Pootler

The previous posts unearth the roots of the scenery we see in the the region today. Now I want to look at how we got from then to now.  Better transport hastened change. The medieval transport network was threadbare. The waterways were well used but the roads  were usually very poor and with  responsibility for their maintenance rested with parishes. Things started to improve during the 1600s at the same time as the enclosures and farming innovations were gathering pace. Many fords were replaced by bridges and turnpike roads were introduced, run by trusts established by Parliament. Look out for roads that have milestones and the wide verges which characterise both the turnpikes and the roads often required by Parliamentary Enclosures. The dictatorial highway planning that we experience today, has a long history!   Newbury / Reading Milestone The population of England was steadily rising, from around 10m in 1800 to perhaps 30m in 1900. More people to feed and hou...

I have already made the point that, away from the lowlands,   things didn't change so much. Among the hills, smaller valleys and woods, the creation of large fields was frequently  impractical. I n many places only  a maniac could have 'planned' what emerged from the tumble-dryer of history.  It all makes the ancient countryside a richer hunting ground for pootlers.  By way of illustration, contrast the two pics  of the land around Chinnor in Bucks sho wn  below. The first is the 'planned' lowland and appeared later and the second is the upper dip slope of the Chilterns.  T he villages in the populated land below the Chiltern Scarp often combined their use of the open fields with rights to land on the scarp for grazing and timber and which was often in the same parish.                      Planned fields north of Chinnor Higher ground south of Chinnor A similar pattern can be se...

  At the end of the last post, I described the slow demise of Champion landscapes, the failing agriculture and the dramatic fall in population in the 1300s. Recovery took a long time but  led to major and more positive changes in rural society.  Firstly, the reduced workforce was in a position to demand better wages. There is a visible impact of that. If you look at those lovely timber-framed houses, the oldest usually date back to the 1400s -1500s. You see very few ordinary houses older than that. (See my post on Cottages. Link:  The Olde Country Cottage ). Secondly, many landlords found that they could no longer profit from using the peasantry to farm their land for them. Instead, it was more profitable to simply rent the land out to others,  often their former serfs. The word 'farmer' is derived from the medieval Latin 'firmarius' which is someone who rents, not farms, and the new farmers had more incentive to work to improve their lot.   'Working f...

     This is the first in a series of posts aimed at providing some general background on the development of the rural landscape to accompany the local detail the posts on my bike tours in the countryside north of London. Landscape of Northern Home Counties  A useful but very crude simplification is that you will find two 'typical' types of rural landscape in the region. Both had their roots in the practices of medieval agriculture.  The predominant pattern today, in the northern part in particular, is a 'planned' countryside landscape of large rectangular arable. Good examples include the clay lowlands and rolling, open hills to the north of London, lightly shaded in the map above.  The other is the 'Ancient' countryside which has defied planning and where the layout owes more to serendipity. Examples include the wooded hills which are darker on the map, but also meadows, woodlands and the old estates.  It would be handy if this was a neat distinction...