Bednarski, Moore, and Newfield, New Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life, Land, and Environment at Herstmonceux
Bednarski, Steven, Andrew Moore, and Timothy P. Newfield. “New Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life, Land, and Environment at Herstmonceux.” In The Routledge Handbook of Medieval Rural Life, ca. 1100-1550, edited by Miriam Müller, 303–319. Routledge, 2021. doi.org/10.4324/9781003194866-23.
Abstract
"In the second half of the fifteenth century, a new castle loomed large over the Sussex countryside, surrounded by a recently expanded and enclosed deer park. Herstmonceux Castle, constructed by Sir Roger Fiennes, combined medieval strength and symbols with early modern sensibilities. Human habitation of the medieval site of Herstmonceux extends back more or less continuously to Roman Britain, and possibly as early as the late European Bronze Age. In ancient, as in modern, times geography and topography drew animal, including human, occupants. The Norman property was typical in composition and agrarian diversity. In addition to fields for farming, it contained seven acres of meadowlands, woods, pannage for two swine, and the old Anglo-Saxon church, likely located on the site of the current All Saints parish church. By the mid-fifteenth century, Herstmonceux had passed from the de Monceux family to that of the well-connected Fiennes."
