The Witham Valley: a landscape with monasteries?

The material this article presents derives largely from a paper written for the publication of the proceedings of a conference held in summer 2006 in Lincoln, which reported, to a largely local audience, on the several strands of investigation and recording promoted under the umbrella of the Witham Valley Archaeological Research Committee, in the valley of the river Witham in central Lincolnshire (Rackham and Williams forthcoming). In its present form, however, this paper seeks to deliver a somewhat more general account of our work on the Witham Valley monasteries than that intended for those proceedings. We are taking the opportunity here to inform a wider, specialist audience of Church Archaeology about a lengthy stream of work relating to the valley’s medieval monasteries. The intention, though, is not merely to provide a hand-list for what now amounts to a substantial body of archaeological work, including three new site surveys, but also to round up some of the over-arching themes that have emerged, as we have undertaken a variety of studies on these monasteries. More importantly still, we hope to signal a particular approach we have taken to these sites, as one phase in the long-term history of the valley, and thus to explain how we have sought to explore the concept of ‘ritual landscapes’ through assessment of the monastic sites and, indeed, to explore the idea of landscape itself (Everson and Stocker forthcoming, chapter 1). This article is a review of research in progress, then, and a signpost to a network of interlinked work, published or in preparation. Even where it uses previously unpublished field surveys, that is by way of example and illustration rather than as a full presentation of results.