• The Causes of Common-Edge Drift: a Norfolk study

    Author(s):
    Imogen Wegman (see profile)
    Date:
    2016
    Subject(s):
    Landscapes, History, Archaeology, Geographic information systems
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Common-edge drift, Landscape history, GIS
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/g5cf-1m09
    Abstract:
    The phenomenon of settlements moving away from their churches, towards the edges of surrounding commons is known as ‘common-edge drift’. Existing literature emphasises the ‘isolated church’, but this not the only indication of common-edge drift – an ‘embedded’ church will often have been constructed after drift, within the new settlement. Using an assortment of historic maps, documents, archaeological surveys and environmental datasets this paper discusses the causes of ‘common-edge drift’ in Norfolk, addressing an issue that has gone largely ignored for the past thirty years. By creating a set of categories and applying them to all churches marked on Faden’s 1797 map of Norfolk it is possible to apply new GIS techniques to the data. The findings show that six individual primary factors were in play across the county, with different combinations resulting in the ‘isolated’ or ‘embedded’ landscapes familiar to us today. I conclude the only factor affecting every category of settlement was access to common land, and regional differences in population and land-use dictated how a settlement would respond when faced with common-land shortages.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. Date:
    2016
    Journal:
    Norfolk Archaeology
    Volume:
    47
    Page Range:
    356 - 373
    ISSN:
    0142-7962
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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