Chester Society for Landscape History
Upper storeys of Chester’s iconic Rows (Photograph: Vanessa Greatorex)
Forthcoming Events
MEMBERS ONLY
Field Trip to Mold, Flintshire
Date: Sunday 21 June 2026
Time: 1.30pm
Details: Please see our Field Trips page
ALL WELCOME
Chester Society for Landscape History at Chester Festival of Ideas
Date: Thursday 2 July 2026
Admission: Free, but booking advisable
Members of Chester Society for Landscape History will be giving the following talks:
11am: Cheshire as a Palatinate
Speaker: Professor Graeme J. White
Venue: Chester Picturehouse, Unit 10, Hunter Street, Chester, CH1 2AR
2pm: How Old Am I? Trying to Date Buildings in our Rural and Urban Landscapes
Speaker: Dr Sharon Varey
Venue: Chester Town Hall, 33 Northgate Street, Chester, CH1 2HQ
2pm: The Early Neston Collieries: Seven Reasons Why They Were Remarkable
Speaker: Dr Anthony Annakin-Smith
Venue: Chester Picturehouse, Unit 10, Hunter Street, Chester, CH1 2AR
For more details of talks and how to book, see https://festivalofideas.chester.ac.uk/
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:
UK’s oldest rock art
Uranium-thorium dating suggests that parallel red stripes below a calcite crust in Bacon Hole in the Gower peninsula in Wales date back some 17,000 years to the Palaeolithic Age. This would make the stripes the oldest rock art so far identified in the United Kingdom. The stripes were created using hematite, a red-oxide compound found elsewhere in the cave, and the regular spacing between them provides evidence that they did not occur naturally. However, further analysis is required to verify the dating because the action of groundwater can interfere with the degradation of calcite by leeching uranium at a faster rate, potentially making the stripes seem older than they really are.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/17-000-year-old-stripes-of-red-in-a-welsh-cave-are-the-oldest-rock-art-in-the-uk-study-finds?utm_term=45CAB862-7568-43AB-A667-BD7298D261D3&lrh=84ce638986bc73b191ec0774c05a547009942838093c58c9450b62a0b824de21&utm_campaign=368B3745-DDE0-4A69-A2E8-62503D85375D&utm_medium=email&utm_content=4219C4FA-E27F-412C-8D4A-C73DFDD758E2&utm_source=SmartBrief
Acton Court, Gloucestershire
Photos, descriptions and information about the history of a Tudor manor which once played host to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Nowadays it is open to the public on only a few days a year. This website also provides links to other Tudor houses:
https://thetudortravelguide.com/acton-court/
This website focuses exclusively on Acton Court: https://www.actoncourt.com/discover-the-history-of-acton-court
Click on the blue text at the end of this sentence for links to previously recommended Online Resources or for links to specific topics, including: Directories/Databases/Aerial Photographs, Geology, Ecosystems, Prehistory, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Medieval, Tudor and Stuart, Castles, Churches/Cathedrals/Shrines, Industrial, Cheshire, Wales, Other Locations.