Whanganuilibrary.com
Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

The fens : discovering England's ancient depths / Francis Pryor.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: London, England : Head of Zeus, 2019Description: xxi, 436 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781786692221 (hbk)
  • 9781788547093 (pbk)
  • 1786692228 (hbk)
Subject(s): Summary: The Fens is Britain's most distinctive, complex, man-made and least understood landscape. Francis Pryor has lived in, excavated, farmed, walked - and loved - the Fen Country for more than forty years: its levels and drains, its soaring churches and magnificent medieval buildings. In The Fens, he counterpoints the history of the Fenland landscape and its transformation - the great drainage projects that created the Old and New Bedford Rivers, the Ouse Washes and Bedford Levels, the rise of prosperous towns and cities, such as King's Lynn, Cambridge, Peterborough, Boston and Lincoln - with the story of his own discovery of it as an archaeologist. 'Whenever I travel somewhere else, in upland Britain, I find the hills and the horizon are leaning towards me, as if trying to cover me over; to blinker my gaze and stifle my imagination. It's always a huge relief to get back to the its infinite vistas of the Fens.'
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 942.6 PRY Available T00838226
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 942.6 PRY Available T00838208
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
'Francis Pryor brings the magic of the Fens to life in a deeply personal and utterly enthralling way' TONY ROBINSON.

'Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it' GUARDIAN .

Inland from the Wash, on England's eastern cost, crisscrossed by substantial rivers and punctuated by soaring church spires, are the low-lying, marshy and mysterious Fens. Formed by marine and freshwater flooding, and historically wealthy owing to the fertility of their soils, the Fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire are one of the most distinctive, neglected and extraordinary regions of England.

Francis Pryor has the most intimate of connections with this landscape. For some forty years he has dug its soils as a working archaeologist - making ground-breaking discoveries about the nature of prehistoric settlement in the area - and raising sheep in the flower-growing country between Spalding and Wisbech. In The Fens , he counterpoints the history of the Fenland landscape and its transformation - from Bronze age field systems to Iron Age hillforts; from the rise of prosperous towns such as King's Lynn, Ely and Cambridge to the ambitious drainage projects that created the Old and New Bedford Rivers - with the story of his own discovery of it as an archaeologist.

Affectionate, richly informative and deftly executed, The Fens weaves together strands of archaeology, history and personal experience into a satisfying narrative portrait of a complex and threatened landscape.

Includes index and bibliographical references.

The Fens is Britain's most distinctive, complex, man-made and least understood landscape. Francis Pryor has lived in, excavated, farmed, walked - and loved - the Fen Country for more than forty years: its levels and drains, its soaring churches and magnificent medieval buildings. In The Fens, he counterpoints the history of the Fenland landscape and its transformation - the great drainage projects that created the Old and New Bedford Rivers, the Ouse Washes and Bedford Levels, the rise of prosperous towns and cities, such as King's Lynn, Cambridge, Peterborough, Boston and Lincoln - with the story of his own discovery of it as an archaeologist. 'Whenever I travel somewhere else, in upland Britain, I find the hills and the horizon are leaning towards me, as if trying to cover me over; to blinker my gaze and stifle my imagination. It's always a huge relief to get back to the its infinite vistas of the Fens.'

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Prologue: Everything Comes Out in the Wash (p. xi)
  • 1 Cambridge: My Introduction to the Fens (p. 1)
  • 2 Fengate: Approaching the Wet from the Dry (p. 15)
  • 3 Haddenham: Prehistory Pickled in Peat (p. 41)
  • 4 Cropmarks and the Welland Valley (p. 61)
  • 5 Etton: Perfect Preservation (p. 83)
  • 6 Flag Fen: Wetlands Revealed (p. 107)
  • 7 Must Farm: At Last, a 'Lake Village' (p. 129)
  • 8 Borough Fen: A Hillfort Lurking Beneath the Surface (p. 155)
  • 9 Billingborough Iron Age: Salt and Farming in the Northern Fens (p. 181)
  • 10 Castor: A Roman Palace with Saxon Prospects (p. 207)
  • 11 Devil's Dyke and Reach Lode: Pre-Norman boundaries that shaped the Medieval Fens (p. 231)
  • 12 Ely Abbey and Cathedral Church: The Ship of the Fens (p. 249)
  • 13 Tattershall Castle: The Saving of England's Past (p. 273)
  • 14 Small Towns and the Gentlemen of Spalding (p. 301)
  • 15 Cambridge: Rationality and Fen Drainage (p. 321)
  • 16 The Holme Fen Post: The Drainage of the Deepest Peatlands (p. 337)
  • 17 Wisbech: Enlightened Bankers on the Brinks (p. 351)
  • 18 Wicken, Welney and Willow Tree: Modern Attitudes to Fen Conservation (p. 371)
  • Epilogue: Farewell to Boston (p. 395)
  • Notes (p. 403)
  • Acknowledgments (p. 417)
  • Image credits (p. 419)
  • Index (p. 421)

Powered by Koha