Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

‘Rip it up, and spread it over the field’: Post-Medieval Agriculture and the Destruction of Monuments, a Case Study from Cornwall

‘Rip it up, and spread it over the field’: Post-Medieval Agriculture and the Destruction of... AbstractNumerous post-medieval reports from Cornwall refer to earth removed from earthwork monuments being used to improve soil fertility, either spread directly onto fields or incorporated in ‘composts’. Other archaeological deposits were similarly used. Such activities must have been a significant factor in the destruction of earthworks and other remains in the post-medieval period. They need to be understood in the contexts of agricultural expansion and improvement and of a decline in beliefs which previously tended to protect monuments.Similar practices existed outside Cornwall, and they may have been more widely significant in the destruction or modification of earthworks throughout Britain and beyond than has been recognised. Archaeological sites are now often described as ‘ploughed down’ or ‘ploughed out’, but the initial reduction of earthworks is likely to have been through removal of material for manuring. The possible impact of these processes should be taken into account in interpreting standing earthworks and ploughsoil finds. The practice contributed to significant change in post-medieval rural landscapes, in which visible elements of the past became less prominent and ceased to be relevant in popular constructions of landscape and place. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Landscapes Taylor & Francis

‘Rip it up, and spread it over the field’: Post-Medieval Agriculture and the Destruction of Monuments, a Case Study from Cornwall

Kirkham, Graeme
Landscapes , Volume 13 (2): 20 – Nov 1, 2012
Download PDF
20 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/rip-it-up-and-spread-it-over-the-field-post-medieval-agriculture-and-GyAnas5amZ

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© Graeme Kirkham 2013
ISSN
2040-8153
eISSN
1466-2035
DOI
10.1179/lan.2012.13.2.002
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractNumerous post-medieval reports from Cornwall refer to earth removed from earthwork monuments being used to improve soil fertility, either spread directly onto fields or incorporated in ‘composts’. Other archaeological deposits were similarly used. Such activities must have been a significant factor in the destruction of earthworks and other remains in the post-medieval period. They need to be understood in the contexts of agricultural expansion and improvement and of a decline in beliefs which previously tended to protect monuments.Similar practices existed outside Cornwall, and they may have been more widely significant in the destruction or modification of earthworks throughout Britain and beyond than has been recognised. Archaeological sites are now often described as ‘ploughed down’ or ‘ploughed out’, but the initial reduction of earthworks is likely to have been through removal of material for manuring. The possible impact of these processes should be taken into account in interpreting standing earthworks and ploughsoil finds. The practice contributed to significant change in post-medieval rural landscapes, in which visible elements of the past became less prominent and ceased to be relevant in popular constructions of landscape and place.

Journal

Landscapes – Taylor & Francis

Published: Nov 1, 2012

References

  • Extracts from J. Llwydd's MSS
  • An account of the opening of Veryan Beacon, 37th Annual Report
  • Tullaghog
  • Notes and correspondence: preservation of antiquities
  • The Deserts of Southern France: An Introduction to the Limestone and Chalk Plateaux of Ancient Aquitaine
  • Old Lanyon, Madron: a deserted medieval settlement. The late E. Marie Minter's excavations of 1964
  • The Natural History of Cornwall
  • OW Typical specimens of Cornish barrows, Archaeologia
  • Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall (second series), Printed for the author, Penzance
  • On the barrows of Cornwall, with an account of the examination of those near Pelynt, 28th Annual Report
  • The Survey of Cornwall by Richard Carew
  • Archaeological discoveries recorded in Cornish newspapers before 1855
  • Goon, Hal, Cliff and Croft: The Archaeology and Landscape History of West Cornwall's Rough Ground
  • An Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall, J. Congdon, Plymouth Dock; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London
  • The Parochial History of Cornwall
  • Historic Landscape Characterisation. In P. Dudley, Goon, Hal, Cliff and Croft: The Archaeology and Landscape History of West Cornwall's Rough Ground, 22, Historic Environment, Cornwall Council, Truro
  • Excavations at Porthmeor, Cornwall, 1933, 1934 and 1935, Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall 24, appendix 2,
  • Account of Roman urns discovered in Cornwall, and of a cromlech discovered in the parish of Madron in the same county
  • Pre-Conquest Charter Bounds of Devon and Cornwall
  • Popular Romances of the West of England, or the Drolls, Traditions and Superstitions of Old Cornwall
  • Notice of a cinerary urn found in a barrow at Hustyn, in St
  • On some recent archaeological discoveries in Cornwall
  • Cornwall and its People
  • Late enclosures from rough ground (Recently Enclosed Land)
  • ‘That notable treble entrenchment of earth’: recent work at Lescudjack Castle hillfort, Penzance, Cornish Archaeology
  • Descriptions Geological, Topographical and Antiquarian, in Eastern Yorkshire
  • A Complete Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, W. Lake, Truro; John Camden Hotten, London
  • Observations on some ancient camps and tumuli, 29th Annual Report
  • Barrowfields, Newquay, Cornwall: Archaeological Assessment
  • The History of Cornwall, Civil, Military, Religious, Architectural, Agricultural, Commercial, Biographical, and Miscellaneous
  • William Carnsew of Bokelly and his diary 1576-7, Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (ns)
  • Cornwall in the Age of the Industrial Revolution
  • Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record
  • Memoirs Historical and Topographical of Bristol and its Neighbourhood, from the Earliest Period down to the Present Time, John Mathew Gutch, Bristol
  • A georgicall account of Devonshire and Cornwalle. Samuel Colepress (1667)
  • Farming techniques, 1500-1640. In Chapters from The Agrarian History of England and Wales, 1500-1750. Volume 3 Agricultural Change: Policy and Practice, 1500-1750
  • The population of Cornwall in the eighteenth century, Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (ns) 10
  • A Survey of the Ancient and Present State of the Scilly Islands, n.p., Sherborne
  • Medieval Devon and Cornwall: Shaping an Ancient Countryside
  • General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon, Richard Phillips, London
  • The Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall, Historically Surveyed
  • The after-life of barrows: prehistoric monuments in the Norfolk landscape
  • General View of the Agriculture of the County of Cornwall, London
  • A Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales
  • The National Mapping Programme in Cornwall