In our landscape study there is still a lot of preparation to undertake. We will be dealing with historical information in documents in future pieces. Before we do that there is a major piece of research to undertake. Armed with the early maps and modern maps, and any transcriptions, we need to venture outside to pursue an important research method called GOAL – Go Out And Look!
If we are ever to understand an area in the way earlier people did, we need to walk over it all, looking at the natural and man-made topography and recording any features that we encounter – earthworks, stone banks, and so on.
My study of Winscombe parish really began many years ago with walks across the landscape, getting a ‘feel’ for the land. I walked along all the roads and lanes and the public rights of way; but there are many more paths marked on the early maps and I have always been a wayward trespasser. Maurice Beresford once told me he was exactly the same when he was carrying out his deserted Medieval villages research. Over the years I have made the acquaintance of many landowners and farmers in this way. When I explain what I am interested in, they often prove to be a fund of useful local knowledge. We usually part amicably.
