The photo. above shows the south-facing façade of Burton Agnes Elizabethan/Jacobean Hall. St. Martin’s church stands nearby as do the remains of an earlier medieval manor house contemporary with the events recorded by Briony (s.p.b.s).
In concluding her article Briony makes various points;
She used a ‘combination of documentary, landscape and standing buildings evidence in order to explore issues of landscape, territory and common rights in medieval East Yorkshire’ (p.94).
From the time of the ‘two co-heiresses’ (s.p.b.s) the land of the pre-Norman territorial unit began to be divided-up which ‘resulted in a complex territorial and tenurial situation, characterised, from the fourteenth century onwards, by considerable conflict between neighbouring manorial families’ (p. 94).
Researchers need to think about ‘commons and common’s governance as always entangled in the broader politics of the parish’ (p. 95).
The article also raises the profile of female lords of the manor.
Two personal comments; (a) such strained land sub-divisions must have been common in early medieval history as the population is thought to have risen to about five million on the eve of the Black Death.
(b) The issue of how the common land of a parish might have been divided between separate manors is interesting to ‘on the ground’ landscape studies – were fences erected and if so did they become victims of inter-manorial rivalry (as in the case of Hessle Common – see article in Section 3 of this website).
Section on Briony’s article finished.
Wishing any reader a Happy Christmas and a Healthy and Contented 2020.