Ian Vince article feedhttp://www.ianvince.co.uk/index.htmlBits and bobs of writingenenianvince@mac.comCopyright 2008 Ian Vince2020-03-04T14:42:19+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Thu, 23 Jul 2020 14:57:12 +0100Life Made the Mountain, the Mountain Came Alive.ianvince@mac.comCommissionsKatie Paterson2020-03-04T14:42:19+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/1c3a06368f4516589bf4969fad66a173-28.php#unique-entry-id-28http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/1c3a06368f4516589bf4969fad66a173-28.php#unique-entry-id-28Reading the Landscape: The Village Pondianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2014-05-02T10:39:38+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/ce92ab337f4b137c51464166b3da2608-27.php#unique-entry-id-27http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/ce92ab337f4b137c51464166b3da2608-27.php#unique-entry-id-27Reading the Landscape: Hollowaysianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-11-29T15:38:00+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/5718969fee6ff96f63b4a5811592089b-25.php#unique-entry-id-25http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/5718969fee6ff96f63b4a5811592089b-25.php#unique-entry-id-25Hollow way near Pentre Ifan (© Lesley Eddleston) / CC BY-SA 2.0 Of all the various roads and paths that snake their way through the countryside – A roads, B roads, byways and bridleways – it’s interesting to note that some ways are invested with a little more romance than the rest and by some ways, I mean green lanes and holloways. While ‘green lane’ is a catch-all for many different kinds of unsurfaced rural road or path – such as an old drove, a coffin road or a ridgeway – a holloway is a more specific term. ... With the loosened soil subsequently washed away by the next downpour, the course of a holloway will often become more pronounced on the side of a hill because of the extra energy imparted by the surface water run-off. Holloways are common in lowland Britain with the greensands of the southern counties – Wiltshire, the Weald and the Chilterns – being particularly suited for their formation, as is the old red sandstone of the Wye and Usk valleys of Wales and the Marches, while the new red sandstone of south and east Devon has splendid, deep lanes on its slopes. Over time, as they are inscribed ever more deeply and the level of the lane lowers, they become more sheltered and trees arch over, creating a womb-like tunnel, an enclosed place of natural safety. So safe, indeed, that it’s only around this time of the year that the walls of foliage have died back enough to get into some old lanes, long-since-abandoned by changing patterns of passage over the land, bypassed in favour of a better route. Where holloways have fallen into disuse for even longer periods, they can be discovered anew – many centuries after they were last followed – by tell-tale shallow linear grooves through fields or woodland, though check that it’s not a short stretch of long-forgotten park pale or a defensive ditch, both of which will be accompanied by a bank above the natural ground level. ...As ancient routes, they are the perfect expressions of collective will, tracks which share a common origin with desire lines – those unpaved paths across city parks or shortcuts over open ground that urban planners never anticipated. As travelling long distances was more difficult in the past, the reasons were more keenly felt; every footstep has meaning on a pilgrimage and the burdens shouldered on a well-used coffin road were more than the purely physical. ]]>Reading the Landscape: Trig Pointsianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-10-25T18:18:01+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/7ee590afb74cab01f310c326d4877721-24.php#unique-entry-id-24http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/7ee590afb74cab01f310c326d4877721-24.php#unique-entry-id-24Reading the Landscape: Deserted Medieval Villagesianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-09-29T16:49:17+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/26cb7d8f3ef17862ddbf1b66aee1f965-26.php#unique-entry-id-26http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/26cb7d8f3ef17862ddbf1b66aee1f965-26.php#unique-entry-id-26Reading the Landscape: Saxon Churchesianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-08-31T15:10:14+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/6b498f598995e7fdd32b13aa5877dc8e-23.php#unique-entry-id-23http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/6b498f598995e7fdd32b13aa5877dc8e-23.php#unique-entry-id-23Reading the Landscape: A Lot of Roman Aroundianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-07-31T14:23:12+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/ddc78ba3f2ffce58641037e0db3b611c-22.php#unique-entry-id-22http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/ddc78ba3f2ffce58641037e0db3b611c-22.php#unique-entry-id-22Above: Sarn Helen Roman road (RICHARD THOMPSON) / CC BY-SA 2.0 Known as Quintilis before Julius Caesar modestly renamed it in his own honour, the month of July is a fitting time to consider one of the most striking features of the British historic landscape, the Roman road. Although there are about 2,000 miles of them shown on Ordnance Survey maps, estimates of the total length of the network, including presumed minor thoroughfares undiscovered and skulking under fields, suburbs and industrial estates across Britain could expand it to around 6,000 miles. They were built as logistical tools of empire, to move legions and supplies at speed and, it seems in some cases, to scare the willies out of the locals; Ackling Dyke on the chalk upland between Martin Down and Blandford Forum strides out across the landscape on an overstated, six feet high embankment that shows utter contempt for the barrows, dykes and cursus it merrily ploughs through. The bank – or agger – of the road, though exaggerated, is of a typical layered construction; indeed, the latin word for layers, strata, gave us the word street, an Anglo-Saxon place name often found along the course of Roman roads. Stretford, Stratford, Stretton, Street and their ilk are common names of settlements found along the way, while the Norse word for road, ‘gate’ – particularly when used with ‘stone’ or its derivatives Stan, Stane or Stoney – might also indicate the course of a Roman road. ...The Fosse Way – between Exeter and Lincoln – goes against the grain, however, and may have even started as a defensive structure during the early years of the invasion, then adapted later as a road and an enduring one, to boot; much of it survives as a taut thread of primary and secondary routes through a tangle of English country lanes. Despite their reputation for straightness (between Ilchester and Lincoln, a distance of 180 miles, the Fosse Way never deviates more than 6 miles from the crow’s flight) pragmatism forced Roman architects to make more concessions to the landscape over time and the Roman road eventually learnt how to bend. Stanegate, which crosses the Pennines south of Hadrian’s Wall between Corbridge on the Tyne and the Solway Firth, is one such winding road. ... Given that there’s evidence of Roman activity as far north as a line from Stirling to near Stonehaven and claims of a fort at Inverness, there are likely to be many more roads found, long-forgotten, on the outskirts of towns or hidden in the remote straths and glens of Caledonia.]]>Reading the Landscape: Name that Tumulusianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-06-26T17:50:29+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/b1e89cd790fc3867e26926c863d69782-21.php#unique-entry-id-21http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/b1e89cd790fc3867e26926c863d69782-21.php#unique-entry-id-21Above: The Devil's Humps barrows on Bow Hill (© Jim Champion) / CC BY-SA 2.0 The mounds of bell barrows (above) from the early Bronze Age on are separated from the ditch and bank that surrounds them by a narrow, level platform, or berm. ... The ditch and platform can encompass up to four separate mounds, as can the ditch and bank of its refinement – the disc barrow (below) – which features a much smaller mound and wider platform.
Above: Flowerdown Barrow, Littleton (© Peter Jordan) / CC BY-SA 2.0
While bell and disc forms are usually the graves of Bronze Age men, saucer barrows are predominately the tombs of women and can be recognized by a low, wide mound which extends without a berm to the ditch. ...
West Kennet Long Barrow ( © Alan Simkins) / CC BY-SA 2.0
]]>Reading the Landscape: Drove Roadsianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-06-05T14:11:21+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/13280baac5c1ebc2e23783916c3378ce-20.php#unique-entry-id-20http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/13280baac5c1ebc2e23783916c3378ce-20.php#unique-entry-id-20Reading the Landscape: Beside the Seasideianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-05-08T11:22:47+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/4adc766e187a27ee004a915e2f8c233a-19.php#unique-entry-id-19http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/4adc766e187a27ee004a915e2f8c233a-19.php#unique-entry-id-19Reading the Landscape: Grim’s Dykesianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-03-01T00:00:05+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/grims-dykes.php#unique-entry-id-18http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/grims-dykes.php#unique-entry-id-18Reading the Landscape: Ridges and Bumpsianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-02-01T00:00:04+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/54d5cd913c86b4369fc2925345c37180-17.php#unique-entry-id-17http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/54d5cd913c86b4369fc2925345c37180-17.php#unique-entry-id-17Reading the Landscape: Snow Businessianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2013-01-01T00:00:03+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/0f525d7e335270abdb88737dc10f259d-16.php#unique-entry-id-16http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/0f525d7e335270abdb88737dc10f259d-16.php#unique-entry-id-16Reading the Landscape: Park Paleianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2012-12-01T00:00:02+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/4c46593b46fd2913f5a80d071770e839-15.php#unique-entry-id-15http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/4c46593b46fd2913f5a80d071770e839-15.php#unique-entry-id-15Reading the Landscape: Lych Gateianvince@mac.comCountryfileReading the Landscape2012-11-01T00:00:01+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/42efd9b903210a6102b4aa82f334ef79-14.php#unique-entry-id-14http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/42efd9b903210a6102b4aa82f334ef79-14.php#unique-entry-id-14Toybox: No great shakesianvince@mac.comToyboxTV2010-04-16T10:58:23+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/5f60a632ef238e0b6dae80d4b1ce82cb-12.php#unique-entry-id-12http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/5f60a632ef238e0b6dae80d4b1ce82cb-12.php#unique-entry-id-12Toybox: Coining Wordsianvince@mac.comToyboxTV2010-04-12T14:32:37+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/c9b367c89dcff811116c7ae1d97fc423-11.php#unique-entry-id-11http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/c9b367c89dcff811116c7ae1d97fc423-11.php#unique-entry-id-11Two birds and a bag full of stonesianvince@mac.comStrange DaysArticles2009-11-02T11:03:38+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/cf5b19d38355d09f95a5370c7c7207d3-10.php#unique-entry-id-10http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/cf5b19d38355d09f95a5370c7c7207d3-10.php#unique-entry-id-10Twitchers get their birdianvince@mac.comStrange DaysEverything2009-03-12T08:45:01+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/67f75268db659a7f204360f409945071-8.php#unique-entry-id-8http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/67f75268db659a7f204360f409945071-8.php#unique-entry-id-8The Short, Fat Man of Wilmingtonianvince@mac.comStrange DaysEverything2009-01-08T13:31:11+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/bc282dcd753b3d6ffe720a6dc6b9a373-7.php#unique-entry-id-7http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/bc282dcd753b3d6ffe720a6dc6b9a373-7.php#unique-entry-id-7The Baptist’s Bonfireianvince@mac.comStrange DaysEverything2008-10-21T10:30:45+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/a2de1131ba19d974805160121cc5d2bd-6.php#unique-entry-id-6http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/a2de1131ba19d974805160121cc5d2bd-6.php#unique-entry-id-6Merry Meet Under a May Moonianvince@mac.comStrange DaysEverything2008-09-21T01:35:38+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/7e596373542cd4b030cfff51a09930ab-5.php#unique-entry-id-5http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/7e596373542cd4b030cfff51a09930ab-5.php#unique-entry-id-5Lady's Dayianvince@mac.comArticlesEverything2008-05-07T00:09:00+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/b6911cab741461e712bb1c65a3fb0b50-0.php#unique-entry-id-0http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/b6911cab741461e712bb1c65a3fb0b50-0.php#unique-entry-id-0Cereal Killersianvince@mac.comArticlesEverything2008-04-08T23:19:00+01:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/3466a8dc6c38e80b8c5251725573306c-1.php#unique-entry-id-1http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/3466a8dc6c38e80b8c5251725573306c-1.php#unique-entry-id-1Hunger at Holbornianvince@mac.comCapital LettersEverything2004-01-05T23:40:37+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/78ccc0d8b1dd2e6351de008c6fe7ff20-3.php#unique-entry-id-3http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/78ccc0d8b1dd2e6351de008c6fe7ff20-3.php#unique-entry-id-3A Rival for Departureianvince@mac.comCapital LettersEverything2004-01-03T23:40:26+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/9df88119917b9446b456e6341595fb33-2.php#unique-entry-id-2http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/9df88119917b9446b456e6341595fb33-2.php#unique-entry-id-2Capital Lettersianvince@mac.comCapital LettersEverything2004-01-02T23:45:36+00:00http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/a72a3771c2ba157c6445735ceda8f712-4.php#unique-entry-id-4http://www.ianvince.co.uk/blog/files/a72a3771c2ba157c6445735ceda8f712-4.php#unique-entry-id-4