I will be commencing a full time PhD at the University of Exeter in September. Here is my research proposal; the landscapes and places that will be occupying my time, inspiring me and driving me to distration over the next three years. If anyone has any expertise, knowledge or interest in the subject matter outlined here I would be delighted to hear from you.
Monastic estates, in contradistinction to monastic buildings,
have traditionally received limited attention from landscape archaeologists and
historians and few previous studies have attempted to examine the subsequent evolution
of these estates beyond the Dissolution within the context of their monastic
period antecedents (Bond, 2004; Everson and Stocker, 2007). However, a number
of more recent agenda-setting publications (Aston 2007; Austin, 2004; Bezant, 2014; Walsham,
2011) have offered new
methodological and theoretical frameworks to begin to address this subject, thus
providing the foundation, impetus and broader context for this proposal.
Examining in detail landscapes associated with a number of monastic houses in
the south-eastern Welsh Marches and tracing their later trajectory, this thesis
will assess the impact and legacy of monasticism on the historic landscape up
to the present day, stretching the chronological survey of such landscapes into
the post-Dissolution era and bridging the gap between medieval and
post-medieval landscape study.
Adopting an interdisciplinary and multi-layered approach to
the landscape, the core emphasis on tracing and accounting for the physical
changes evident within the study area will be supported by an examination of
the shifting perceptions of cultural and economic value, of landscape meaning
and memory, which such changes reveal or provoke (Cosgrove, 2008; Schama,
1996). Consequently, conventional themes
long dominant in landscape historical and archaeological discourse such as
ownership and land management will be addressed, but interweaved with the
discipline’s more recent interest in how places and landscapes are perceived,
appreciated and codified in both the past and present (Johnson 2007; Whyte,
2009; Wylie 2007).
This research will be driven by a number of core questions:
- Can
distinct medieval ‘monastic’ landscape types or even, in Whyte’s words (2009), “religious
topographies” be identified?
- What
was the legacy of monasticism for subsequent secular landscape development?
- Is
there any commonality in the post-Dissolution evolution of monastic estates as
they were transformed from economic and religious spaces into, for instance,
idealised designed landscapes in the early modern period, or designated
heritage and touristic landscapes in more recent times?
- What
historic and contemporary perceptions, reactions and emotions have these transfigurations
engendered?
The south-eastern portion of the Welsh Marches, encompassing
the historic counties of Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, Glamorgan and
Herefordshire has been carefully selected for its high potential to address the
specific research questions posed here (Burton and Stober 2013). This area
contains a mixture of pays— of both upland
and lowland, and champion and bocage
landscape character — offering a
variety of physical settings in which to explore the human dimensions of
landscape creation over the long term (Leighton
and Silvester, 2003; Rowley, 2001). The region was also colonized by a
number of religious orders during the middle ages. This provides the context to
examine the estate organisation of specific religious orders as well as the particular
landscape arrangements of individual houses. The wider geo-political dimension
at play in the region during the medieval period—for example the establishment
of monastic estates as a symbol of Norman colonisation, power and control in a
contested borderland—provides an additional dynamic to enrich discussion on the
cultural impact of these landscapes (Burton and Stober, 2013; Rowley, 2001).
There is also considerable variation in the post-Dissolution histories of these
monasteries: some became ruinous, with their estates broken up, whilst others
were converted into gentry houses with associated landscaped estates. The area has long attracted the attention of the
artistic community, opening up the opportunity to explore the monastic legacy
underpinning the evolution of these landscapes as cultural, spiritual, and
artistic touchstones (Andrews, 1999). Finally, reflecting the desire to trace
development to the present day, many of the monastic estates are located in
what are now designated spaces or countryside on the edge of post-industrial
urban areas; terrains viewed through the contemporary lens of high heritage and
ecological value, but also facing competing pressures for change.
An interdisciplinary approach will be adopted from the outset
integrating topographical, archaeological and historical evidence supplemented
by analysis of literary and artistic sources, oral histories and contemporary
opinion. Examination will be multi-scale,
with general surveys of the whole area supplemented by three detailed case studies
chosen to ensure a reflection of the range of complex landscape histories it
contains (the short-list of monastic houses for the case studies are: Craswall, Dore, Goldcliff, Llanthony, Llantharnam and Tintern). Criteria in their selection
will include: monastic order; landscape character and pays-type; heritage and
conservation designations and value (including economic); current ‘risks’ of
landscape degradation and fragmentation; access and ownership considerations; and
availability of archive and research materials.
Foundational to the research will be to categorize, record,
and map monastic features in the case study landscapes (including religious
buildings, farmsteads and granges, field systems, communication routes and
other infrastructure). GIS will be used to integrate, analyse and present
modern and historic maps and plans, aerial photographs and satellite images,
place- and field-names, and data layers from HER and archival records. A limited sample of targeted fieldwork will
be conducted on key features, focussed on rapid field assessment and measured
surveys. Once reconstructed, the
‘monastic era’ features of the case study landscapes will be analysed to
identify and catalogue post-Dissolution continuity and change: patterns of
preservation, adaption and despoliation.
A dual approach will be taken to the analysis and
comprehension of shifting perceptions of the case study landscapes, of how such
places are envisioned and represented (Andrews, 1999; Cosgrove, 2008; DeLue and Elkins, 2008). Written, artistic, and
cartographical landscape descriptions and depictions—from monastic records,
folkloric representations, the works of antiquarians and the Romantics, through
to diverse twentieth and twenty-first century viewpoints—will be examined. This will be supplemented by survey and
interview of a representative sample of those who work in, manage and visit
these landscapes, including: National Park staff, walkers on Offa’s Dyke
National Trail, local farmers, artists and residents, visitors to heritage
sites, members of local societies, and those involved in outdoor pursuits. Social
media will be used to engage with on-line conversations relating to the spatial
and thematic subject matter of the study.
Transcribed versions
of documents from the monastic period, for instance Ecclesiastical Taxation (1291), Valor Ecclesiasticus (1535),
Calendars of Ancient Deeds, Charter and
Patent Rolls and other contemporary administrative and legal papers, will
be reviewed for primary source references to topographical and tenurial
information relating to the case study areas, as well as cartularies where they
exist. Reference will also be made to antiquarian studies describing post
medieval and early modern estates previously held by monastic houses in the
study area, such as Beaumont’s A Tour
throughout South Wales and Monmouthshire (1803) and Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum (1655-1673). National
and local archives and HER’s will be consulted to review archaeological
reports, estate and tithe maps and other source documents. Ordnance Survey maps
will be accessed digitally from the Digimap on-line resource. Aerial
photographs and satellite imagery will be obtained from the RCAHM (Wales) and
English Heritage’s on-line archive and Google Earth. A useful
on-line research resource for the study will be the Monastic Wales web site (http://www.monasticwales.org/), which
provides listings of primary and secondary sources for all monastic houses in
Wales. Other
sources will also help to identify patterns of perception over time relating to
the case study landscapes, including the work and commentaries of artists and
writers (ranging from Giraldus’ The
Journey through Wales to Wordsworth’s locally inspired output, through to
more contemporary observers such as Raymond Williams and Owen Sheers), local
folkloric tales and visitor survey data published by heritage and conservation
bodies.
More than just the
passive subject of our gaze or the repository for archaeological features of clearly
demarcated temporal periods, in the words of Robert Macfarlane (2012), “landscape is not something to be viewed and
appraised from a distance” but is “dynamic and commotion causing”, a collective term for the diverse
components “that together comprise the brisling
presence of a particular place”. This proposal outlines a vision for a work
which, though rooted in the established practices of landscape archaeology and history,
demonstrates a multi-dimensional approach based on the study of landscape as just
such a many layered construct (Fleming, 2008; Johnson, 2007). In this case,
exploring these ideas through a regional examination of the topographical
legacies of monasticism imprinted in the evolving realities and perceptions of diverse
monastic estate landscapes over time.
Ultimately the aim
is to provide a coherent narrative – a biography of both the real and the imagined
– for these particular places with complex pasts and presents in order to help
inform contemporary decisions on how they are managed, utilised and presented
to the wider public on a landscape scale now and in the future. For this is an
urgent need, now more than ever, as competing pressures of land use
(agriculture, housing, energy supply, amenity and so on) play out across rural Britain
and the cultural and economic value of ‘heritage assets’ is increasingly seen
to be realised on a landscape rather than a fragmented site-based level (Fowler,
2004; Rippon, 2004).
References
Andrews, M, 1999. Landscape and Western Art. Oxford University Press.
Aston, M, 2007. Monasteries in the Landscape. Tempus.
Austin, D, 2004. Strata Florida and its
landscape in Archaeol Cambrensis 153,
192-201.
Austin, D, 2006. The Future: Discourse,
Objectives and Directions in Roberts, K (Ed.) Lost Farmsteads: Deserted Rural Settlements in Wales. Council for
British Archaeology.
Bezant, J, 2014. Revising the monastic
‘grange’: Problems at the edge of the Cistercian world in Journal of
Medieval Monastic Studies.
Bond, J, 2004. Monastic Landscapes. Tempus.
Burton, J and Stober, K (Eds), 2013. Monastic Wales, New Approaches.
University of Wales Press.
Cosgrove, D, 2008. Geography
and Vision: Seeing, Imagining and Representing the World. Tauris.
DeLue, R and
Elkins, J (Eds.), 2008. Landscape Theory:
The Art Seminar. Routledge.
Everson, P and Stocker, D, 2007. St
Leonard’s at Kirkstead, Lincolnshire: The Landscape of the Cistercian Monastic
Precinct in Gardiner, M and Rippon, S (Eds.) Medieval Landscapes. Windgather Press.
Fleming, A, 2008. Debating Landscape
Archaeology in Landscapes 9.1 74-76.
Fowler, P, 2004. Landscapes for
the World: Conserving a Global Heritage. Windgather Press.
Johnson, M, 2007. Ideas of Landscape. Blackwell.
Leighton, D and Silvester, R, 2003. Upland
Archaeology in the Medieval and Post-medieval Periods in Browne, D and Hughes,
S (Eds.) The Archaeology of
the Welsh Uplands. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW).
Macfarlane, R, 2012. The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. Hamish Hamilton.
Rippon, S, 2004. Historic Landscape Analysis: Deciphering the Countryside. Council
for British Archaeology.
Rowley, T, 2001. The Welsh Border: Archaeology, History
and Landscape. Tempus.
Schama, S, 1996. Landscape and Memory. Fontana Press.
Walsham, A. 2011. The reformation of the landscape: religion,
identity, and memory in early modern Britain and Ireland. Oxford University Press.
Whyte, N, 2009. Inhabiting the Landscape: Place, Custom and Memory, 1500-1800. Windgather
Press.
Wylie, J, 2007. Landscape. Routledge.
