Medieval Clearances in the East Sussex Weald

Bibliographic Data

ID8962586
AuthorsPeter Brandon (0000-0002-6268-217X, corresponding author), P F Brandon
Year1969
Issue48
Pages135-135
Publication date1969-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2307/621495
OpenAlexW2314682238
LanguageEN
Citations received7

An attempt is made to define the extent and establish the chronology of the medieval clearances of woodland within a fragment of the Sussex Weald in relation to edaphic and other factors. The amount of clearing at different stages is first examined. The location of the cleared land is then delineated as accurately as the documentary evidence allows and an estimate is made of the extent of residual woodlands and waste c. 15oo. Three case studies have been made of particularly well-documented areas as samples of the evolving agrarian landscape. In these case-studies, the value of post-medieval documents in throwing light on earlier developments is demonstrated. THE CLEARING of the woodland is recognized as one of the most important themes in the historical geography of all the countries of medieval Europe. A firm chronological framework of woodland clearing in England has emerged1 but the examination of the regional and local aspects of defrichement is still in an early stage. In such inquiries the Weald, as the largest expanse of woodland cleared in England since Domesday times,2 will inevitably figure largely. Although this region has been studied from many points of view, its woodland clearance has never been examined systematically, notwithstanding that the clearings and the medieval society largely responsible for them are still so manifest in many features of the countryside. Nothing has been published comparable with R. Furley's work on Kent,3 and N. Neilson4 and J. E. A. Jolliffe5 alike were more concerned with the possible extension of Kentish customs into Sussex than with the face of the land. The most recent work on the historical development of the Wealden landscape is that by J. M. L. Gulley6 who noted enclosures in the Sussex Weald, mainly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Using documentary material of Laughton manor and throwing much light on medieval clearings are M. Clough's study of the Pelham estates7 and J. S. Moore's thorough examination of the evolution of the landscape in the parish of Laughton.8 Similar studies which are in intention local rather than general will probably best illumine the dark corners and prepare the way for a wider appraisal. The present paper is an attempt to define the extent and establish the chronology of the medieval clearances within a fragment of the Sussex Weald in relation to edaphic and other factors. A complete realization of these objectives is prevented by the lack of information about the degree to which the Sussex Weald had been tamed and brought under cultivation by I086. A map compiled from Domesday entries suggests that it was almost empty,9 but this could well be misleading since it is based on data contained in the composite summaries of many manors in southern Sussex and these also included territory widely scattered over the Weald and not separately enumerated. It is, therefore, impossible to ascertain from this information the extent of settlement in any of the wooded members. R. Lennard has argued, probably correctly, that the totals of peasant households and plough teams recorded in some Domesday entries are so large that they must have incorporated settlements in the distant Wealden 'outliers'.10 Evidence from other sources supports this conjecture. The most useful are the mention of Wealden settlements in the eleventh century charters of Lewes Priory, which are unrecorded in Domesday Book,1 and the well-developed parochial organization with local

Ancient history · Archaeology · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History