Tools, notes and guides to assist in the research and recording of boundary and features to build the Hercological Record
Next Field Meeting:
Wednesday 2 August 2017, 10.00 for 10.30am.
Chardstock. Meet at The George Inn, Chardstock.
A paper by Peter Laurie on the observation that many of the 35 hill forts in and around Dorset have parish boundaries passing
through or very near to them.
Two Anglo-Saxon Charters include the parish of Sixpenny Handley in north-east Dorset sharing its northern boundary with the modern Wiltshire parishes of Berwick St John, Ebbesborne Wake and Bower Chalke, a section of the county boundary which has for some hundreds of years been known as the 'Shire Rack'
Meresman Books contain the boundary perambulations recording the agreement between members of adjoining parish. Copies of these are held in the National Archives at Kew.
The current protection legislation may miss many boundary structures. Dorset's historic records for planning, landscape features section, has only one classification of interest to the planning system: scheduled monument.
Thus it is crucial for a feature to be scheduled. This is analogous to the situation in conserving wildlife where SSSIs were the only classification recognised.
The Dorset Wildlife Trust project to notify the planners in advance of an application minimises the work following from the inevitable objection during statutory consultation. This system is now recognised by the authorities as a valuable tool in preventing further loss of biodiversity and is a good model on which to base a scheme to conserve the historic boundaries.
The idea for a classification scheme arose from a study of the shire boundary of Dorset and pondering on the characteristics that might be unique to a county boundary. Many features are common to substantial lengths of a boundary whilst absent from other sections. Can anything of historical significance be inferred from this, or does it simply reflect the terrain being crossed ? Indeed, how much of the boundary is marked by natural features like streams and ridges, or by manmade structures like banks and hedges, or just not marked at all ? These and other questions frequently cropped up in discussion and the way to answer them would be to classify lengths of boundary so that the data can be analysed. Ultimately it might be possible to give a collective name to lengths with characters in common.
Some primary sites that provide Dorset related information
Main site link to current county, district and parish councils
Archives and Museums
Information, help and assistance in Dorset family history
A range of historic information sources
Historic mapping
Geographic information
Current mapping
