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Settlements
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The Iron Age
hill-forts in the study area. Cherry Hill in Fownhope parish
is covered in woods; Gaer Cop in Hentland has been heavily
ploughed down over the centuries. Capler in Brockhampton
parish remains substantially intact. These major sites were in
a landscape of mixed farming with scattered farmsteads which
we are only just beginning to discover. |
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The early medieval period, between
the end of Roman Britain and the coming of the Norman-French
to the area, saw the founding of numerous Christian churches
by native British bishops such as St Dubricius (the Latinised
form of Dyfrig). Dyfrig was operating in this area long before
St Augustine arrived to convert the Germanic Angles and
Saxons. The churches above are recorded as being earlier than
the Norman Conquest. However, there is no reason to suppose
that these churches formed the centres of settlements. |
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At the time of Domesday there is a
clear distinction between the Welsh areas in the south-west
and the areas which had been settled by the English. The
places above are all mentioned in Domesday apart from
Billengsley, which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle rerecords as
being the site of the peace treaty between the English and the
Welsh in 1055 |
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Places known from Domesday and before
- green area Welsh: black are English |
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Circles represent the relative sizes
of hidages of the manors in Domesday: squares have no given
hidage. |
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There is, and has been for several
centuries, a parochial structure in the area. However, the
settlement pattern is largely unrelated to the parishes. |
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The townships - villata - of the area according to the
taxation of 1525 with number of named taxpayers |
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Settlement pattern around 1840. Each
black dot is an inhabited house. Red spots are the parish
churches. The two green spots show the old Chapel of St John
at Fawley and, to the east, the then new chapel of St
Dubricius at Hoarwithy (later rebuilt as an Italianate church
and dedicated to St Catherine). |
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Nucleated settlements |
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Fownhope is
the only 'classic' nucleated English village settlement in the
area, with a parish church and manor house and houses laid out
along a main street. |
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Holme Lacy
seems to once have been nucleated and grouped around its
church. There are earthworks around the church and traces of
stone buildings. There are also traces of a ridge and furrow
field system surrounding the area. The present village is 2
kilometres to the north-west. |
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Riverside settlements
Several settlements in the area are based on the River Wye
- fishing, ferrying and services for river traffic
providing the livelihood of the inhabitants |
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Even Pits just
south of Mordiford on the Wye on the Fownhope tithe map of
1843. Her there were wharves for Wye barges: the top building
on this plan was 'The Warehouse', down below was the Anchor
Inn, used by bargees. |
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After the
toll-bridge was built |
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All that's
left of the Anchor in 2006 |
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Wilton in 1904.
Ford and ferry settlement with Wilton Castle guarding the
river crossing. |
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Hoarwithy -
medieval crossing place on the Wye |
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Squatter settlements
Common land was often colonised by people building houses
on it. These would be fenced into small enclosures for
gardens. This activity leaves a characteristic dispersed
settlement plan. |
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Common Hill in Fownhope parish is the largest squatter
settlement in the area. |
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The centre of
the Common Hill settlement |
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Lower (left) and Upper Grove in Sellack parish. Sellack
tithe map. |
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The beginnings of the squatter settlement at Buckcastle Hill
on this estate map of 1755.
'Pye' in Peterstow parish is now
called Broome Farmhouse. |
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