Subscribe now for full access and no adverts
REVIEW BY STEPHEN RIPPON
The character of the countryside all around us plays an important part in many communities’ sense of place. This is particularly clear in the south-west of Britain, where Cornwall’s distinctive place-names – those that pre-date its assimilation into England – are completely different to those of neighbouring Devon (whose places have Old English names). But does this difference in the language of the landscape go any deeper, into the physical fabric of the landscape – its medieval and early post-medieval settlements and field systems? This is what Philip Treveil set out to discover, in his innovative analysis of landscape character in a study area that straddled these two counties.
Intriguing differences do indeed appear that correspond very closely to the division that is so evident in the region’s place-names. Of equal interest are the differences in landscape character that are evident on the estates of certain landowners (notably Tavistock Abbey in the Tamar Valley). Different parts of the region also had divergent trajectories of change over time, a trend that in part may be linked to the area’s mining history. The book is extremely well presented, with a suite of maps and photographs (mostly in colour) that clearly lay out the study’s results and methodology (which was based primarily on a careful retrogressive analysis of 19th-century maps). There is a very helpful index, too (not something that published doctoral theses always have).
This study therefore adds an important new dimension to the long-running debate about the origins and development of regional variation in landscape character that so far has focused on the stark differences between England’s ‘Central Province’ and those areas to the south-east and to the west. What Treveil’s study has highlighted is that within these broad regions there are subtle but still important differences in the structure of the countryside: they may not be as clear as the differences in settlement patterns, field systems, and land-management practices either side of the chalk escarpment (which marks the Central Province’s south-western edge), but they do reflect the distinctive histories of counties such as Devon and Cornwall.
The Historic Landscapes of Cornwall and Devon
Philip Treveil
BAR, £52
ISBN 978-1407360775
