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Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
@DrSueOosthuizen
May 8, 2022 • 9 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X
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Short🧵. As many people know, Laxton, in Nottinghamshire, is one of the few places in England where large-scale #medieval open #fields survive, still collectively organised & managed in the same way that they were 6 and more centuries ago. … /1
The term ‘open fields’ has become shorthand for large (often huge) areas of arable, subdivided into unhedged blocks (‘furlongs’), subdivided in turn into narrow strips (‘selions’). #medieval #landscape. /2
And the strips (selions) in each furlong were shared out, one by one in repetitive order, between the village’s farmers. This 1617 map from Balsham, Cambs., names of the farmer of each strip. By 1617 some had acquired & merged neighbouring strips, others had subdivided theirs. /3
At any rate, one of Laxton’s ✨charms✨ for #medieval #landscape #history is the way that both landscape AND farming arrangements have survived into the modern period. Here, earlier 20thC farmers have a chat before they start ploughing their strips (nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsand…). /4
And here’s an earlier farmer taking his own plough onto Laxton’s fields around 400 years earlier on a wonderfully detailed map of 1635 (via @bodleianlibs iiif.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/iiif/viewer/8e…) /5
The system is run by the Court Leet - made up of all those holding land in the open fields &/or rights of common. They meet each year at the end of Nov. when their representatives walk the fields to check that boundaries, roads & ditches are maintained. laxtonnotts.org.uk/Laxton%20manor… /6
And here’s an account of the survey of the fields in 2008 - nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsand… /7
Laxton History Group have produced a beautifully illustrated, very readable & impressive book on the fields - downloadable! 🙌🙌. It includes the history of the fields as well as their more modern management : laxtonhistorygroup.org.uk/Booklets/LHG-H… /8
And finally, just in case you might be interested in the origins of #medieval #open #fields 🤗 …. END

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More from @DrSueOosthuizen

Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Sep 9, 2021
Pollard willows along a river bank are such a vivid reminder of centuries of unremembered famers’ labour in supporting the present with hope for a sustainable future. Here’s the story they tell… THREAD
2. Most obviously, willows are trees that prefer damp conditions so they’re often planted along rivers, streams & canals so that their root systems will help to keep the banks stable in times of flood (photo: John Sutton). But that’s the least interesting part of their story.
3. More interesting - at least to me - is their use for millennia as a crop, for making all sorts of things. Here are a few examples. Friends, I give you a reconstructed willow hurdle from fish weir c3934-2681 BC (exarc.net/issue-2018-4/e…).
Read 23 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Sep 1, 2021
Every walk has a puzzle or more that might tell the story of how that landscape evolved. That’s what makes for so much fun. So here’s a 🧵about a recent amble in case you might enjoy it too.
2. We walked past this pair of houses, one set closely behind the other. Which was the earlier? How might one tell?
3. Well, there’s a rule of thumb in Cambs. that chimney location, shapes and materials are a good place to start:
(a) the earliest chimneys in ordinary houses were set along the roof line - not on the end walls. They mostly tend to date from the 17thC though they can be earlier
Read 20 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Jun 6, 2021
The great historian G. M. Trevelyan on the enchantment of history:

‘The appeal of History to us all is in the last analysis poetic. But the poetry of History does not consist of imagination roaming at large, but of imagination pursuing the fact & fastening upon it. (1/n)
2. That which compels the historian to ‘scorn delights and live laborious days’ is the ardor of his own curiosity to know what really happened long ago in that land of mystery which we call the past. To peer into that magic mirror and see fresh figures there every day ... (2/n)
3. ... is a burning desire that consumes and satisfies him all his life, that carries him each morning, eager as a lover, to the library and muniment room. It haunts him like a passion of almost terrible potency, because it is poetic.
Read 8 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Feb 4, 2021
THREAD. There’s so much water in the fields at present - fields are floating in water. Here in the east of England it’s a practical lesson explaining so much about land use before under-field drainage began in the 17thC.
2. Seasonal springs are suddenly bubbling with water ...
3. and everything is sodden underfoot.
Read 17 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Dec 22, 2020
THREAD. A seriously muddy walk across one of the high, flat, clay plateaux of S Cambs. today, was full of reminders that this land, too heavy for ox-drawn ploughs, was medieval common pasture studded with managed woodland..
2. The fields were full of water despite being at the top of the hills - too flat to drain well, studded with small pockets of low land that made temporary ponds..
3. Coming across Eversden Wood in this waterlogged landscape reminded me of the great Oliver Rackham’s truism that #medieval #woods are not found on land that’s good for woods, but on land that’s no good for anything else - and of his advice on how to recognise them..
Read 17 tweets
Prof Susan Oosthuizen Profile picture
Dec 10, 2020
THREAD. This news from @NTChedworth has significant implications.
1. The mosaic was laid around 2 generations after Roman administration & armies were withdrawn from Britain.
2. The creation of a mosaic is a highly-skilled task. That means either (a) the craft survived in ...
.. practice over the intervening +/- half century, ie mosaics continued to be laid across OR (b) the craftsmen were brought over from the continent. There is no reason, as far as I know, to suppose (b).
3. The industry making the tiles also continued to operate.
4. The addition of a new room suggests that the economy of the villa continued to thrive. That depended on
5. ..continued input from an (at least fairly) undiminished agricultural workforce, and continuing management under the villa owners.
6. It also suggests that sufficient ..
Read 8 tweets

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