Dartmoor's Alluring Uplands

Harold Fox

Description

A striking and famous feature of the English landscape, Dartmoor is a beautiful place, with a sense of wildness and mystery. This book provides a new perspective on an important aspect of Dartmoor’s past. Its focus is transhumance: the seasonal transfer of grazing animals to different pastures.

In the Middle Ages, intensive practical use was made of Dartmoor’s resources. Its extensive moorlands provided summer pasture for thousands of cattle from the Devon lowlands, which flowed in a seasonal tide, up in the spring and down in the autumn. This book describes, for the first time, the social organisation and farming practices associated with this annual transfer of livestock. It also presents evidence for a previously unsuspected Anglo-Saxon pattern of transhumance in which lowland farmers spent the summers living with their cattle on the moor.

Winner of the Devon Book of the Year Award 2013.

List of Colour Plates


List of Figures


List of Tables


Editors’ Acknowledgements


Abbreviations


Introduction by Christopher Dyer and Matthew Tompkins


1. Definitions and limitations


Defining Dartmoor’s resources


Dartmoor and its parts


Transhumance and its types


Limitations of this book


2. The red tides: impersonal transhumance and the central moor


The central moor: ownership and commoners


Distances travelled and middlemen


Pastoral management: the herdsman’s year


Livestock: numbers and types


3. The red tides: impersonal transhumance and the outer moors


Ownership and commoners


Pastoral management: drifts, structures, strays


Perambulation and dispute resolution


Order and disorder: outer moors and the central moor


4. Personal transhumance: distant detachments


Cockington and Dewdon


Ipplepen, Abbotskerswell and their links


Detached parts of the hundreds of Exminster, Wonford and Kerswell


Kenton with Heatree


Paignton and its parts


Lifton and Sourton


Northlew, Venn and Lettaford


Tavistock and Cudlipp


Bickleigh and Sheepstor


The significance of the detachments


5. Personal transhumance: archaeology, topography, place-names


and history


Archaeology and topography


Place-names and history: economy and society


6. Domesday Book and beyond: the transition from personal to impersonal transhumance


The role of colonists


The role of lords


The role of the Crown


7. Dartmoor and beyond


Droveways


Pastoral husbandry


The implications of transhumance for lowland farming


Conclusion by Christopher Dyer and Matthew Tompkins


Notes


Bibliography


Index

Sujets

• Agronomie
• Agronomy for Sustainable Development
• Europe
• Anglo-Saxons
• Devon
• Campagne
• England
• Parc naturel du Dartmoor
• History
• Agriculture
• General
• Dartmoor
• Middle Ages
• General officer
• Types of rural communities
• Economic geography
• Grassland
• Rural area
• Animal husbandry
• Landscape archaeology
• Regional geography
• History of the British Isles
• Grazing
• Sociology
• Archaeology
• Geography
• Earth science
• Edad Media
• Inglaterra
• Rural
• Anglo-Saxon
• Histoire
• Medieval
• Earth Sciences
• Human Geography

Informations

• Publié par: University of Exeter Press
• Date de parution: 02 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780859899109
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

DARTMOOR’S Alluring Uplands
DARTMOOR’S
Alluring Uplands
HArold Fox
A striking and famous feature of the English landscape, Dartmoor
is a beautiful place, with a sense of wildness and mystery. Tis book
provides a new perspective on an important aspect of Dartmoor’s
past. Its focus is transhumance: the seasonal transfer of grazing
animals to diferent pastures. DARTMOOR’S
In the Middle Ages, intensive practical use was made of Dartmoor’s
resources. Its extensive moorlands provided summer pasture for
thousands of cattle from the Devon lowlands, which fowed in a Alluring Uplands
seasonal tide, up in the spring and down in the autumn. Tis book
describes, for the frst time, the social organisation and farming
practices associated with this annual transfer of livestock. It also Transhumance and Pastoral Management
presents evidence for a previously unsuspected Anglo-Saxon pattern HArold
in the Middle AgesFoxof transhumance in which lowland farmers spent the summers
living with their cattle on the moor.
ISBN 978-0-85989-865-2
ISBN 978 0 85989 865 2 HArold FoxUNIVERSITY OF EXETER PRESS
9 780859 898652www.exeterpress.co.ukdartmoor’s alluring uplands
Harold Fox’s last book is a pioneering study of transhumance
in a country where its existence has often been doubted.
It explains how the grazing of livestock on Dartmoor was
organised to meet the needs of the numerous peasant farmers
who wished to use the land but lived many miles from the
moor.
“His scholarship is meticulous; his knowledge of medieval
documents, his skill in reading them (literally and in a deeper
sense), and his understanding of context are skilfully deployed
to answer a series of questions germane to his overall theme.
This book is his masterwork; it is without question one of
the most original contributions to the medieval —history
and landscape histo—ryof Dartmoor and Devon written in
recent years. It is also an important contribution to the study
of medieval transhumance in Britain.”
Andrew Fleming, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology,
University of Lampeter, Wales
The late Harold Fox was brought up in South Devon, and was Professor of Social
and Landscape History at the Centre for English Local History, University of
Leicester. He was a recognised authority on late-medieval landscape, agrarian
and social history, particularly in the South-West and Midlands, and had served
as president of the Medieval Settlement Research Group, chairman of the Society
for Landscape Studies, vice-president of the English Place-Names Society and
president of the Devon History Society.
Sadly he died before completing the fnal stages of this book, but two
colleagues have brought it to the point of publication. Matthew T ois mpkins
Honorary Visiting Fellow at the Centre for English Local History, University
of Leicester. Christopher Dyer is Emeritus Professor at the Centre for English
Local History, University of Leicester.
Fox, Dartmoors Alluring Uplands.indd 1 21/12/2011 13:11:18Fox, Dartmoors Alluring Uplands.indd 2 21/12/2011 13:11:18Dartmoor’s Alluring Uplands
Transhumance and Pastoral Management
in the Middle Ages
HAROLD FOX

edited and introduced by
Matthew Tompkins and Christopher Dyer
Fox, Dartmoors Alluring Uplands.indd 3 21/12/2011 13:11:19cover images: Front: South Devon cattle at Combestone Tor, reproduced
by kind permission of Elisabeth StanbroBaokck; : Sheep being gathered near
Sheepstor, reproduced by kind permission of Tom Greeavndes , pony drift
at Merrivale, reproduced by kind permission of Andrew Fleming.
First published in 2012 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeterex 4 4qr
UK
www.exeterpress.co.uk
© 2012 Matthew Tompkins and Christopher Dyer for the new editorial m aterial
and Jo Peters for the late Harold Fox’s original material.
The right of Matthew Tompkins and Christopher Dyer, and of Jo Peters
for the work of the late Harold Fox, to be identifed as authors of t his work
has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, D esigns
and Patents Acts 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Hardback ISBN 978 0 85989 864 5
Paperback ISBN 978 0 85989 865 2
Typeset in Stempel Garamond by
Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster.
Printed in Great Britain by
CPI Anthony Rowe, Chippenham.
Fox, Dartmoors Alluring Uplands.indd 4 21/12/2011 13:11:19Contents
List of Colour Plat es vii
List of Figure s viii
List of Table s x
Editors’ Acknowledgemen ts xi
Abbreviation s xii
Introductionby Christopher Dyer and Matthew Tompkins 1
1 Defnitions and limitations 7
Defning Dartmoor’s resour ces 7
Dartmoor and its parts 12
Transhumance and its types 27
Limitations of this bo ok 43
2 The red tides: impersonal transhumance and the central moor 46
The central moor: ownership and commo ners 47
Distances travelled and middle men 55
Pastoral management: the herdsman’s year 61
Livestock: numbers and typ es 69
3 The red tides: impersonal transhumance and the outer moors 81
Ownership and commoner s 81
Pastoral management: drifts, structures, strays 88
Perambulation and dispute resolut ion 94
Order and disorder: outer moors and the centra l moor 99
Fox, Dartmoors Alluring Uplands.indd 5 21/12/2011 13:11:19vi Dartmoor’s Alluring Uplands
4 Personal transhumance: distant detachments 108
Cockington and Dewdo n 108
Ipplepen, Abbotskerswell and their links 111
Detached parts of the hundreds of Exminster, Wonford and
Kerswel l 114
Kenton with Heatr ee 117
Paignton and its par ts 120
LiftonandSourt on 123
Northlew, Venn and Lettaf ord 125
Tavistock and Cudlipp 126
Bickleigh and Sheepst or 128
The signifcance of the detachme nts 129
5 Personal transhumance: archaeology, topography, place-names
and history 139
Archaeology and topograp hy 140
Place-names and history: economy and soc iety 148
6 Domesday Book and beyond: the transition from personal to
impersonal transhumance 158
The role of colonists 158
The role of lords 166
The role of the Cro wn 181
7 Dartmoor and beyond 191
Droveways191
Pastoralhusbandry 210
The implications of transhumance for lowland f arming 220
Conclusion by Christopher Dyer and Matthew Tompkins 224
Notes 229
Bibliography258
Index275
Fox, Dartmoors Alluring Uplands.indd 6 21/12/2011 13:11:19Colour Plates
(between pages 4 and 5)
1. Harold Fox at Hound Tor.
2. Catte lon Cosdon Hill.
3. Catte lon Cosdon Hill.
4. Catte lat Merrivale.
5. Catte lbeing driven in Drift Lane, Postbridge.
6. The red tide: red Devon cattle passing through Holne.
7. Widecombe in the Moor.
8. Lettaford, a small venville hamlet.
9. Sanders, a classic Dartmoor longhouse at Lettaford.
10. Hound Tor House 1.
11. Hound Tor, a deserted Dartmoor hamlet.
12. Hound Tor House 3, a medieval longhouse.
13. Two herdsmen’s huts at Brownwilly on Bodmin Moor.
14. A guly or openwork left by tin-mining at Swincombe.
15. The Dartmoor end of a droveway from Cornwall.
16. Denbury Green.
17. Woolston Green.
18. Droveway leading from Denbury towards Dartmoor.
19. Wide verges below Landscove church.
20. Buckland Common seen from Chuley Hill.
21. Lane running down Chuley Hill, south of Ashburton.
22. Harold Fox on a Dartmoor droveway.
Fox, Dartmoors Alluring Uplands.indd 7 21/12/2011 13:11:19Figures
0.1 Dartmoor: location m ap. 6
1.1 The Dartmoor region: turbar ies. 16
1.2 The Dartmoor region: longhou ses. 17
1.3 Modern Dartmoor . 19
1.4 Rough ground in Devonc., 1890. 21
1.5 Parish boundaries around Dartmo or. 23
1.6 Parish boundaries crossing open moorla nd. 24
1.7 The seven manors in the parish of Widecombe in the M oor. 25
2.1 Parishes containing Venville far ms. 53
2.2 Some documented cases of livestock sent to Dartmoor from
down-country manor s. 57
2.3 The parishes of residence of some individuals agisting on the
central moor in 149 6. 59
2.4 Dunnabridge pound and Grimspound from the a ir. 66
2.5 Numbers of cattle pastured on the central moor during the
fourteenth and ffteenth centu ries. 71
2.6 A Dartmoor court ro ll. 73
3.1 Buckfastleigh Abbey’s herdsman’s house on Dean Mo or. 93
3.2 Schematic plan of seasonal livestock movements in and out of
Dartmoor . 106
4.1 Detached territories: Cockington and Dew don. 109
4.2 Detached territories: Ipplepen and Abbotskersw ell. 112
4.3 Detached territories: Exminster, Wonford and Kerswell hu nd11r5eds.
4.4 Detached territories: Kenton with Heat ree. 118
4.5 Detached territories: Paignton and its p arts. 121
Fox, Dartmoors Alluring Uplands.indd 8 21/12/2011 13:11:19List of Figures ix
4.6 Detached territories: Lifton and Sou rton. 124
4.7 Detached territories: Northlew, Venn and Lett aford. 125
4.8 Detached territories: Tavistock and Cud lipp. 127
4.9 Detached territories: Bickleigh and Sheeps tor. 128
4.10 Detached territories: synthe sis. 130
4.11 Estat es of Torre abbey, 1535 . 132
4.12 Alrci’s Domesday estate . 133
4.13 Parishes with distant detachments in the marshes along the
rivers Bure, Yare and Waveney, Norfolk and Suf folk. 137
5.1 Three sunken-foored huts at Hound Tor underlying a
thirteenth-century longho use. 141
5.2 A transhumance hut from Hound Tor with comparis ons. 143
5.3 Eary l modern farms in the territory of Heat ree. 145
5.4 Distribution of placenames relating to dair ying. 153
6.1 Place-names containing Anglo-Saxon personal na mes. 164
6.2 The eleventh-century bounds of the manor of Ashbu rton. 177
6.3 ‘Hub-and-spoke’ patterns in parish boundaries around Eng la1nd84.
6.4 Dartmoor’s ‘ancient tenement s’. 185
6.5 The Devon hundreds in Domesday Boo k. 186
7.1 Droveways in the Forest of Arden, the North Downs in Kent
and High Leicestershir e. 193
7.2 Two droveways, from Cockington to Dewdon and from
Paignton, Stoke Gabriel and Marldon to Dart moor. 195
7.3 The droveway from Northlew to Dartm oor. 196
7.4 Roads running (a) south from Hatherleigh towards Dartmoor,
(b) from the So