Chapter I: Preface

In the course of the last ten or twelve years there has been a very marked development of interest in local history, and with it a desire not merely to "know more about the past" but a desire to appreciate intelligently the real value of those things, still to be seen, which speak of the gradual building up of the social life of the Nation, which rightly handled will play an important part in the work of reconstruction pressing upon us now, with its enormous difficulties and anxieties.

Much has been done in schools of all grades to utilize the material at hand--the things which can be seen in the locality--as an educational medium, opening out great possibilities for the development of curiosity, interest, personality, and power of initiative on the part of the children which, though it may not seem to yield any immediate results which can be appraised by examination methods on the lines of any "Syllabus", are "neither barren nor unfruitful".

Just now there are a number of schemes in the air for the institution of "Regional Survey" in schools, and a tendency amongst enthusiasts to get it put into school time-tables as a Syllabus Subject. However admirable the intention may be, and is, it is not as a Subject, but rather as a method in education, that its real value lies. "Regional Study" embraces so many subjects and they cannot be enterprised all at once, either by children or by anybody else.

This little book is intended to be suggestive, to stimulate interest and an intelligent curiosity, but it may serve as a foundation for conversational or more formal lessons and investigations under the teacher's direction, as his personal predilection, opportunities, taste, and judgment shall determine.

In the work of "Regional Study", where carried on with discrimination and with a commonsense apprehension of "relative values" it may be truly said:--

"Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show,
Strengthens and supports the rest".

H. R. W. H.

HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY MUSEUM,
ST. ALBAN'S, _September, 1919_.

CONTENTS

CHAP. Page

I. INTRODUCTION 1

II. MEN WHO LIVED IN CAVES AND PITS 3

III. THE PIT-DWELLERS 6

IV. EARTHWORKS, MOUNDS, BARROWS, &C. 11

V. IN ROMAN TIMES 15

VI. EARLY SAXON TIMES 19

VII. EARLY SAXON VILLAGES 22

VIII. ANGLO-SAXON TUNS AND VILLS 26

IX. TYTHINGS AND HUNDREDS--SHIRES 29

X. THE EARLY ENGLISH TOWN 33

XI. IN EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES 35

XII. MONASTERIES 37

XIII. TOWNS AND VILLAGES IN THE TIME OF CNUT
THE DANE 41

XIV. CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES IN DANISH AND
LATER SAXON TIMES 46

XV. LATER SAXON TIMES 50

XVI. IN NORMAN TIMES 52

XVII. IN NORMAN TIMES (_continued_) 54

XVIII. IN NORMAN TIMES: THE CHURCHES 56

XIX. CASTLES 58

XX. CASTLES AND TOWNS 61

XXI. IN NORMAN TIMES: THE MONASTERIES 64

XXII. EARLY HOUSES 69

XXIII. EARLY HOUSES (_continued_) 72

XXIV. EARLY TOWN HOUSES 75

XXV. LIFE IN THE TOWNS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 79

XXVI. THE GROWING POWER OF THE TOWNS 85

XXVII. THE VILLAGES, MANORS, PARISHES, AND PARKS 89

XXVIII. TRACES OF EARLY TIMES IN THE CHURCHES 93

XXIX. TRACES OF EARLY TIMES IN THE
CHURCHES (_continued_) 97

XXX. CLERKS 100

XXXI. FAIRS 104

XXXII. MARKETS 108

XXXIII. SCHOOLS 113

XXXIV. UNIVERSITIES 118

XXXV. CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE
BLACK DEATH 122

XXXVI. WOOL 125

XXXVII. THE POOR 127

XXXVIII. CHANGES IN HOUSES AND HOUSE-BUILDING 131

XXXIX. THE RUINS OF THE MONASTERIES AND
THE NEW BUILDINGS 135

XL. THE NEW HOUSE OF THE TIME OF QUEEN
ELIZABETH 139

XLI. LARGER ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN HOUSES 142

XLII. CHURCHES AFTER THE REFORMATION 147

XLIII. BUILDING AFTER THE RESTORATION: HOUSES 149

XLIV. BUILDING AFTER THE RESTORATION: CHURCHES 154

XLV. SCHOOLS AFTER THE REFORMATION 159

XLVI. APPRENTICES 168

XLVII. PLAY 171

XLVIII. ROADS 175

XLIX. ROADS--RAILWAYS 182

L. GOVERNMENT 190

LI. SOME CHANGES 195

LIST OF PLATES

Page
HEALTH AND BEAUTY IN MODERN TOWN PLANNING
_Frontispiece_

IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS OF STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON
AGES 8

STONEHENGE 13

REMAINS OF A ROMAN HOUSE, EXCAVATED AT SILCHESTER 20

THE VILLAGE GREEN, EXTON, RUTLAND 28

CROSS AND CHURCH, GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 37

CHOIR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL 57

THE OLD PALACE, HATFIELD 72

FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF A NORMAN DOCUMENT 88

CASTLE AND BUTTER MARKET, DUNSTER, SOMERSETSHIRE 105

CLOISTER QUADRANGLE, MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD 120

WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 137

INTERIOR OF ST. MARY-LE-BOW, LONDON 157

A SCHOOL PLAYGROUND SCENE 164

CRICKET, 18TH CENTURY 172

THE NEW INN, GLOUCESTER 181

ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS

_Chipped Flint Weapons_ 5

_Lake-dwelling_ 10

_Round Barrow_ 12

_Long Barrow_ 12

_Dolmen at Plas Newydd, Anglesea. The scene of
Druidical religious rites_ 14

_Roman Pottery Kiln found at Castor, Hunts_ 18

_Saxon Brooch found at Abingdon, made of gold
encrusted with coloured glass_ 23

_Diagram of a Saxon Village Settlement_ 23

_Ploughing. From an old Saxon Calendar in the
British Museum_ 31

_Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon_ 40

_Agriculture. From an eleventh-century manuscript
in the British Museum_ 43

_Ploughing. From an eleventh-century manuscript in
the British Museum_ 45

_Wooden Church at Greenstead, Essex_ 47

_Consecration of a Saxon Church_ 49

_Saxon Doorway, Earl's Barton, Northampton_ 51

_Domesday Book_ 55

_Norman Capital, Buckland Church, Berks_ 56

_Norman Capital, Hanney Church, Berks_ 57

_Norman Capital, St. Bartholomew's Priory Church,
London_ 57

_Rochester Castle: The Keep_ 59

_The White Tower, Tower of London_ 60

_Norman Castle_ 63

_Ruins of Furness Abbey_ 65

_Foundation of a Minster_ 67

_Bath Abbey_ 68

_The Jew's House, Lincoln_ 71

_Diagram of the Shape of a House of a Villein_ 72

_Old House, Cleveland, Yorkshire_ 74

_Shop of the Middle Ages now standing in Foregate
Street, Chester_ 77

_A Cradle of the Fourteenth Century now in a
London Museum_ 78

_The Shambles, York; a street that preserves its
narrow, mediæval character_ 81

_Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester_ 84

_Seal of Guild Merchant, Gloucester, 1200_ 85

_Court-house of Godmanchester, Hunts_ 88

_Manor House, Thirteenth Century_ 91

_Saxon, Norman, and Later Architectural Features_ 93

_Effigy with Crossed Legs in the Temple Church,
London_ 96

_Spire of Norwich Cathedral Fourteenth Century_ 98

_A Scriptorium, from a miniature painted in an old
manuscript_ 101

_Writing before the Norman Conquest_ 103

_Morris Dancers, Fourteenth Century_ 107

_Market Cross and Portion of Shelter, Winchester_ 109

_Market Scene in the Middle Ages_ 111

_A School, Fourteenth Century_ 115

_Part of Winchester College, built in 1692_ 117

_Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford,
founded 1283_ 119

_Gownsman of Fifteenth Century. From an old print
of Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford_ 121

_Labourers felling a Tree, Fourteenth Century_ 124

_Spinning Wheel, Fourteenth Century_ 126

_Wayfarers, Early Fourteenth Century_ 130

_The Moat House, Ightham, Kent_ 131

_Part of the House called Plas Mawr, Conway,
Wales_ 134

_Old Timbered House, at Presleigh, Radnorshire,
dated 1616_ 138

_Moreton Old Hall, Cheshire, built 1550-59_ 140

_Diagram of a Large House_ 142

_Hall and Staircase, Knole House, Kent, 1570_ 143

_A Room in an Elizabethan House_ 144

_Blickling Hall, Norfolk, built 1619_ 145

_Monument in Chelsea Church, London; date about
1630_ 148

_House at Rainham, Essex, built during the reign
of Queen Anne_ 150

_Doorway from a House in Gt. Ormond Street,
London_ 152

_Pews in a Church at Stokesay, Shropshire, rebuilt
1654_ 155

_King Edward VI's School and Alms Houses,
Stratford-on-Avon_ 159

_Charity School, Gravel Lane, London_ 162

_Bluecoat Boy_ 164

_Schoolmaster and Pupils, early Seventeenth
Century_ 166

_Richmond County School. A modern council school_ 167

_Apprentice, Sixteenth Century_ 169

_Apprentices, Eighteenth Century_ 170

_The Game of Bob-apple, Fourteenth Century_ 171

_Boys' Sports_ 173

_Diagrams of Layouts for a Boy's Game_ 174

_Cart, Fourteenth Century_ 176

_A Toll-gate, early Nineteenth Century_ 179

_Coach, early Nineteenth Century_ 180

_George Stephenson's Locomotive "The Rocket"_ 183

_Building a Railway in the early Nineteenth
Century_ 186

_Sankey Valley Viaduct_ 188

_The Town Hall, Carlisle, built in time of
Elizabeth_ 190

_Police Officer and Jailer, early Nineteenth
Century_ 192

_Hayes Barton Farm, Devonshire_ 197

_Modern Industry_ 200

SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND