England
In England, dispersed settlements are often found in the areas of ancient enclosure outside the central region—for example, Essex, Kent and the West Country. An example of a dispersed settlement given by W G Hoskins is Middle Barton in Steeple Barton, Oxfordshire.
In some parts of England, the pattern of dispersed settlement has remained unchanged for many hundreds of years. Many of the locations found in Domesday may be dispersed farmsteads. It is sometimes possible to identify documentary references to farmsteads in the 18th or 19th centuries with these Domesday entries.
In areas of Kent and Essex close to London, development of residential housing during the 20th century has often disguised the dispersed nature of the original settlement.
The farmsteads which make up the dispersed settlement are often surrounded by small irregularly shaped fields. Traditionally, trees are encouraged to grow at the edges of these fields and in thin strips alongside roads. However, during the 20th century, much of this woodland disappeared, either as a result of disease or modern farming practice. Arthur Young's description of the view from Langdon Hills, "dark lanes intersected with numberless hedges and woods," is a typical description of the landscape in an area of dispersed settlements.
Read more about this topic: Dispersed Settlement
Famous quotes containing the word england:
“In England we have come to rely upon a comfortable time-lag of fifty years or a century intervening between the perception that something ought to be done and a serious attempt to do it.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)
“It’s easy to understand why the most beautiful poems about England in the spring were written by poets living in Italy at the time.”
—Philip Dunne (1908–1992)
“How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. The dawn is my Assyria; the sun-set and moon-rise my Paphos, and unimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England of the senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany of mystic philosophy and dreams.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)