Conclusion Alan Payne and Jonathan Parkhouse June 2021
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The early medieval period described in these articles sees the emergence of the medieval world out of the classical world, where England emerged as a united polity with a single, highly-organised state religion and language. Many of the administrative structures with which we are now familiar, such as shires and parishes, began to develop. Arguably the dates of the start and finish are arbitrary; people did not stop being Romano-British in 410 or Anglo-Saxon in 1066, and many of the changes initiated during the period continued to develop long after the Norman Conquest. But the period is far more than a very long gap between the administrative regimes of Roman and Norman society. It would be a mistake to think in terms of a single Anglo-Saxon culture during this period. To do so would be like trying to describe the entirety of English culture during the period between say AD 1600 and the present on the basis of a single picture. The centuries we have described here encompassed enormous changes: social, religious, political, and economic, all of which left their imprint upon the landscape. The culture encountered by the Normans in 1066 had changed over the centuries out of all recognition from that of the eighth century, let alone the fifth or sixth. |
The Alfred jewel at the Ashmolean (courtesy Mkooiman Previously published httpswww.flickr.comphotosmkooiman21117808451inphotolist-yb7hHH, CC BY-SA 4.0, httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid=53359848)
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For many years our understanding of the period was based on the Whig theory that there was a continuous evolution of Anglo-Saxon supremacy, under which all inconsistencies were conveniently attributed to the Dark Ages. Recent research has opened a whole new thesis of events and society during that time, rejecting the Victorian concept of the rise of Anglo-Saxon exclusivity. For example, it used to be thought that England was over-run with wildwood before it was cleared by the Saxons. Thanks to the work of Oliver Rackham and others, we now see this differently.[1] The dense natural woodland was probably cleared over millennia and it was the clearance of secondary, regenerated woods or of cultivated woodland that are recalled in the lēah (clearance or meadow) name which occurs in place-names such as Ashley and Henley.
There has been much speculation about our area in Saxon and Viking times but relatively few definitive conclusions. For example, on the basis of the words Oulde Church on the Allen maps, it has been assumed that the church held by Bishop Osbern in the Domesday Book was either a proprietary church next to the manor house, or next to a settlement and that it existed in the early medieval period.
There is no documentary evidence of Saxon occupation of our area but we can see the blurred origins. There is no doubt that people lived in our area throughout this time. They didn’t leave in 410, the traditional date for the end of the Roman period, and these people continued farming and their other work regardless of the supposed nationality of the king and his courtiers or the names of the peoples we have given them, Roman, Saxon, Norman.
Local tracks, boundaries and Box’s place in Wiltshire were established during this time. Changes in the authority of our area (from Romano-British, Gewisse, West Saxon, Viking and Norman) didn’t affect the need for communication links for armies, commerce and individuals. This need continued unchanged even if some tracks fell out of use, possibly including the Roman road on the southern boundary. All this makes speculation about Anglo-Saxon Box very difficult, not least because Box as an entity may not even have existed until after the period described. Instead it may be that our area was predominantly one of outlying farmsteads connected by tracks but not by a singular identity. Settlement outside of a central, river valley site would have been facilitated by an abundance of spring water for domestic and farming use and quarrying as an employment.
By the mid-1000s we begin to see new social structures arise caused by growth in population, trade and social organisation. New concepts of lordship and service developed with lesser, seigneurial lords taking over control of local administration in return for an overlord’s military protection. It is characterised by a society we call feudal and a late medieval village we know as Box.
There has been much speculation about our area in Saxon and Viking times but relatively few definitive conclusions. For example, on the basis of the words Oulde Church on the Allen maps, it has been assumed that the church held by Bishop Osbern in the Domesday Book was either a proprietary church next to the manor house, or next to a settlement and that it existed in the early medieval period.
There is no documentary evidence of Saxon occupation of our area but we can see the blurred origins. There is no doubt that people lived in our area throughout this time. They didn’t leave in 410, the traditional date for the end of the Roman period, and these people continued farming and their other work regardless of the supposed nationality of the king and his courtiers or the names of the peoples we have given them, Roman, Saxon, Norman.
Local tracks, boundaries and Box’s place in Wiltshire were established during this time. Changes in the authority of our area (from Romano-British, Gewisse, West Saxon, Viking and Norman) didn’t affect the need for communication links for armies, commerce and individuals. This need continued unchanged even if some tracks fell out of use, possibly including the Roman road on the southern boundary. All this makes speculation about Anglo-Saxon Box very difficult, not least because Box as an entity may not even have existed until after the period described. Instead it may be that our area was predominantly one of outlying farmsteads connected by tracks but not by a singular identity. Settlement outside of a central, river valley site would have been facilitated by an abundance of spring water for domestic and farming use and quarrying as an employment.
By the mid-1000s we begin to see new social structures arise caused by growth in population, trade and social organisation. New concepts of lordship and service developed with lesser, seigneurial lords taking over control of local administration in return for an overlord’s military protection. It is characterised by a society we call feudal and a late medieval village we know as Box.
References
[1] Amongst other works see Oliver Rackham, The History of the Countryside, 1986, JM Dent & Sons Ltd
[1] Amongst other works see Oliver Rackham, The History of the Countryside, 1986, JM Dent & Sons Ltd