CiNii Books - Dartmoor's alluring uplands : transhumance and pastoral management in the Middle Ages

A striking and famous feature of the English landscape, Dartmoor is a beautiful place, with a sense of wildness and mystery. This book provides a new perspective on an important aspect of Dartmoor's past. Its focus is transhumance: the seasonal transfer of grazing animals to different pastures. In the Middle Ages, intensive practical use was made of Dartmoor's resources. Its extensive moorlands provided summer pasture for thousands of cattle from the Devon lowlands, which flowed in a seasonal tide, up in the spring and down in the autumn. This book describes, for the first time, the social organisation and farming practices associated with this annual transfer of livestock. It also presents evidence for a previously unsuspected Anglo-Saxon pattern of transhumance in which lowland farmers spent the summers living with their cattle on the moor. Winner of the Devon Book of the Year Award 2013.

Table of Contents

List of Colour Plates List of Figures List of Tables Editors' Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction by Christopher Dyer and Matthew Tompkins 1. Definitions and limitations Defining Dartmoor's resources Dartmoor and its parts Transhumance and its types Limitations of this book 2. The red tides: impersonal transhumance and the central moor The central moor: ownership and commoners Distances travelled and middlemen Pastoral management: the herdsman's year Livestock: numbers and types 3. The red tides: impersonal transhumance and the outer moors Ownership and commoners Pastoral management: drifts, structures, strays Perambulation and dispute resolution Order and disorder: outer moors and the central moor 4. Personal transhumance: distant detachments Cockington and Dewdon Ipplepen, Abbotskerswell and their links Detached parts of the hundreds of Exminster, Wonford and Kerswell Kenton with Heatree Paignton and its parts Lifton and Sourton Northlew, Venn and Lettaford Tavistock and Cudlipp Bickleigh and Sheepstor The significance of the detachments 5. Personal transhumance: archaeology, topography, place-names and history Archaeology and topography Place-names and history: economy and society 6. Domesday Book and beyond: the transition from personal to impersonal transhumance The role of colonists The role of lords The role of the Crown 7. Dartmoor and beyond Droveways Pastoral husbandry The implications of transhumance for lowland farming Conclusion by Christopher Dyer and Matthew Tompkins Notes Bibliography Index

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Dartmoor's alluring uplands : transhumance and pastoral management in the Middle Ages

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