hoskins' england class 8

W.G. Hoskins and the Making of the English Landscape

Class 8. A desirable spot to build upon. Bricks, mortar and the coming of industry

Tutor: Keith Challis

hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk

Recap: Last Week (A Curse Upon the Land)

• Nostalgia and the immemorial past• A curse upon the Land: Parliamentary

Enclosure• 60 years on: Critique of Hoskins and a

counterpoint• Researching Enclosure and Tithe

Commutation• Laxton Group project: Tracing Enclosure at

Laxton

Hoskins’s England hoskins-england.blogspot.co.uk

Class Summary

Structure

• A Desirable Spot to Build Upon• An Unexpected Corner• 60 years on: Critique of Hoskins and a counterpoint

Coffee Break

• What did WG Hoskins ever do for us?• Laxton Castle• Fieldtrip


Section 1 A Desirable Spot to Build Upon

A Desirable Spot to Build Upon

The Industrial Revolution and the Landscape• The Early Industrial Landscape• Water Power and the Early Mills• Steam-Power and Slums

The Unexpected Corner• The Planned Town• The Open-Field Town• The Market Town



The Early Industrial Landscape

• Early industry was small-scale, cottage based and had relatively limited impact on the landscape (cite Defoe p 212

• It was based on individual endeavour not mass labour

• Often part of a subsistence economy that mixed farming and industry



Water Power and the Early Mills

• The advent of water power presaged the factory, often in remote areas

• Capital investment necessitated shift working

• Mill-factories led to population explosion to service their needs

• Entrepreneurial industry leaders built new great houses, often close to their mills


Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, Coalbrookdale by Night


Steam-Power and Slums• “Dirt and overcrowding came

with the steam age in the 19th century”

• Steam power ushered in large scale industry, waste tips and slums

• Industrial landscapes achieve “their final horrific form”

• Green spaces in towns are absorbed by the spread of housing for workers

• Poorly build back to back housing became the norm


An Unexpected Corner

Hoskins on Towns

• “There are many different ways of looking at a town for the first time. One of them – a little old fashioned perhaps, for I do not see many people doing it nowadays – is to walk around it guidebook in hand…(p270)



The Planned Town• Planned towns – largely

of the 12th and 13th century mark a small and distinctive group of English towns

• Town planning requires seigniorial oversight and single ownership of land

• After 1300 there is no significant urban planning until the 18th century



The Open Field Town• An opaque class of

town that grew in the midst of their open fields

• Agricultural rights dominate town life

• Exemplified by three East Midlands examples, Nottingham, Leicester and Stamford



The Market Town• Towns whose plan is

dominated by a market place

• Market charters and market rights are central to the early history of these towns

• Well preserved examples typify the English idea of townscape


Section 2 Sixty Years On


“Since the year 1914, every single change in the English landscape has either uglified it, or destroyed its meaning, or both.”



The Industry of Heritage

• Industrial heritage has become a significant and valued aspect of English landscape history



Unending Archaeology

• The “atom men's” revenge – modern perceptions of historic values include the recent past

• Archaeological ideas can be applied to every aspects of 20th century landscape



The Archaeology of Towns• The explosion in urban

archaeology has demonstrated the rich complexity of English towns

• Hoskins anticipated examination of towns has been largely fulfilled

• Simple classification is untenable


Section 3 What did WG HoskinsEver do for Us..?

What Did…?

Everything is Much older than we thought!

• Hoskins introduced the idea of the antiquity of the English landscape as we now see it

• This simple but revolutionary concept has shaped much subsequent thinking about landscape


What Did…?

Landscapes

Not Monuments (or mansions)• Hoskins landscape focus is a

counterpoint to the focus on buildings that has driven 20th century heritage


What Did…?

A Conservation Ethos

• His emphasis on the historical depth of landscape coupled with a valuing of the ancient and an eloquent popular voice (although largely forgotten) helped shape public and official perceptions of landscape


What Did…?

The “Common Man” as Expert

• Hoskins stressed simple, patient research and common sense skills

• His research valued first hand, on foot, encounter with the past and claimed no special knowledge but rather suggested that the transition from ignorance to knowledge was open to all


Coffee Break


Section 4 Laxton Castle

“The interrelationship between any given castle and its surroundings can be essentially understood from two perspectives: the impact of the castle on the landscape and the impact of the landscape on the castle.”

Oliver Creighton (2002)


Location Analysis

“As a type of fortification, the real strength of castle architecture lay in its symbolic, not military value…As a symbol of authority, the visual appearance of the castle was synonymous with the castle holder’s claim of lordship.

Medieval castle were constructed for those who wished to be seen…the constituents of a visual programme…there to express a message about rule, society, military might and money.”

McGrail 1995


Location Analysis

“Positioning a castle so that it visually dominated a particular area was only one way of advertising the seigniorial presence…castle builders were conscious of the visual benefits to be gained from their choice of site…

The advantages of a hilltop site were not, as might be expected, simply military; rather, the placing of a castle on an elevated site was a metaphor for physical strength”

Liddiard, 2005


Location Analysis


Location Analysis

Section 5 Field Trip

Field Trip


Field Trip


Hall Lane

Church

Castle

Back Lane

Castle and Hall Lane

Field Trip


Back Lane

Mill Mound

Ridge and Furrow

East Row

Field Trip


Rig Gate Syke

South Field

Self AssessmentLearning Outcomes

• As a result of attending this course it may be possible for you to:• Understand the role and importance of W.G. Hoskins in English

Landscape studies• Appreciate the broad chronological development of the English

Landscape• Appreciate the development of landscape studies after Hoskins, in

particular what characterises contrasting modernist and post modern approaches to landscape

• Appreciate how our perception of landscape underpins national identity

• Identify and explain evidence for landscape development in the field and on cartographic and photographic sources


hoskins' england class 8

Technology

unexpected corner hoskins

norm hoskinss england

critique of hoskins

market town towns

wg hoskins

desirable spot

planned town

town life