Chester Society for Landscape History
Upper storeys of Chester’s iconic Rows (Photograph: Vanessa Greatorex)
Field trip to Aldersey Green (Photograph: Carol Sparkes)
Forthcoming Events
Saturday 25 January 2025, 2pm
Lecture: Reconstructing Roman Chester
Speaker: Julian Baum, Chester Archaeological Society.
Admission: Members free, Visitors £4, Student Visitors £2
Venue: St Columba’s Church Hall, Plas Newton Lane, Chester, CH2 1SA (free car park; for directions see https://sscolumbaandtheresa.co.uk/about/st-columbas-church/directions-and-location/).
Saturday 22 February 2025, 1.30pm
AGM & Lecture: The River Dee from Source to Mouth
Speaker: Jim Holmes, Royal Geographic Society
Admission: Members free, Visitors £4, Student Visitors £2
Venue: St Columba’s Church Hall, Plas Newton Lane, Chester, CH2 1SA (free car park; for directions see https://sscolumbaandtheresa.co.uk/about/st-columbas-church/directions-and-location/).
Saturday 22 March 2025, 2pm
Lecture: Saving Parks and Gardens
Speaker: Glynis Shaw, Welsh Historic Gardens Trust
Admission: Members free, Visitors £4, Student Visitors £2
Venue: St Columba’s Church Hall, Plas Newton Lane, Chester, CH2 1SA (free car park; for directions see https://sscolumbaandtheresa.co.uk/about/st-columbas-church/directions-and-location/).
Saturday 26 April 2025
Field Trip: Destination tbc
Leader: Emeritus Professor Jim Marshall, Liverpool Geological Society
Members only. Booking essential. Details of how to book will be emailed to CSLH members in due course.
What is Landscape History?
Landscape History is the study of how people have altered the landscape through time.
It seeks to explain the historical significance of the buildings, earthworks, flora and other physical features which are our common heritage. It embraces aspects of history, archaeology, architecture, geography, geology, botany and other disciplines.
“The English landscape itself, to those who know how to read it aright, is the richest historical record we possess.” – W.G. Hoskins, The Making of the English Landscape (1955).
Picks of the Week
Here are some links to online landscape history resources recently recommended by our Information Officer:
Recently rediscovered Neolithic stone circles
Located on Dartmoor, the two stone circles may have been part of a ‘sacred arc’.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/2-stone-age-circles-discovered-on-english-moorland-may-have-been-part-of-a-sacred-arc
What happened after the end of Roman rule in Britain?
This account by Historic England draws on documentary sources, archaeological discoveries, photographs and reconstruction illustrations.
https://heritagecalling.com/2024/11/28/what-happened-after-the-end-of-roman-rule-in-britain/
Click on the blue text at the end of this sentence for links to previously recommended online resources