Table Of ContentOUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 05/09/21, SPi
MEDIEVAL HISTORY
AND ARCHAEOLOGY
General Editors
John Blair Helena Hamerow
Peasant Perceptions of Landscape marks a change in the discipline of landscape history,
as well as making a major contribution to the history of everyday life. Until now, there
has been no sustained analysis of how ordinary medieval and early modern people
experienced and perceived their material environment and constructed their identities
in relation to the places where they lived. This volume provides exactly such an a na lysis
by examining peasant perceptions in one geographical area over the long period from
AD 500 to 1650.
The study takes as its focus Ewelme hundred, a well-documented and archaeologically-
rich area of lowland vale and hilly Chiltern wood-pasture comprising fourteen ancient
parishes. The analysis draws on a wide range of sources including legal depositions
and thousands of field names and bynames preserved in deeds and manorial documents.
Archaeology makes a major contribution, particularly for understanding the period
before 900, but more generally in reconstructing the fabric of villages and the
framework for inhabitants’ spatial practices and experiences. In its focus on the way
inhabitants interacted with the landscape in which they worked, prayed, and socialized,
Peasant Perceptions of Landscape supplies a new history of the lives and attitudes of the
bulk of the rural population who so seldom make their mark in traditional landscape
analysis or documentary history.
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MEDIEVAL HISTORY
AND ARCHAEOLOGY
General Editors
John Blair Helena Hamerow
The volumes in this series bring together archaeological, historical, and visual methods
to offer new approaches to aspects of medieval society, economy, and material culture.
The series seeks to present and interpret archaeological evidence in ways readily
ac cess ible to historians, while providing a historical perspective and context for the
material culture of the period.
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Peasant Perceptions
of Landscape
Ewelme Hundred, South
Oxfordshire, 500–1650
STEPHEN MILESON
and
STUART BROOKES
1
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1
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© Stephen Mileson and Stuart Brookes 2021
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First Edition published in 2021
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021939066
ISBN 978–0–19–289489–2
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192894892.001.0001
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SM:
For Christa, Bente, and Valentijn
SB:
In memory of Ralph Thompson (1922–1992)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is the main output of the South Oxfordshire Project, an investigation of
medieval and early modern landscape and perceptions funded by the Leverhulme
Trust in partnership with Oxford University. The Leverhulme-f unded research was
undertaken between 2012 and 2015, after a one- year pilot phase in 2011–12 which
was funded by the John Fell Fund in collaboration with the Oxfordshire Victoria
County History (VCH). The generous support of those bodies, and of the Leverhulme
Trust in particular, made our research possible. Stephen Mileson initiated and led the
project, and Stuart Brookes worked on it for two years as project officer. The principal
investigator was Professor Chris Wickham, then Chichele Professor of Medieval
History at the University of Oxford, who provided vital support and encouragement
throughout, as well as a large measure of freedom which allowed the investigation to
flourish. The pilot phase was headed by Robert Evans, then Regius Professor of
Modern History. In terms of the writing of the book, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 were pro-
duced jointly by Stuart Brookes and Stephen Mileson, and the rest is by Stephen
Mileson. The authors have had many stimulating discussions over the years, and we
are grateful to each other for a fruitful and enjoyable collaboration.
The South Oxfordshire Project was intended as a vehicle to push forward scholarly
understanding of peasant perceptions through an in-d epth study of a particular area
over a long period of time. It consciously drew on the detailed research on Ewelme
hundred which was being carried out at the same time by the VCH. Stephen Mileson
contributed to the VCH work, and the project team and the VCH cooperated
throughout. The benefits were mutual, as noted by one review of the relevant VCH
volume, Oxfordshire XVIII, which describes that book as ‘a landmark in the history of
the enterprise’ and the cross- fertilization of the two endeavours as ‘a model for the
future’ (Landscape History, 38:1 (2017), 108–9). The authors are extremely grateful
for the input and ideas of the Oxfordshire VCH historians, Simon Townley (county
editor), Simon Draper, and Mark Page. Simon Townley in particular offered huge
support to a project which deprived him of one of his team members for four years,
and gave much needed encouragement in the seemingly endless late stages of writing.
Many others have contributed to the book, and the authors would particularly like
to thank those who have read and commented on draft text, although they bear no
responsibility for the end result. They are Chris Wickham and Simon Townley, who
read the whole book; Paul Booth, Sue Harrington, and Barbara Yorke (Chapter 3);
Simon Draper (Chapters 3 and 4); Richard Jones and Tom Williamson (Chapter 4);
Paul Harvey (Chapters 5 and 6); Chris Dyer and John Steane (Chapters 5 to 7); and
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viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Steve Gunn (Chapters 6 and 7). We are also grateful to Jayne Carroll, John Baker, and
Eleanor Rye for reading sections on place names and personal names.
Stephen Mileson is especially indebted to Chris Dyer for his ongoing encourage-
ment, and for his early support for the project’s focus on perceptions. In addition,
OUP’s series editors, John Blair and Helena Hamerow, have given valuable input, and
John has supplied comments on particular chapters. A number of scholars kindly served
on a project board which supplied feedback on the research in progress, namely Grenville
Astill, John Baker, John Blair, Chris Dyer, Ros Faith, Dawn Hadley, Helena Hamerow,
Richard Jones, Kate Tiller, Simon Townley, and Chris Wickham. Audience members
at project talks in Belfast, Groningen (The Netherlands), Nottingham, Oxford,
Winchester, and in a number of village halls asked interesting questions and made us
think harder. Archivists and librarians at Oxford and in numerous other places have
been unfailingly generous in their assistance; particular repositories are listed in the
bibliography.
We would also like to thank the following people and organizations: Sally Stradling
for leading the buildings surveys; members of the Oxfordshire Buildings Record for
indefatigable survey work; the Oxfordshire Probate Group for analysis of wills and
inventories; the South Oxfordshire Archaeological Group and numerous local volun-
teers for help with test- pitting and fieldwalking; Oxford Archaeology for outreach
work on test pit surveys; Roger Ainslie for geophysics; Richard Oram and Susan Lisk
(at Oxfordshire County Council) and Edward Caswell (PAS) for archaeological data;
Maureen Mellor for pottery analysis; Ruth Pelling for her survey of archaeobotanical
data; Kris Poole for his examination of animal bone reports; Dan Miles for dendrochrono-
logical surveys; John Jenkins for research on local churches (which was funded by the
John Fell Fund); Damon Ortega and Alessio Palmisano for work on the project GIS,
and Chris Green for discussions about data cleaning; Emily Pennifold for additional
place- name analysis; Rebecca Gregory for advice on place names; Alex Langlands for
discussions about early farming techniques; Andreas Duering for discussions about
demography; Robert Peberdy for information and local contacts; and Marcus Abbott
for his evocative drawings. Aileen Mooney gave crucial help with funding applications.
The MSRG, the Ewelme Society, and Ewelme Parish Council gave additional funds
for fieldwork, and the University of Oxford History Faculty helped meet the cost of
illustrations. Homeowners and landowners across the hundred kindly allowed access,
and several churchwardens rang church bells while we ran off across fields recording
soundmarks.
Stephen Mileson and Stuart Brookes
Bath and London
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CONTENTS
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xvii
List of Abbreviations xix
1. Introduction 1
2. Geography and Sources 14
3. The Early to Middle Anglo-S axon Period, 500–800 44
4. The Late Anglo- Saxon Period, 800–1100 102
5. The High Middle Ages, 1100–1350 147
6. The Late Middle Ages, 1350–1530 231
7. The Early Modern Period, 1530–1650 274
8. Conclusion 317
Bibliography 321
Index 353
