Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Settlement and Society
- 2 Nature's Frame
- 3 Culture, Ethnicity and Topography
- 4 Small Shires, Deep Roots
- 5 The Gradient of Freedom
- 6 Two Countrysides?
- 7 Village, Farm and Field
- 8 Landscape and Settlement
- 9 Woodland and Pasture
- Conclusion: Time and Topography
- Bibliography
- Index
- ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
2 - Nature's Frame
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Settlement and Society
- 2 Nature's Frame
- 3 Culture, Ethnicity and Topography
- 4 Small Shires, Deep Roots
- 5 The Gradient of Freedom
- 6 Two Countrysides?
- 7 Village, Farm and Field
- 8 Landscape and Settlement
- 9 Woodland and Pasture
- Conclusion: Time and Topography
- Bibliography
- Index
- ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
Summary
The geological structure of England
The basic geology and physical geography of England, let alone of Britain, displays an extreme complexity which is born not only of the varied ways in which rocks were first formed, but also of the various subsequent processes of uplift, distortion and erosion, which operated across almost unimaginably long periods of time. But we may begin by making the old-fashioned but nevertheless useful distinction between the Highland Zone and the Lowland, traditionally if crudely separated by a line drawn from the mouth of the River Exe in Devon to that of the Tees in Northumberland. The areas to the north and west of this line are, in terms of their ‘solid’ or bedrock geology, dominated by old and often hard, erosion-resistant rocks, thus giving rise to elevated terrain. Some of these formations are volcanic – metamorphic or igneous – in character, most notably those which form the Cambrian mountains and the high moorlands of Devon and Cornwall. Others are sedimentary, that is, they were laid down through processes of gradual deposition and compression in Palaeozoic times, from the Pre-Cambrian to the Carboniferous period – that is, more than 360 million years ago. These include the Carboniferous limestones of the southern Pennines and the Mendips, and the millstone grit of the northern Pennines, which were formed at a time when a warm shallow sea covered most of Britain.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Environment, Society and Landscape in Early Medieval EnglandTime and Topography, pp. 36 - 60Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012