The terms ‘hunting parks’ and ‘deer parks’ are inter-changeable and define the extent of the hunting preserves of the baronial aristocracy and their equivalents in medieval society. These were primarily reserved for the leading family of the region but provided an on-tap recreation for visiting gentry, most especially the monarch were he to be in […]

The study of the history of British ‘parklands’ can seem confusing when different terms are used in different contexts. Examples of these are ‘royal forests’, ‘deer parks’, ‘hunting parks’ and ‘royal parks’. Royal forests were largely created by the early Norman monarchs after 1066 and some lasted throughout the Middle Ages, the last criminal enforcement

Certainly the ascendancy of the Norman overlords hastened the creation of private hunting parks across great swathes of the English countryside, the king leading the way with the creation of royal hunting parks. Possibly the best known of these medieval royal hunting parks is the New Forest, mostly in Hampshire, this because it was mentioned

The picture above shows the front cover of another good read for our current topic. Written by Travis Elborough and published two years ago it is a readable paper back, clearly thoroughly researched and, although not a ‘university book’ in the sense that the sources of facts presented are not often credited, it does have an index

The picture above is of the front cover of Susan Lasdun’s standard text, published 1991 and reproduces part of a painting by William Hannan, c. 1745, ‘West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire’. The picture, if true to the time, shows some features of a typical ‘landscaped’ private park of the time; a lake (a model boat sailing

Demobilisation of soldiers after the Great War was staggered. Sidney was to experience over another year of military service after November 1918. Doris in later life confirmed to me that Sidney, as a young dad, had spoken of being billeted to a German family in Aachen (Aix la Chapelle) during what became known as the post-War