Castles and Communities: Using the taskscape to explore the attitudes, activities, and lived experience of wider communities in castle landscapes between 1050 - 1550.

This thesis utilises the concept of the taskscape to explore the impact of the medieval castle in England on lived experiences in the landscapes surrounding them between 1050 to 1550. Recent shifts in the focus of castle studies have demonstrated the need to focus on castles as sites of everyday activities, inclusive of a range of social experiences beyond those of the elite occupants. These insights will be gained through the use of the taskscape, viewing the medieval world as a series of mutually attentive interlocking temporalities, helping contextualise the castle within ongoing dwelling. In order to bridge the divide between theory and methodology, a integrative methodology is suggested, using geographical information systems to approach the sensory and temporal dimensions of tasks. The form of the landscape is modelled using a retrogressive analysis of historic maps and LiDAR imagery. Portable Antiquity Scheme data, excavations, and historical and archaeologically attested sites and places are then integrated into a model of the physical and social topography of the medieval world. Visibility and movement analysis then informs analysis of the motion and sensory experiences inherent to the performance of dwelling tasks. This methodology is applied to three pairs of case studies, helping focus on different dimensions of the taskscape, whilst also reflecting the variations in castle and landscape form across dispersed, nucleated, rural, and urban settings. Ultimately, three conclusions are reached. Firstly, everyday movements of materials and individuals around the castle ensured that it maintained a central place within the lived experience of non-elite communities, and consequently in their production of identity. Secondly the castle adopted long term temporalities of memory, geology, and natural rhythms into a display of social hierarchies and parallel temporalities. Finally, the impact of the castle was relative to the strength, intensity, and momentum of surrounding tasks.<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Arthur Redmonds (21041426)

• Bolebec Castle
• Buckinghamshire
• Suffolk
• Devon
• Essex
• Lincolnshire
• Sussex
• East Sussex
• Lewes
• Lewes Castle
• Clare Castle
• Pleshey Castle
• Okehampton
• Okehampton Castle
• Dartmoor
• Medieval Landscapes
• Medieval
• Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Theory
• Taskscape
• Taskscape Theory
• Isochrones
• Medieval Buckinghamshire
• Medieval Devon
• Medieval Sussex
• Medieval Suffolk
• Medieval Lincolnshire
• Medieval Essex
• Southover Priory
• Lewes Priory
• Temporality
• Visibility Analysis
• Geographical Information Systems
• Social Time
• Medieval Social Lives
• Medieval Social Order
• Movement Analysis

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2027-02-16

Identifier

10779/exe.31755472.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/31755472