Landscape History Today: the Bulletin of CSLH September 2013 Number 53 Moreton Corbet, Shropshire Contents Chair’s Message 3 Landscape change in a borderland township 4 Beauty is in the eye of the beholder 24 Oliver remembered 26 Field Visit Reports 29 Publications 43 Dates for the diary Members may be interested in the following events ... Saturday 26th October - CLHA History Day Saturday 26th October - Life and death; the stories of Norton Priory Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool http://nortonpriory.org/top-menu/whats-on/lectures-and-tours/ CNWRS Study Days 2013-14, Lancaster University http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/cnwrs/events/index.htm Editor: Sharon Varey, Meadow Brook, 49 Peel Crescent, Ashton Hayes, Cheshire, CH3 8DA Email: [email protected] Web: www.chesterlandscapehistory.org.uk Page 2 Chair’s Message With the sun streaming in through the window it is difficult to believe that the autumn lecture season is nearly upon us. Let us hope this beautiful summer weather continues for our residential to Herefordshire. This issue of the Bulletin is not without sadness as we remember two landscape history ‘greats’ who are no longer with us. In March CSLH lost Oliver Bott, one of it’s founding fathers and a great supporter of our Society. Our thoughts and very warmest wishes are with Elizabeth at this very difficult time. In memory of Oliver we shall be holding a special commemorative lecture in his honour next year. Towards the end of June we were shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Mick Aston of ‘Time Team’ fame. Mick spoke to the Society on two occasions in recent years and was popular amongst members for his very down to earth approach towards landscape history and archaeology. This spring/summer witnessed a collection of memorable field visits which you can read about later in the Bulletin. It was particularly nice to welcome newer members of the Society to these visits. Our thanks are extended to all those who were involved in their planning and organisation, but particularly to Mike and Maggie Taylor for ensuring everything went according to plan. Finally, in my role as editor, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this edition of the Bulletin in any way whatsoever. I really appreciate receiving your photos, reports and articles. So, If you feel inspired to write a piece about your summer landscape exploits, please send it to me by 30th November so that it can be included in the January edition. I look forward to seeing you during the autumn lecture season. Sharon Varey Page 3 Landscape Change in a Borderland Township: a 1631 map of Burton Whilst visiting a friend’s house at Burton near Rossett, I was shown a map of part of the township of Burton that dated from 1631. The map was drawn up at the behest of the Worshipful Mr Anthony Lewis to show the extent of lands he owned in the township. The map also shows the holders of adjacent parcels of land and names the fields, their owners and their acreage. The map is difficult to interpret because place-names in both English and Welsh are mis-spelled. Additionally, south is at the top of the map: the convention of placing north at the top had not been adopted at that stage since the profession of surveyor was a relatively new one dating from the reign of Elizabeth I. In this instance, the surveyor responsible was Dr Richard Norwood. A further difficulty with the map is that not all of the township is included and unfortunately there is no coverage of Burton’s arable Town Field. Figure 1 The Burton map of 1631. Page 4 In order to fully appreciate this snapshot of the landscape of Burton in 1631, an outline of the earlier history of this township is made below. The small bridge that carries the old A483, now the B5445, from Chester into Wales, shown in Figure 2, is an inauspicious frontier marker. Yet Pulford Brook, over which the road passes, has formed the frontier between England and Wales since 1536, and, before that date marked the frontier between Cheshire and the Figure 2 Pulford Bridge. Marcher Lordship of Bromfield and Yale, created as a buffer state by Edward I following the final conquest of Wales 1277 - 82. There are a number of historians who believe that this frontier may be even more ancient. Professor Bu’lock noted that late seventh century Welsh sources named Pulford as the boundary with Mercia.1 It is interesting to note that to the south of Pulford lay the extensive Burton Marshes, beyond which lay the Alyn Valley, guarded by three small hill forts: Rofft, Caer Alyn and the controversial hill fort of Y Gaer, (Llay) and of course, Wat’s Dyke which also passes through Llay township. After crossing the frontier into North Wales, the traveller entered the large former multi-township parish of Gresford with Allington township lying to the east of the road and Burton to the west. The shallow valley, now occupied by Pulford Brook, once represented a much more physical challenge to travellers along the ancient corridor that ran from north to south following the line of the present Welsh borderlands. This area was once an extensive marshland covered by dense damp oak-alder forest. The marshland was prone to frequent flooding and extended north westwards to Lower Kinnerton and was known as Burton Marshes or, further north, Dodleston Moor. It is probable that a number of post-glacial pools existed within the marshes as suggested by local place-names such as Pulford, Poulton, Page 5 Llyndir meaning ‘lake land’ and the farmhouse of Llyn Tro (turning lake) named after the moat that once surrounded this farm which dates from c.1350.2 Areas of marshland were used as a location for making votive offerings to some lost water deity in Bronze Age times as witnessed by the archaeological treasures discovered in the former marshland at Burton and Rossett and the magnificent Caergwrle bowl found in a bog below Caergwrle Castle. The finds at Burton (Figure 3) were unearthed in 2004 by metal detectors and consist of a hoard of gold jewellery and bronze tools buried on a ceramic pot. The artefacts have been dated to the Middle Bronze Age (1300-1150 BC).3 The Rossett hoard, which was also found by metal detectors, consisted of a faceted axe, a tanged knife and pieces of a gold bracelet. The hoard dates from the late Bronze Age. On the Cheshire side of the marsh, recent archaeological excavations have identified a possible Bronze Age ritual landscape at Poulton containing a birch post circle. On the Welsh side, a possible Bronze Age burial ground has been located at Lavister4 suggesting that the fringes of the marshes were inhabited from an early date. Figure 3 The Burton hoard. The earliest permanent settlement of the township probably dates from the early medieval period. In order to fully appreciate the significance of the emerging settlement pattern, it is necessary to understand the physical nature of the area. The township is located on land that slopes in a north easterly Page 6 direction from a height of 85 metres on its boundary with the adjacent parish of Hope to 12 metres on the Pulford Brook boundary with Pulford parish. The steeply sloping land in the east of Burton township is made up of sands and gravels and forms part of what is known as the Wrexham delta. During the last ice age which ended around 11,000 years ago, after reaching its maximum extent around 42,000 years ago,5 much of North Wales was covered by an ice sheet known as the Welsh ice sheet. The Welsh ice was in contact on its eastern side with a much larger ice sheet that had moved south eastwards from the Irish Sea to reach the southern edge of the Cheshire Plain. This ice sheet was known as the Irish Sea ice sheet. Much of today’s physical landscape along the borderlands of north east Wales, particularly in Burton township, reflects the impact of the advance, coalescence and subsequent uncoupling of the Welsh and Irish Sea Ice during a phase of the last Ice Age known as the late Devensian. The ice sheets left behind a covering of boulder clay up to 105 metres thick that overlies the older Triassic and Liassic rocks that underlie the Cheshire- Shropshire basin,6 including the land in the east of Burton township. As the ice sheets retreated at the end of the Ice Age, meltwater from the Welsh ice sheet flowed into the Cheshire Plain from the east forming a large lake or series of lakes covering much of the western part of the Cheshire Plain. As streams of melt water reached a lake or a surviving mass of ice, the streams lost energy and were forced to deposit their load of fluvio-glacial sands and gravels as a deltaic deposit. The delta formed the steep slopes that occur in the west of Burton Township and at Marford Hill to the south. This forms part of a feature that extends over 40 square kilometres and is up to 38 metres thick.7 The light, well-drained sandy soils on the eastern side of the township were easily worked and not surprisingly formed the location of Burton’s medieval common arable town field referred to as ‘Maes Burton’ in medieval documents. The heavy glacial boulder clays in the east of the parish were best suited to pasture and were enclosed on a piecemeal basis from an early date although the name Burton Green suggests that there may have been some common pasture.