Hodskinson’s Map of Suffolk in 1783 with an introduction by D.P. Dymond; Larks Press, Ordnance Farmhouse, Guist Bottom, Dereham, Norfolk, NR20 5PF; ISBN 1 904006 09 4; price £7.95; pages xiv + 30. This is a welcome new publication of the map of the whole county originally produced by Joseph Hodskinson in 1783. The map was originally published on six sheets but is reproduced here on 28 pages. It is possible to get an impression of the original format from a small scale version of all six sheets put together which is printed on page 30. For those interested in the technical details of creating the map Hodskinson’s triangulation diagram showing his survey stations is printed on page 29. The introduction by David Dymond is the one he wrote for the edition of this map published by the Suffolk Records Society in 1972. It is described as slightly abbreviated, but still contains a full description of the origins and nature of the map. Perhaps most important is his discussion of “The Reliability and Historical uses of the Map” which all users of this map should read. Making a detailed comparison with some near-contemporary manuscript maps of particular locations, he describes its reliability as ranging from poor to excellent. This reviewer has had similar experience when using Hodskinson, and it is important to remember that we should not expect it to achieve the accuracy and comprehensive coverage of modern Ordnance Survey maps. As Dymond points out, it is the first map to give us an impression of the pattern of settlement throughout the county and, with the notable exception of the hundred boundaries and the representation of woodland, what it shows is generally accurate but there are significant omissions of buildings known to have been standing at the time. He points out the value of the accurate record of the roads, commons and parks, and reminds us that it provides us with an impression of the patterns of settlement in the county before the major changes of the nineteenth century removed much of the pattern which still survived from the middle ages. It should be remembered that the great houses with their parks shown in detail with the names of their owners are those of the gentry who subscribed for copies of the map, so it was the “sponsors” who got their names recorded. The map is reproduced to the original scale of one inch to the mile and is remarkably sharp, doing full justice to the new photography by Doug Atfield. It is significantly sharper than the 1972 printing of the Suffolk Records Society which will save this reviewer a number of trips to the Record Office to verify details on the original. The only obviously unfortunate feature is the absence of any margins at the centrefold of pages. With the exception of the centre spread which shows the complete plan of Ipswich, adjoining pages are not continuous and the eye tends to be confused unless one page is covered or folded back. It is a virtue that no details are lost in the fold as the publishers have allowed a significant overlap, but clear margins would certainly make it easier to use this reproduction without confusion. I believe that the Suffolk Records Society is preparing to publish a reproduction of John Kirby’s detailed map of 1736 which will complement this work. We might hope that before long somebody will reproduce Bryant’s map of 1826 to make a series of those pre-dating the work of the Ordnance Survey. This would complete a welcome series with the existing publication by Larks Press of Faden’s Norfolk of 1797 and Bryant’s Norfolk of 1826. This book is a worthy production and one that will make it easier for landscape historians to use a valuable source. (review by John Fairclough in Newsletter 57)

Shotley Peninsula: The Making of a Unique Suffolk Landscape, by Sylvia Laverton (Tempus 2001), £14.99. ISBN 0 7524 1937 4. The nine parishes of the Shotley Peninsula have been settled from a very early period, and this book combines a detailed place-name study with the archaeological evidence to provide as comprehensive a history of that area between the rivers Orwell and Stour as it is possible to write in the period from the Late Iron Age to the Norman Conquest. It is not usual to combine the two specialities of place-name study and archaeology, but Mrs. Laverton has done so most usefully to shed light on the history of settlement in an area that is certainly not without interest. It is, she frankly admits, a limited and speculative account of the history of the peninsula throughout the first millennium AD, but what she has deduced from her non-specialist researches points the way to those who would carry the story forward. Aerial photography has produced evidence of archaeological sites that are now, after centuries of agricultural activity, quite invisible from ground level. Wherstead church stands on one edge of a very large rectangular embanked enclosure of unknown date, and nearby is a Roman site that might have some connection with the supposed Roman river crossing of Downham Bridge, but neither of these is visible except in aerial photographs. On the other hand, the Iron Age earthwork in Woolverstone Park crowning a hilly area called Elbury Down is still impressive in spite of being hidden by a conifer plantation. In connection with Downham Bridge Mrs. Laverton points out that the OE brycg can mean either ‘bridge’ or ‘causeway’. This is important, since use of the word ‘bridge’ has too often been taken as evidence of the existence of a physical structure over water, whereas it often seems to have been used in earlier times for a ford. This book makes a valuable contribution to the study of a discrete area of the county. The book suffers somewhat by the deficiency of the editing. Tempus are seeking to produce archaeological/historical books in some quantity, but they do need to look to the quality of the editing; an author depends to a considerable extent on the editor. One notes that on page 86 Mrs. Laverton states that the southerly part of Torp became part of the manor of Over Hall in Shotley, but it is noticeable that in the caption on the next page this situation is reversed: ‘Land in this area became part of Danish Torp’. And in another place A.H. Smith’s English Place-Name Elements is described as published in 1956 and also 1987, something that an editor should have queried. On page 51 there is an incorrect reference number. The editor should also have assisted the author to remove some of the repetitious references to sites. Oregorestun, ‘Ordgar’s estate’, appears on page 75 and again on pages 77-8 and 82-3, where there is a reference to an illustration on page 42, and the significance of the Domesday Book name Wervesteda, ‘place by a wharf or shore’, is discussed on page 75 and then in almost identical terms two pages later. The reader’s confusion is not helped by a less-than-adequate index which lacks any reference to either Wherstead or Wervesteda., or for that matter to either Oregorestun or Ordgar. An author depends to a great extent on her publisher, and Mrs. Laverton has some reason to feel let down. (based on a review by Bob Malster in Newsletter 54)

Flint Architecture of East Anglia by Stephen Hart (London 2000), £19.99. The introductory chapters cover the basic elements such as the origin and source of flint, constructional features and a general history of its use. The essence of the author’s study is a Classification Table with nine categories. Each category is divided into separate types e.g. category Freestone Flushwork has five types: ‘Inset, Chequer, Emblems, Tracery and Panelling, Serial Flushwork’. Following chapters elaborate and describe each category. However the author sensibly states that ‘the classification of flintwork is not an exact science’ as some types may well fall half way between two types and could be classed as either one or the other. This is true of all such classifications, as every archaeologist eventually realises, but it will be a great help in describing flintwork with uniformity. There are also a Glossary, Geological Table, Bibliography and an Index of place names with national grid references plus a General Index. The joy of the book is that every aspect described is illustrated by examples. There are 128 colour photographs set in the middle of the book, and 48 black and white photographs set in the text. The photographs are all by the author and are of outstanding quality. The quality of reproduction is equally superb, printed it is noted in Hong Kong! Readers will be pleased to find mention, even illustrations, of some of what they may have seen. The reviewer’s favourites include Brandon station with its use of rejected gun-flint cores, Hockwold New Inn (Triple Composite Flintwork type: Flint, Brick and Chalk), and the knapped flint (Squared) of Cromer church tower, of exceptionally fine quality to the very top of the tower, obviously produced at great labour and expense. The craft continues today and there is excellent work to be seen on some recently constructed houses in Castle Street, Thetford, of well-knapped blocks set cleanly with little mortar showing between them. Nearby there are knapped square blocks set in the wall of the small public convenience. (based on a review by John Wymer in Newsletter 54)

Bronze Age Metalwork in Northern East Anglia: A Study of its distribution & interpretation” by Colin F. Pendleton, 1999; BAR 279 available from Hadrian Books Ltd., 122 Banbury road, Oxford OX2 7BP, ISBN 0 86054 988 7 £51.00 vii + 234 pages + 20 tables, 48 maps and 70 figures This is a major publication of a thorough research project. It must be essential reading for anybody who wishes to understand the Bronze Age in East Anglia, but I would like to see it read by every serious student of archaeology and every serious historian who uses archaeological evidence. The author demonstrates how to use the information in Sites & Monuments Records (SMRs) and museum archives and link these to contacts with field workers and personal fieldwork. As the SMR officer for Suffolk he is ideally placed to understand the shortcomings as well as the virtues of these records and he has no hesitation in pointing out that all the information needs to be thoroughly checked before it can be used. The careful reader will see how to check unreliable map references, to look out for false attributions and the introduction of fakes and stolen artefacts, and to see how far the distribution patterns of recorded finds indicate the activities of particular modern individuals and institutions rather than the activities of prehistoric people. This is not to decry the value of SMRs and museum records but to point out that they can never be more than an index of starting points for detailed research. Within his chosen area of detailed research in the Forest Heath District of North West Suffolk, Colin Pendleton has made contact whenever possible with the original finder of every piece of Bronze Age metalwork in the records. This enabled him to correct map references, checking the location as closely as possible on the ground, and so reveal that some finds which appear to have been deposited in water, or at least in wet fen, had been in dry ground only later covered by peat, while others were in modern drainage channels. This has reduced to a small proportion those that even might be cases of ritual deposition in water. Conversation with finders also revealed unreported finds and first hand evidence from farm workers about the way that some objects might be caught up and moved significant distances by modern machinery before in some cases being thrown into the water to get rid of them as rubbish. The reader almost despairs of getting any true picture of the location of Bronze Age activities but here this book comes to the rescue. By careful study the author identifies those finds that almost certainly were accurately recorded in their original place and draws on the evidence from all sources, including metal detector finds of small and broken objects, from his other area of detailed study in South West Norfolk, between the rivers Little Ouse, Great Ouse and Wissey, and from the rest of East Anglia to examine the significance of the recorded distributions. The author makes a strong case for believing that Bronze Age settlements probably spread fairly evenly across the whole of East Anglia apart from flooded areas of the fen, and that the apparent concentration on the fen edge results from favourable preservation under a later accumulation of peat combined with revelation by recent drainage and farming activity, particularly the labour intensive nature of vegetable growing compared to cereal production. He also demonstrates that the pattern of loss and deposition of bronze objects indicates that after the Early Bronze Age the metal was not seen as specially valuable nor was there a shortage of supply - the only counter to this seems to be the massive Isleham hoard whose atypical contents suggest that it was imported to the region late in the Bronze Age to provide more metal; but then it was never used so how do we explain that? The very small number of surviving objects suggest that it was, as always, gold that was really valued and it is notable that gold objects do not feature among those claimed as ritual deposits of valued objects - in fact Pendleton suggests that many of our finds of bronze artefacts are rubbish thrown away where they will not become dangerous playthings for children (don’t leave that worn out sword where the baby might pick it up!) and perhaps sometimes finally broken to render them useless to others (natural treatment of something we are throwing away?). As an important pointer for areas of future research he suggests that some important Bronze Age settlements may survive throughout the region, including the clay areas of High Suffolk, in river valleys concealed under thick hill wash and river alluvium - his comments are a healthy reminder about the amount of soil moved by water, something that has been particularly visible in the last few wet seasons since he completed his work - we should not forget the effects of natural forces in changing the landscape over time. (from a review by John Fairclough in Newsletter 54)

The Pakenham Cartulary for the Manor of Ixworth Thorpe, Suffolk c.1250 - 1320 ed.S.D. Church, Suffolk Records Society, Suffolk Charters XVII, Woodbridge 2001. Pp xiv + 117 £25 The cartulary of thirty four folios was composed between 1314 and 1321 for Thomas Pakenham who was consolidating his holdings in a manor created by his father Sir William Pakenham. William was a very rich man “on his way up” who was man of business to the abbot of Bury and the bishop of Norwich. The cartulary is described and dated after an introduction to the family, witnesses to the charters, and the topography of Ixworth. The editing is impeccable, the indexes, crucial to a work of this kind, being especially splendid (based on a review by Colin Richmond in Newsletter 54)

Is it Wiston or Wissington? An Ancient Rural Suffolk Parish, by Rosemary Knox (2001) ISBN 09541105, £8.80 including postage from: Rosemary Knox, Maltings Chase, Bures Road, Nayland, Colchester, Essex CO6 4LZ. Please make out cheques to Rosemary Knox. Wiston/ Wissington is a small parish on the River Stour whose lands are intermingled with those of Nayland. There is a chapter on the medieval period and on each century from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The second half of the book is made up of the stories of individual farms and houses. The author makes very good use of manorial records to bring to life medieval people and farming practices. This is parish history which is well put together where the author makes full use of all the surviving documents. (based on a review by Richard Shackle in Newsletter 54)

Darwin’s Mentor, John Stevens Henslow 1796-1861 by Max Walters & Ann Stow (Cambridge University Press 2001).

Wills of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, 1439-1474: Wills from the Register ‘Baldwyne’, Part I: 1439-1461, edited by Peter Northeast (Boydell Press/ Suffolk Records Society XLIV, 2001) lv + 526 pp. £25 This volume contains around 900 wills and about 500 further details of probate, of which the complete texts are transcribed and translated from the Latin, which makes them much more accessible to the casual reader. It contains a useful glossary of terms encountered and a discussion of the format of the medieval will.(reviewed in Newsletter 53)

Inward Purity and Outward Splendour: Death and Remembrance in the Deanery of Dunwich, Suffolk, 1370-1547, by Judith Middleton-Stewart (Boydell Press/ Centre of East Anglian Studies) xiv + 328pp, 8 col. & 24 b&w plates, £60. Through her study of the late-medieval wills of the Deanery of Dunwich, the author builds up a convincing picture of East Suffolk communities at the end of the Middle Ages. (reviewed in Newsletter 53).

Guilds and the Parish Community in late Medieval East Anglia c.1470-1550, by Ken Farnhill (York Medieval Press/ Boydell Press 2001) £25 Uses the urban guilds of Wymondham and Swaffham in Norfolk and the rural guilds of Bardwell and Cratfield in Suffolk as case studies.

Suffolk: National Index of Parish Registers 7 pt.i, compiled by Anthony Wilcox (Society of Genealogists 2001), £13.50

Bloody Marsh: A Seventeenth Century Village in Crisis by Peter Warner with photographs by Nick Catling (Windgather Press 2000) 146pp., 42 ills. Pb. £16.99. (reviewed in Newsletter 52).

Some Suffolk and Norfolk Ex-libris: Bookplates and Labels relating to East Anglian Owners, Artists and Printers, by J.M. Blatchly for the Bookplate Society (2000) 154 + vi pp., many illustrations. Limited to 450 copies of which 200 are for sale. Price £15.00 (plus £2.00 postage and packing) from the author at 11 Burlington Road, Ipswich IP1 2HS. (reviewed in Newsletter 52)

A History of Ipswich by Robert Malster (Phillimore 2000), 240pp, 125 plates including contemporary maps and 5 figs. And maps. £15.99. (reviewed in Newsletter 52)

Creating Paradise: The Building of the English Country House 1660-1880 by Richard Wilson and Alan Mackley (Hambledon and London 2000), 448 pp. £25.00 (reviewed in Newsletter 52)

Suffolk’s Gardens & Parks - Designed Landscapes from the Tudors to the Victorians by Tom Williamson (Windgather Press 2000). (reviewed in Newsletter 52)

The Journal of William Dowsing: Iconoclasm in East Anglia during the English Civil War, ed. Trevor Cooper with contributions by Dr. John Blatchly, Professor John Morrill, Dr. S. Sadler and Robert Walker (Boydell/ The Ecclesiological Society, 2001) £50. (reviewed in Newsletter 52)

Suffolk Enterprise: A guide to the Country’s Companies and their Historical Records by Christine Clark and Roger Munting (Centre of East Anglian Studies, UEA Norwich 2000), ISBN 0 906219 515. 111 pages, 24 ills. £4.50 collected from any of the three Record Offices in the county or £4.50 plus £1 p&p from Centre of East Anglian Studies, UEA Norwich, NR4 7TJ. (reviewed in Newsletter 52)

Ipswich Borough Archives 1255-1835: A Catalogue, compiled by David Allen, with introductory essays by Geoffrey Martin and Frank Grace on the governance of the Borough. Suffolk Records Society XLIII (The Boydell Press 2000) £50. SRS members receive it for their annual subscription of £12.50. (review in Newsletter 51) As SIAH gave financial support to the Ipswich 800 project which produced the book, members who would like a copy (but are not Suffolk Records Society members) may have one at the special price of £22, if they can collect it from a Record Office, or £27 by post. Cheques made out to SRS please to: Dr. John Blatchly, 11 Burlington Road, Ipswich, IP1 2HS.

The Register of John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury 1486-1500, volume III. Norwich sede vacante 1499, edited by Christopher Harper-Bill (The Boydell Press 2000) 336 pp. £30 (25% off to SIAH members). (review in Newsletter 51)

Suffolk Writers from the beginning until 1800. A catalogue of Suffolk authors with some account of their lives and lists of their writings, by Tony Copsey. 150 copies only printed; pp558; in gilt lettered boards by the Ipswich Book Company, 2000, and only available from the College Gateway Bookshop, 3&5 Silent Street, Ipswich (tel:01473-254776), price £45. Over one thousand quite detailed Suffolk authors’ biographies.

The East Anglian Linen Industry: Rural Industry and Local Economy 1500-1850, Pasold Studies in Textile History, by Nesta Evans (1985) £20 is still in print and obtainable from The Pasold Research Fund, c/o Maney Publishing, Hudson Road, Leeds, LS9 7DL.

Land of the Iceni - The Iron Age in Northern East Anglia, ed. John Davies & Tom Williamson, Centre of East Anglian Studies, UEA, Norwich 1999. ISBN 0 906219 47 7, 217 pages. £14.95 (full review in Newsletter 50).