We saw in part 3 the argument in the 13th century between the Earl of Arundel and two successive Archbishops at Slindon over hunting and trespass. Tens of generations passed and in 1797, an agreement came about which could be seen as another coup for Arundel, now under the Duke of Norfolk.
More in the published book.
Old Sussex Mapped here
We saw in Part 2 that the right of free warren was ambiguous. A long feud developed with the Earls of Arundel because of the presumption of the Archbishops. Continue reading
The Saxons introduced ‘Hundreds’ for military and judicial purposes, geographical divisions of the Sheriff-controlled ‘Shire’. In Sussex, ‘Rapes’ may represent the ancient shires, or the late 9th Century system of fortifications introduced by King Alfred.
In 1086, the ‘honour’ bestowed by William the Conqueror to reward the services of Earl Roger de Montgomery resulted in the Arundel Rape holding most land in West Sussex. His broader English land holdings yielded about 3% of the entire national income; now GDP. One of the most important parts of the ‘Honour’ bestowed by the King was the Forest and Chase of Arundel.
More of the Slindon and Arundel in the published book.
Part 1 here
Our Northwood stone sits close to boundary lands which have subtly shifted over the last 1000 years. Continue reading
A full text of this post in the published book.
Hilaire Belloc’s novel The Four Men was conceived in 1902 and published in 1912. Several poems – songs – accompany their walk across Sussex.
The ‘first Drinking Song’ can be interpreted as Belloc intended 120 years ago, here from the South Downs Folk Singers archive:
The poem has also been set to the Irish rebel tune The West’s Awake by Martyn Wyndham-Read, and is here rendered – with accompaniment – by Youtube’s Holecene81.
Across Sussex with Belloc – In the Footsteps of The Four Men, Bob Copper (1994) Alan Sutton Publishing
Great Dynasties of the World – The Copper Family; The Guardian article here
http://southdownsfolksingers.blogspot.co.uk/p/lyrics-and-recordings.html
Please make contact if you would like a pdf chord sheet.
I want the landscape of Northwood to have a dialogue with the sculpture. You can influence my creative path through your own interpretations; opening channels of enquiry that might stick in the oddest of ways.
A full text of this post in the published book.
A blue plaque to the writer, poet and walker Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953; seen here flanked by George Bernard Shaw and G.K. Chesterton) lies at Gumber Farm, just to the north of our Rise of Northwood location.
Remember the stone and tree planting start on the weekend of 29/30th November.
Archive of Belloc and his publications from a Belloc Society blog here.
1739 Records of the Old Charlton Hunt (Earl of March, 2013)
Leading up to the start of a new carving (and with my youngest at home with Chickenpox) the artist can behave like a web Timelord, swooping in on 500 years of published evocative happenings and on historic analyses of the 1500 years before that.
More of this diary entry is the published Journal.
Slindon Sculpture 