The term 'landscape' according to the OED was first used by Dutch painters in 1598 to describe pictoral representations of natural scenes on land. It came from the original Dutch landschap which simply meant, an area of land. It was initially translated as landskip:
'In a table donne by Cæsar Sestius where hee had painted Landskipes.'
R. Haydocke tr. G. P. Lomazzo Tracte Artes Paintinge iii. i. 94 1598
It was not until the early 1700's that the term as we know it today came into use to describe a view of physical topography.
'Thus we coasted the shore, fully employed in the contemplation of this diversified landskip.'
B. Robins & R. Walter Voy. round World by Ansonii. i. 111 1748
Another definition of 'landscape' can describe it as a region which has distinguishing characteristics or features, regions which Cheshire has in abundance. For example, the mid Cheshire Sandstone Ridge, the distinct moorland upland areas east of Macclesfield and the low lying salt flats of the Dee Estuary, to name a few.
The OED also notes that landscape has also come to mean a description of something in words:
'To compare the Natural Face of the Country with the Landskips that the Poets have given us of it.'
1705 J. Addison Remarks Italy Pref. sig. A4v,
'the Cheshire Plains as a garden; Spread in peace beside the winding silvery river; Stretch'd right onto sea or soft blue hills in the distance'
Taken from 'Edith or Love and Life in Cheshire' by Thomas Ashe published in 1873
How then does landscape differ to scenery?
For me, scenery is exactly that, a background, a scene, a view, against which events happen.
A landscape, however, is three dimensional; it surrounds us 360 degrees and we can interact with it, and it with us. It is made up of layers, layers of time, and layers of events, which need to teased out for us to fully understand what we see before us.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
What exactly are green lanes?
They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.
Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate,
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods ...
But there is no road through the woods.
The Way through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling
What exactly does the term "green lane" mean? To some it may conjure up a picture like the one described in the poem above, of a rural path, often sunken and ancient, providing a habitat for a great many varieties of flora and fauna.
To others it might refer to any roadway or track which is fair game for recreational off roading in 4 x 4 vehicles.
In fact "green lane" is somewhat of an informal umbrella term, with no legal meaning. Under Public Rights of Way law, there are four categories of public right of way:
Public footpaths, Bridleways, "Byways open to all traffic" or BOAT's, and restricted byways.
Valerie Belsey in her book "Discovering Green Lanes" also sets out various aesthetic qualities which can apply to these lanes, their inherent "greenness", due to the foliage, having a variety of surfaces, and having their own natural smells and sounds.
Green lanes often run between hedges or ditches, follow contour lines, natural ridgeways, and can sometimes when looked at as a group can help highlight a previously obscure network of ancient highways.
Examining lanes such as these can help the landscape historian investigate a pattern of land use and settlement which has been preserved in time. They may have had specific uses such as a drovers route, such as the one which runs from Bank Lane at Jenkins Chapel near Macclesfield or Lambert's Lane in Congleton.
Sunken lanes can sometimes be found leading into hillforts, such as those around Beeston.
Others may form part of a lychway or corpse road. These were a necessity in parishes which covered a wide geographical area where the dead would have to be carried from their homes to the parish church to be buried. One such example runs from Bowden Bank Farm to the then parish church for Marthall, at Peover.
Of course, the best way to discover the character of these lanes is to walk them; each one is individual and can provide clues to its origins and uses over the years better than any map.
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.
Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate,
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods ...
But there is no road through the woods.
The Way through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling
What exactly does the term "green lane" mean? To some it may conjure up a picture like the one described in the poem above, of a rural path, often sunken and ancient, providing a habitat for a great many varieties of flora and fauna.
To others it might refer to any roadway or track which is fair game for recreational off roading in 4 x 4 vehicles.
In fact "green lane" is somewhat of an informal umbrella term, with no legal meaning. Under Public Rights of Way law, there are four categories of public right of way:
Public footpaths, Bridleways, "Byways open to all traffic" or BOAT's, and restricted byways.
Valerie Belsey in her book "Discovering Green Lanes" also sets out various aesthetic qualities which can apply to these lanes, their inherent "greenness", due to the foliage, having a variety of surfaces, and having their own natural smells and sounds.
Green lanes often run between hedges or ditches, follow contour lines, natural ridgeways, and can sometimes when looked at as a group can help highlight a previously obscure network of ancient highways.
Examining lanes such as these can help the landscape historian investigate a pattern of land use and settlement which has been preserved in time. They may have had specific uses such as a drovers route, such as the one which runs from Bank Lane at Jenkins Chapel near Macclesfield or Lambert's Lane in Congleton.
Sunken lanes can sometimes be found leading into hillforts, such as those around Beeston.
Others may form part of a lychway or corpse road. These were a necessity in parishes which covered a wide geographical area where the dead would have to be carried from their homes to the parish church to be buried. One such example runs from Bowden Bank Farm to the then parish church for Marthall, at Peover.
Of course, the best way to discover the character of these lanes is to walk them; each one is individual and can provide clues to its origins and uses over the years better than any map.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Celtic road and place names
The Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire have now made freely available on their website, transactions from their journals from 1848 to 1999. These are fully searchable by keyword, and are a rich source of detail about local history subjects, written by eminent scholars.
http://www.hslc.org.uk/
One particularly interesting article which stood out whilst browsing was "Cheshire in the Dark Ages" by Dorothy Sylvester, published in 1962. She mapped out occurrences of Celtic place name elements to see if it was possible to trace pre-Roman trackways, to question how influential the pre-Roman Celtic settlement was on the geography of the Roman occupation.
Did the Romans pave some of the existing tradeways and link roads between Celtic settlements, or merely follow their general direction but cut a straighter route to avoid the hamlets, something which the author thought more likely?
Roads and trackways can be very difficult to date, so place name evidence can be used as supplementary evidence. For the purposes of this study, she looked at place name elements indicating roads, principally strata (Roman), ford (English) and heol (Welsh) , as well as the Anglo-Saxon term burh, meaning 'fortified place ' to see if this threw up any patterns.
Between Nantwich and Hale she highlights a series of ford and possible heol names: between Nantwich and Middlewich there is Old Hoolgrave, and Cledford. On current and earlier editions of Ordnance survey maps, a roman road is marked in this general direction, but there is no sign of it on tithe maps, so it is unsure where this information came from. North of Middlewich she cites Allostock and Knutsford by way of Lower Peover, on the current B5081. Could this possibly be a Roman Road heading for Manchester?
She also points out a striking line of possible Celtic road and place-names leading from Holford, east of Northwich, which in itself is a significant combination of the two words heol and ford . This runs east to Knutsford, Crosstown, Warford, Mottram, Prestbury, over to Saltersford, which she thinks can be interpreted as a saltway.
As a possible southerly divergent form Holford she links together the Peover villages, Chelford, Henbury, via Macclesfield it then continues to Eddisbury Hill and then on to Buxton., which had previously been marked as a possible Roman road.
It would be interesting to closely examine extant road and footpath networks to see if anything can be seen to back these claims up!
http://www.hslc.org.uk/
One particularly interesting article which stood out whilst browsing was "Cheshire in the Dark Ages" by Dorothy Sylvester, published in 1962. She mapped out occurrences of Celtic place name elements to see if it was possible to trace pre-Roman trackways, to question how influential the pre-Roman Celtic settlement was on the geography of the Roman occupation.
Did the Romans pave some of the existing tradeways and link roads between Celtic settlements, or merely follow their general direction but cut a straighter route to avoid the hamlets, something which the author thought more likely?
Roads and trackways can be very difficult to date, so place name evidence can be used as supplementary evidence. For the purposes of this study, she looked at place name elements indicating roads, principally strata (Roman), ford (English) and heol (Welsh) , as well as the Anglo-Saxon term burh, meaning 'fortified place ' to see if this threw up any patterns.
Between Nantwich and Hale she highlights a series of ford and possible heol names: between Nantwich and Middlewich there is Old Hoolgrave, and Cledford. On current and earlier editions of Ordnance survey maps, a roman road is marked in this general direction, but there is no sign of it on tithe maps, so it is unsure where this information came from. North of Middlewich she cites Allostock and Knutsford by way of Lower Peover, on the current B5081. Could this possibly be a Roman Road heading for Manchester?
She also points out a striking line of possible Celtic road and place-names leading from Holford, east of Northwich, which in itself is a significant combination of the two words heol and ford . This runs east to Knutsford, Crosstown, Warford, Mottram, Prestbury, over to Saltersford, which she thinks can be interpreted as a saltway.
As a possible southerly divergent form Holford she links together the Peover villages, Chelford, Henbury, via Macclesfield it then continues to Eddisbury Hill and then on to Buxton., which had previously been marked as a possible Roman road.
It would be interesting to closely examine extant road and footpath networks to see if anything can be seen to back these claims up!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog!
Here you will find my thoughts on the historical landscape and character of Cheshire.
Over the centuries, many communities have made their mark here, leaving behind fascinating clues as to previous land use.
Remnants of medieval field systems indicating deserted settlements, ribbons of ancient woodland and evidence of early exploitation, the geographical impact of established industries such as coal mining and salt extraction and of course a wealth of archeological remains and historic buildings provide us with tools to analyse the fascinating landscape around us.
Much has been written about some of the largest towns in the county, such as Chester, Northwich, Congleton and Macclesfield. Rather than duplicate this, it will be my intention to concentrate on more rural communities, particularly in the east, but a particularly interesting topic may lead me further afield!
I will endeavour to reference and quote sources as much as possible; any inaccuracies in opinion or analysis beyond this are my own. I do not own to be a professional in this area, merely an enthusisatic amateur!
Feel free to follow this blog and leave your comments!
Here you will find my thoughts on the historical landscape and character of Cheshire.
Over the centuries, many communities have made their mark here, leaving behind fascinating clues as to previous land use.
Remnants of medieval field systems indicating deserted settlements, ribbons of ancient woodland and evidence of early exploitation, the geographical impact of established industries such as coal mining and salt extraction and of course a wealth of archeological remains and historic buildings provide us with tools to analyse the fascinating landscape around us.
Much has been written about some of the largest towns in the county, such as Chester, Northwich, Congleton and Macclesfield. Rather than duplicate this, it will be my intention to concentrate on more rural communities, particularly in the east, but a particularly interesting topic may lead me further afield!
I will endeavour to reference and quote sources as much as possible; any inaccuracies in opinion or analysis beyond this are my own. I do not own to be a professional in this area, merely an enthusisatic amateur!
Feel free to follow this blog and leave your comments!
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