Landscape Hist 13

A combination of documentary sources, measured ground survey, fieldwalking and aerial survey is used to reconstruct the history and morphology of the former riverside village and township of Eske in the Hull valley of Holderness, East Yorkshire. The account describes the changing layout of the medieval village (which included a planned extension containing building platforms and crewyards), its `long-strip' arable field system, carrland meadows, pastures and turbaries, drainage works and boundary features, together with details of landholding and organisation. The evidence for medieval plot layout, building construction, house types and crewyards is discussed in the context of other sites in eastern England, and changes in village morphology and agriculture are considered in the context of regional environmental and climatic change. The village was substantially depopulated during the late-fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and its later history, which featured extensive marshland reclamation, is outline and illustrated with contemporary maps. Includes

The article outlines the characteristics of high barns, and describes case studies from the north-western part of the Yorkshire Wolds which constitute part of the recording work being carried out by the Wharram Research Project. The author argues that these high barns developed as a direct consequence of the needs and difficulties faced by Wold farmers following enclosure. They served as outposts from the main farmstead and were used for the shelter of animals, fodder and equipment and for the accumulation of animal dung for manure.

The article offers an analysis and interpretation of a section of Offa's Dyke and adjacent land initially identified by observations based on aerial photographs. It also discusses the processes and results of non-excavational field survey, the arguments and considerations it deploys, and the strength and validity of the conclusions reached by these methods. It includes

The author describes the evidence provided by maps from the later historical period which show details of surviving open field systems, and in particular of strip holdings. The importance of comparing this evidence with field evidence is discussed.