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Lookup NU author(s): Dr David Gould, Dr Duncan WrightORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Toward the end of the first millennium ad, a burgeoning class of secular elites emerged throughout western Europe who developed local power centres to denote their prestige. Seigneurial investment was prioritised towards residences, as well as churches and chapels, the two elements often paired into single places in the landscape. In England, our understanding of these complexes is limited due to scant excavated evidence and skewed by the impact of the Norman Conquest, after which castles became the dominant form of aristocratic site. Previous approaches have often fetishised defensibility and promoted notions of national exceptionalism, but a more meaningful understanding of these places can be gained by adopting a broad chronological and thematic remit. Drawing upon the results of the AHRC-funded research project ‘Where Power Lies’, this paper offers a foundational evaluation of the landscape evidence for lordly centres, presenting data on their distribution in two regions, complemented by results from intensive investigation of case study locations (Bosham, West Sussex and Hornby, North Yorkshire). This allows a wider range of material signatures from lordly centres to be characterised, resulting in greater comprehension of how elites in England shaped and experienced a Europe-wide phenomenon.
Author(s): Gould D, Creighton O, Chaussée S, Shapland S, Wright DW
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: The Antiquaries Journal
Year: 2025
Volume: 104
Issue: 1
Pages: 72-106
Print publication date: 20/07/2025
Online publication date: 09/01/2025
Acceptance date: 30/10/2024
Date deposited: 27/03/2025
ISSN (print): 0003-5815
ISSN (electronic): 1758-5309
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581524000350
DOI: 10.1017/S0003581524000350
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