History of the Loxley Valley (Near Sheffield, Peak district).

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Neil Morbey, PLYMOUTH, 11/08/82

History of the Loxley Valley (Near Sheffield, Peak district)

The other element that shapes the form of a landscape is the history behind it. This research delves into the past of the Loxley valley to try and understand these influences.

Settlements.

Settlements first recorded around the times of the Doomsday Book were not concentrated on the west of Yorkshire. But where some did locate was within the wooded valleys, such as the Agden and Rivelingdon (Now the Rivelin Valley).

Agriculture and fields.

This picture shows the Loxley valley’s field patterns in the medieval period. It has a distinctive mosaic of small and medium sized fields; irregularly shaped, mainly walled, some still survive today. Some of these originated as early as the Iron Age, others have been taken in from the waste of scrub woodland, gorse covered heath and heather moorland in the medieval period and beyond. This is called ‘asserting’ and dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. The picture also shows the difference in the forms made by the parliamentary enclosure acts. Most enclosure acts were passed 1750-1830 and were there to allot all common land to owners and set specific legal boundaries.

 

In 1649, Loxley Chase was described as ‘the herbage common and consiteth of great oake timber.’ After the enclosure acts of the eighteenth century it was divided into regular walled enclosures and crossed by straight roads, which still remain today.

Before the second half of the twentieth century most of the changes in the agricultural forms of the landscape were evolutionary, not revolutionary. But after the Second World War, some of the most dramatic changes have taken place.

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Firstly, the working horse has disappeared. So now oats, grown as fodder for horses, are not grown. Many features associated with horses and traditional farming have vanished, for example the fields no longer need to accommodate horse driven ploughs and turning circles.

More significantly, in the search for efficiency, with new mechanical assistance, fields have gotten bigger, where intensive arable farming has become a monoculture. This was aided by the government, which estimates that in England and Wales, 240,00 kilometers of hedgerow has been grubbed up. The loss of hedgerows in the Valley and elsewhere has created, not ...

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