The Cotswolds
Subtitle: a cultural history
By: Jane Bingham
Series: Landscapes of imagination
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9780195398762
Description: "With its gentle hills and timeless villages, the Cotswold countryside is a vision of rural calm, but the region's history reveals a darker picture. Over the centuries, people in the Cotswolds have known prosperity, but they have also experienced war, poverty, and despair. Lying between the provinces and the capital, the region has been home to kings and aristocrats, and has played a dramatic role in the story of Britain. Everywhere in the Cotswolds are reminders of the past: prehistoric monuments, ruined Roman villas, and Tudor mansions. Wealthy medieval wool merchants paid for fine churches and manor houses. Later, the landscape was scarred by the English Civil War, while evidence of an industrial past can be seen in the mills and factories of the south-west. After the wool trade reached its peak in the fifteenth century, the fortunes of the Cotswolds suffered a slow decline. By the 1890s poverty was widespread and villages were sinking into picturesque decay. It was around this time that William Morris and his followers discovered the area and established thriving centers for Arts and Crafts. In the following century writers and artists moved to the Cotswolds and tourism gathered pace. Today, the region continues to attract visitors, as well as country-weekenders and celebrities. Observing such changes, and describing the landscape, has been a lively company of writers, artists, and musicians. Some belong to a particular place, while others have viewed the region as outsiders. In their writings, art, and music, they have all celebrated the distinctive character of the Cotswolds"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction A Country Made of Men's Visions Looking at the Land The History of the Cotswolds Changing Views: Commentators on the Cotswolds Living Landscape or Heritage Park? Recent Views: Behind the Pretty Pictures The Insiders' View Imagination and Images Responses to the Landscape Chapter One Ancient Echoes: From Prehistory to the Coming of the Anglo-Saxons Exploring Belas Knap Tombs from the Stone Age At the Rollright Stones Bronze-Age Survivals Clues from the Celts Remembering the Romans Tracing the Ancient Ways After the Romans Anglo-Saxon Echoes Chapter Two Finding God in Gloucestershire: Saints, Churches and Clerics Early Abbeys and the Boy Saint of Winchcombe Sacred Sites and Saxon Sculptures Norman Churches and Carvings Stories on Walls Woolgothic Wonders The End of the Abbeys Fame and Fraud at Hailes Abbey Visitors at the Rectory: Jane Austen and John Wesley John Keble at Eastleach Non-Conformism: A Different Way of Worship Selsey Church: Pre-Raphaelite Showcase What Next? Chapter Three Living off the Land: Sheep, Crops and Stone Wealth from Wool Fields, Commons and Walls Good Times and Bad Times for Farmers Experiments and Communities: Charterville and Whiteway Old Mont of Enstone: A Life on the Land Farming Today: Super-stars and Strugglers The Stone and the Magician: Quarries and Quarrymen Using the Stone: Stonemasons and Dry-stone Wallers Building Today: The Tradition Continues Chapter Four The Cotswolds at War: Battlefields, Memories and Memorials The Civil War Begins: The Battle of Edgehill Fighting on the Edge: The Battle of Lansdown A Region at War Damage and Confusion The Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold: The End of the Fighting Images of Cavaliers: Stow-on-the-Wold and Swinbrook The Burford Levellers Two World Wars Bertie, May and Mrs. Fish in Wartime Modern Times Chapter Five Posh Cotswolds: Royalty, Aristocracy and Celebrities Woodstock Palace: Kings and Queens in the Forest Minster Lovell and a Dreadful Doom Sudeley Castle and the Tudors Blenheim Palace: England's Grandest Stately Home Marlboroughs, Vanderbilts and Churchills Dyrham Park and The Remains of the Day Chastleton and Stanway: Houses with Memories New Owners for Old Homes Chapter Six Mills, Steam and Machinery: The Industrial Age Hard Labour at Castle Combe "A Truly Noble Manufacture" The Coming of the Machines John Halifax, Gentleman: Perfect Progress at Dunkirk Mill? "They Say the Suffering is Very Great Indeed" Changing Trades Blankets and Bliss in Oxfordshire Carving up the Landscape: Roads and Canals Great Railway Adventures: Isambard Kingdom Brunel Train-Spotting in the Cotswolds: The Reverend Awdry Chapter Seven "Heaven on Earth": William Morris at Kelmscott Manor and Broadway Tower William and Janey "A Little House out of London" A Serpent in Paradise "Old Grey House by the River" Later Years at Kelmscott Kelmscott Today Views from Broadway Tower Chapter Eight Seeking the Simple Life: Arts and Crafts at Sapperton and Chipping Campden Back to the Land: In Search of a Rural Alternative Gimson and the Barnsleys: The Start of a Dream Pinbury Park: A Workshop in the Woods Settling in at Sapperton Ernest Gimson: Master Designer Ashbee's Vision: The Start of the Guild of Handicrafts Creating Camelot: The Guild at Chipping Campden Good Years for the Guild The End of the Dream Chipping Campden Today Chapter Nine Arty Crafty Cotswolds: The Next Generation Campden Crafts Fine Furniture in Broadway Plain Pottery in Winchcombe Women Designers in the Cotswolds "Arty Crafty" Lifestyles Designing Cotswold Homes Owlpen Manor: "Resuscitated Dream-Place" Arts and Crafts on Display: Two Museums and Rodmarton Manor Cotswold Crafts Today Chapter Ten A Cotswold Life: Laurie Lee in the Slad Valley Lees in the Valley Scenes from Slad After Rosie Return to Slad A Child in the Valley The Return of the Native? Slad Today Chapter Eleven Picturing the Scene: Writers, Artists and Musicians in the Cotswolds William Shakespeare: "Wild Hills" and Justice Shallow's country On Bredon Hill with Housman Ivor Gurney: Poetry and Music at Cranham and Crickley James Elroy Flecker on Painswick Hill Hilaire Belloc: A Brief Voyage on the Evenlode A Poet Laureate in Chipping Campden A Supertramp in Nailsworth T. S. Eliot at Burnt Norton U. A. Fanthorpe at Wotton-under-Edge John Buchan's Adventures in Wychwood Forest J. B. Priestley's Hitherton-on-the-Wole Barbara Pym in Finstock Jilly (and Joanna) in Rutshire Artists and Writers in Broadway The View from Far Oakridge: Rothenstein, Beerbohm and Drinkwater Stanley Spencer in Leonard Stanley Music from the Cotswolds: Vaughan Williams and Holst Chapter Twelve Eccentric Cotswolds: Collectors, Dreamers and Dangerous Games Snowshill Manor: A House of Curiosities "Curiouser and Curiouser" Sezincote House: A Mogul Fantasy Batsford Arboretum: Inspiration from the East Mitfords in the Cotswolds A Very Unusual Childhood Games, Quarrels and Horror at Swinbrook Swinbrook Today (); Woodchester Mansion: The House That Was Never a Home Toddington Manor: Damien Hirst's Treasure Cave Chapter Thirteen Shaping the Landscape: Gardens and Gardeners in the Cotswolds Cirencester Park: Alexander Pope's "Enchanted Forest" Eighteenth-Century Elegance: Rousham, Painswick and Stanway Capability Brown at Blenheim Humphry Repton (and Jane Austen) in the Cotswolds Chastleton House: A Jacobean Wonderland Owlpen Manor: Gardens of Paradise Arts and Crafts Gardens in the Cotswolds Major Lawrence Johnson at Hidcote Manor Two Women's Visions: Kiftsgate Court and Barnsley House The Gardener Prince at Highgrove Chapter Fourteen The Cotswolds at Play: Sports, Games and Leisure Pursuits Hunting Country Equestrian Sports Ancient Races Cricket on the Wolds The Cotswold Olimpicks Festivals, Fairs and Merrymaking Cheese Rolling, River Football and Other Strange Pursuits Morris Dancers (And Some Strong Reactions) Leisure and Pleasure The Heart of England: Rambling and Ramblers Further Reading Index of Literary & Historical Names Index of Places & Landmarks.