome, rising to prevailed. Within the southern parts of the counties around 360 m. The limestone areas are better drained are some geological complexities, but these are quite with lighter soils but, historically, water sources have small. been at a premium due to the porosity of the bedrock. The principal river of the region is the Trent. It Most of the limestone exposure lies in Derbyshire, but skirts around the southern tip of the Pennines, rising 19 20 CHAPTER III in moorland in the north of Staffordshire. Most of its ure in the two counties (and elsewhere for that matter) course in the two counties flows southwards through faces two inherent problems. First, there are bound Staffordshire before travelling eastwards through a to be sites where sculpture has been lost for good small part of southern Derbyshire near Repton and or has yet to be recovered and thus the distribution Derby and on through Nottinghamshire (Everson is distorted through absence/s. Secondly, almost no and Stocker 2015). In Derbyshire it is joined by the piece of sculpture can be provenanced with certainty River Derwent just south of Derby, a river that rises to the location at which it was first recorded. We do in the northern moorlands of the county. The other know that many pieces were moved around: the Two principal rivers of Derbyshire are the Wye, which Dales shaft, for example, which eventually ended up joins the Derwent at Rowsley, and the Dove which in Bakewell churchyard in Derbyshire, or the shaft forms much of its boundary with Staffordshire. In at Tatenhill which allegedly spent much of its life at the south of the region, in Staffordshire, are several Rolleston in Staffordshire. These are the relocated tributaries of the River Trent. Here, the main rivers sculptures that we know about; but how many of are the Sow, Penk and Tame, the latter two reflected them were moved from, or near, their original proven- in the Anglo-Saxon people groups, the Pencersæte and ance before they were first recognised for what they Tomsæte (cf. Hooke 2006, 1). The only river that was were and recorded? Nevertheless, for the purposes navigable to any extent was the Trent, at least as far as of this analysis, as with all volumes of the Corpus Repton. The juxtaposition of the navigable head of series, we have to assume that the sculptural pieces the river and the Roman road, Ryknield Street, no were originally located at or near the locations first doubt contributed greatly to the strategic importance recorded (see e.g. Bailey 1996, 11–12). of the Repton and Derby area. As it survives, sculpture from the Anglo-Saxon The upland–lowland division in the two counties period is unevenly distributed over the two counties, no doubt had its effect on the economic strategies especially through Staffordshire (see Fig. 8). The adopted by the various inhabitants, just as it seems to majority of the extant material takes the form of free- have done in the Romano-British period (see Chapter standing crosses and kindred monuments, but there IV and Fig. 14). Different soil types, drainage and are also a significant number of coped grave-covers; fertility levels would have promoted different responses unique monument forms include the architectural to agriculture and subsistence. Some of the topography decoration at Repton and the column preserved at which included, for example, dense woodland, infertile Wolverhampton (see further Chapters V and VI). moorland, or steep valleys, offered natural impediments In Derbyshire, sculpture is found in most areas, but to movement or provided demarcation zones in the especially around the limestone core of the Peak landscape. The population, too, would have responded District. However, in the Coal Measures region of to the natural resources available. The limestone of the eastern Derbyshire, only one free-standing cross-shaft ‘White Peak’ provided light soils, useful to farming, is known, that at Blackwell (East), near Alfreton, and but, moreover, contained a high level of mineral wealth no sculpture has been identified on the Magnesian not found elsewhere in the region in the form of lead Limestone. The most likely reason for this apparent and, perhaps to a lesser extent, silver and copper. These dearth of sculpture in this part of the county is that commodities were in demand during the Roman much of it was covered by forest during the Anglo- period and found a resurging market during the Saxon period, an extension of what came to be known succeeding Anglo-Saxon period. Principal lead mines as Sherwood Forest and the Forest of Barnsdale to its seem to have been concentrated on the eastern side north. Evidence suggests that only in the very late of the limestone Peak District, for example, at Eyam, Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods was much of this Bakewell, Bradbourne and Wirksworth (cf. Heath area opened up to agriculture (Sidebottom 2008, 93). 1993, 49), all centres where, interestingly, quality According to Rackham (1986, 75–83) there was also Anglo-Saxon period sculpture can be found. a swathe of woodland which extended westwards from the Coal Measures in eastern Derbyshire, across the northern part of the Triassic sandstone region of DISTRIBUTION OF SCULPTURE (Fig. 8) southern Derbyshire and into Staffordshire, and this might be reflected by the relatively narrow band of For the purposes of this chapter, the term ‘Anglo- absent sculpture between Tatenhill and Checkley. Saxon’ will include the period of Anglo-Scandinavian This swathe of woodland might have formed part of a settlement. Understanding the distribution of sculpt- ‘tribal’ boundary at some time or another. TOPOGRAPHY AND REGIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS 21 FIGURE 8 Sites with Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, with topography 22 CHAPTER III The distribution of sculpture in Staffordshire is, production and distribution for which no evidence is however, far from uniform. In the northern part of forthcoming in this region. And while the definition the county there is a relatively regular distribution of a regional group can be interpreted differently, for of free-standing monuments extending northwards the purposes of this discussion, it is taken to mean from Eccleshall, Chebsey and Checkley into the monuments which share a common repertoire of neighbouring counties of Cheshire and Lancashire design elements: repeated and distinctive motifs and (see Bailey 2010).