Now that he is working at the adjacent wetland site of Flag Fen, he has also become a sheep-farmer. That practical experience leads him to a new view of what created the pattern of these planned later prehistoric landscapes. The management, control and protection of large numbers of animals is a skilled business.
Pastoral farmers are still essentially conservative in their methods.
Its roots grow in the farmyard, not the library. That will be seen by some as a weakness, yet an approach to landscape studies which draws upon the wisdom of those who live and work in the countryside today is a strength. Mainstream' literature on prehistoric farming in Britain has largely focussed upon arable. This is bad practice. The literature on British field systems has showed greater flexibility.