Post-Medieval & Modern Berkshire & Hampshire
POST MEDIEVAL AND MODERN (INDUSTRIAL, MILITARY, INSTITUTIONS AND DESIGNED LANDSCAPES) HAMPSHIRE AND BERKSHIRE David Hopkins November 2006 Introduction Hampshire. Hampshire is dominated by the chalk landscape which runs in a broad belt, east west, across the middle of the county. The northern edge runs through Pilot Hill and Basingstoke, the southern edge through Kings Somborne and Horndean. These are large, open and fertile landscapes dominated by agriculture. Agriculture is the principle force behind the character of the landscape and the evolution of the transport network and such industry as exists. There are large vistas, with nucleated villages, isolated farms and large extents of formal enclosure. Market towns developed linked by transport routes. Small scale processing using the water power available from streams was supported by, and eventually replaced by, growing industrialisation in some towns, usually those where modern transport (such as rail) allowed development. These towns expanded and changed in character, whilst other less well placed towns continue to retain their market town character. North and south of the chalk are bands of tertiary deposits, sands, gravels and clays. Less fertile and less easy to farm for much of their history they have been dominated by Royal Forest. Their release from forest and small scale nature of the agricultural development has lead to a medieval landscape, with dispersed settlement and common edge settlement with frequent small scale isolated farms. The geology does provide opportunities for extractive industry, and the cheapness of the land, and in the north the proximity to London, led to the establishment of military training areas, and parks and gardens developed by London’s new wealthy classes.
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