Thanks for these films. As a fellow wanderer in the woods and countryside, I find them fascinating. I don’t have your knowledge of Old English or the Saxon Charters but I’m learning to interpret signs in the landscape thanks to you. I’ve seen what I now know to be ancient woodbanks and boundaries both in Surrey, where I used to live and in Dorset.
Lovely video, nothing beats going outside, walking around and seeing stuff. Making a cup of tea makes it perfect! Warm greetings from the Netherlands🇳🇱!
I’d say you’re completely correct, all the signs seem to be there. But I know nothing! However, your videos have changed the way I look at the countryside around me - chiefly in Cheshire where I now live, but in memory the things I saw in Kent and Devon when I lived there. Hope 2025 is a very good year for you and yours. And many thanks for all you do on YT. Les
Tom, while you may still be barking, I think that you're bang on. The wood bank looks like a standard medieval boundary, and the confluence makes sense (although it's slightly odd that the whole copse wasn't in the same ownership with the brook as the boundary as far as Oxford Bridge but that's if it was a copse then). The holly might have been a boundary, partly because it was sometimes planted in hedges to stop witches (hedge riders).
I suddenly realised, after listening to you, that some people divide coppiced woodland zones into 'hags' - though 'cants' seem more commonly used. The word hag equating to a hedge becomes very interesting in that case.
Another informative video Mr Fox, thank you - a joy to watch + amazing aerial shots of the barrow. Habitats like Gorse/bracken (NVC plant classifications & the 'magic map'). Heather can be fussy. 5:27 chalybeate? Holly's good for keeping animals in/people out, yet winter fodder for deer (spikey leaves at the bottom, rounded further up) as you said Alders fix nitrogen (symbiotic relationship with bacteria - orange root nodules) 17:30 coppiced willow? 22:18 yep wood bank & hedge line clear on lidar - you can see the hedgeline anyway 👍
I think you’re right. The bank should be about 3 or 4m (9-12ft) wide, with probably shallow ‘ditches’ on either side, of which the soil was used to raise the bank. This looks like it.
It does resemble a tree lined bank though i would have liked to see more of it over the other side of the fallen tree lying across it. First snow drops I've seen gladdens the heart ❤️.
Thanks again for this trip to our great countryside. I so engage with your choice of music and old English speech. With the use of liar you have definitely found something and is very likely the ancient hedge boundary.
I only found you recently & have walked alot in the same places in the west country, always looking for signs of history. Im now even more interested thanks to you & the resurgence of time team & stuarts enthusiasm for lumps & bumps. Thanks for the interesting longer format vids 😊 Happy new year to you & yours
Holly does particularly well in acidic sandy loam soils and would probably out compete many other under-story trees and shrubs. It does particularly well under oak...
Great informative videos of this area. I grew up in Baughurst, it is pronounced locally the same as you did Haughurst by the way not Baghurst. I recognise many of the locations you visited. Keep up the good work.
Yes, that crossed my mind. They can shift from one side of a meadow to the other but in my period they were controlling rivers where they had a mind to. Near the end of the video the field I’m next to used to have a mill in it so there was a water channel cut there.
Although you might get more 'hits' on shorter videos ( which massages the algorithm ) I think this longer format suits your more 'rambling' slow paced style.
TH-cam wants people to stay watching videos both because their customers are enjoying themselves and because they are watching ads which makes them money. And for full transparency, they give a modest amount to me. So longer videos THAT ARE INTERESTING (very important that and difficult to achieve) makes TH-cam money and longer videos serve more ads, therefore more money. Therefore I am not at all convinced by the argument that short videos, served often, serves the algorithm. Many of life’s questions are answered by asking, “what does the contract say; where does the money come from and go?” It is not hard work like an Albanian salt mine is, but the longer the video the more of my day disappears into editing hell. Darren has just said he spent three days editing a video but while I can believe it I also know the amount of hair-tearin he will have been doing. Plus it is supply and demand. The punters have asked for a longer format so if I can keep it up I shall try and service that demand. I am looking back to those happy days where a video was edited in five hours with fondness but the more I do the quicker I get.
@AllotmentFox In terms of the algorithm I was thinking in simplistic terms of 3 short videos get watched three times where 1 video is watched once. The longer format has more flow, although if you have to re-visit the site more than once it could produce continuity issues, but I don't think viewers care about variations in weather or lighting, if they even notice it Happy New Year.
@@AllotmentFox Honestly, keep it simple, as you are doing, you've got the perfect format. This is pure antiquarianism, nobody is expecting (or wants!) Time Team. As for You Tube, I'm a subscriber so I get no ads in anything I watch, I would like to think that some of that monthly sub is going to you.
I find most people have a short span of attention therefore I try to make short videos (20 mins) but it doesn't always work out that way! Even with ruthless editing my videos tend average 30 mins plus. I have 2 channels and I have never been able to crack the algorithms, there are too any factors involved. Trending words, attention grabbing titles, click bait, I've tried the lot but I think it all boils down to churn and catch 22, more subs = more views = more subs, ad infinitum.
Dutch pronunciation is pretty straight forward. English pronunciation only makes sense to linguists. Apnea, heather, learn, ocean, steak, beak. So many sounds for just one letter combination! And ei is just as inconsistent.
Heather, learn and ocean sound the same to me and steak I had to think hard whether it was different but it is. This may be my southern English accent where vowels are seeming to merge over time. Heather, learn and beak are derived from OE. There are reasons for the odd spelling, I tend to ignore Middle English but I think that is the culprit. We won’t change, they tried to drag us into a rational, standardised world amd it didn’t work.
I really love how you make tangible the land that existed hundreds if not thousands of years ago, with the language that also so clearly connects from then to this day and age. For me, your videos help me to get a better sense of proportion when I take a break from it all and walk though my own local patch of semi-wilderness - and I often wonder, who was here before me? What can I see? Where are the clues?
VERY interesting content.. and your camerawork and production has come along leaps and bounds !
Thank you
Absolutely fascinating; connecting with a thousand-year old landscape through a thousand-year old description. Thank you!
Superb. Thankyou.
Whin is the common name for gorse up here in Scotland: Whinstane, from were the whins grow. Love your content.
Yep, I think you called that absolutely right 😊
I think you’ve nailed that wood bank 100%!
I hope so. Thanks for watching
Thanks for these films. As a fellow wanderer in the woods and countryside, I find them fascinating. I don’t have your knowledge of Old English or the Saxon Charters but I’m learning to interpret signs in the landscape thanks to you. I’ve seen what I now know to be ancient woodbanks and boundaries both in Surrey, where I used to live and in Dorset.
Lovely video, nothing beats going outside, walking around and seeing stuff. Making a cup of tea makes it perfect!
Warm greetings from the Netherlands🇳🇱!
Thank you!
I’d say you’re completely correct, all the signs seem to be there. But I know nothing! However, your videos have changed the way I look at the countryside around me - chiefly in Cheshire where I now live, but in memory the things I saw in Kent and Devon when I lived there. Hope 2025 is a very good year for you and yours. And many thanks for all you do on YT. Les
Beautifully filmed. I'm no authority (far from it), but I agree with you
Tom, while you may still be barking, I think that you're bang on. The wood bank looks like a standard medieval boundary, and the confluence makes sense (although it's slightly odd that the whole copse wasn't in the same ownership with the brook as the boundary as far as Oxford Bridge but that's if it was a copse then). The holly might have been a boundary, partly because it was sometimes planted in hedges to stop witches (hedge riders).
That was fantastic, the moody atmospheric music made me yearn for my Anglo Saxon past.
I suddenly realised, after listening to you, that some people divide coppiced woodland zones into 'hags' - though 'cants' seem more commonly used. The word hag equating to a hedge becomes very interesting in that case.
In England?
Another informative video Mr Fox, thank you - a joy to watch + amazing aerial shots of the barrow. Habitats like Gorse/bracken (NVC plant classifications & the 'magic map'). Heather can be fussy. 5:27 chalybeate? Holly's good for keeping animals in/people out, yet winter fodder for deer (spikey leaves at the bottom, rounded further up) as you said Alders fix nitrogen (symbiotic relationship with bacteria - orange root nodules) 17:30 coppiced willow? 22:18 yep wood bank & hedge line clear on lidar - you can see the hedgeline anyway 👍
I think you’re right. The bank should be about 3 or 4m (9-12ft) wide, with probably shallow ‘ditches’ on either side, of which the soil was used to raise the bank. This looks like it.
I wondered whether it was iron turning the water brown but it is heath up there and peatyish
Because the wood no longer stops there I guess there was no need to maintain the bank
You've convinced me and I think the Lidar confirms it.
Thank you Nomad for reinforcing my delusions, much appreciated!
It does resemble a tree lined bank though i would have liked to see more of it over the other side of the fallen tree lying across it. First snow drops I've seen gladdens the heart ❤️.
Quite a special place.
Thanks again for this trip to our great countryside. I so engage with your choice of music and old English speech. With the use of liar you have definitely found something and is very likely the ancient hedge boundary.
I could see it but it was hard capturing it on camera
I only found you recently & have walked alot in the same places in the west country, always looking for signs of history. Im now even more interested thanks to you & the resurgence of time team & stuarts enthusiasm for lumps & bumps. Thanks for the interesting longer format vids 😊 Happy new year to you & yours
Holly does particularly well in acidic sandy loam soils and would probably out compete many other under-story trees and shrubs. It does particularly well under oak...
Ah, that’s useful. I suspected it liked acid soil and the soil was fine with gravel. A lot if oak there as well. Thanks for the info
It’s also where the heathens lived, supposedly
Great informative videos of this area. I grew up in Baughurst, it is pronounced locally the same as you did Haughurst by the way not Baghurst. I recognise many of the locations you visited. Keep up the good work.
I'm from West Berkshire and I distinctly remember my father pronouncing it Baghurst. I wonder what that was about
With thanks.
Thanks Stephen.
Love your work.
i'd be interested to know how the rivers had shifted about over the years
Yes, that crossed my mind. They can shift from one side of a meadow to the other but in my period they were controlling rivers where they had a mind to. Near the end of the video the field I’m next to used to have a mill in it so there was a water channel cut there.
You called it. So many features close to where the bank should be to say otherwise.
have you changed your camera ?
I have popped my gopro on a selfie stick for more forest, less head
Although you might get more 'hits' on shorter videos ( which massages the algorithm ) I think this longer format suits your more 'rambling' slow paced style.
TH-cam wants people to stay watching videos both because their customers are enjoying themselves and because they are watching ads which makes them money. And for full transparency, they give a modest amount to me. So longer videos THAT ARE INTERESTING (very important that and difficult to achieve) makes TH-cam money and longer videos serve more ads, therefore more money. Therefore I am not at all convinced by the argument that short videos, served often, serves the algorithm. Many of life’s questions are answered by asking, “what does the contract say; where does the money come from and go?”
It is not hard work like an Albanian salt mine is, but the longer the video the more of my day disappears into editing hell. Darren has just said he spent three days editing a video but while I can believe it I also know the amount of hair-tearin he will have been doing.
Plus it is supply and demand. The punters have asked for a longer format so if I can keep it up I shall try and service that demand. I am looking back to those happy days where a video was edited in five hours with fondness but the more I do the quicker I get.
@AllotmentFox In terms of the algorithm I was thinking in simplistic terms of 3 short videos get watched three times where 1 video is watched once.
The longer format has more flow, although if you have to re-visit the site more than once it could produce continuity issues, but I don't think viewers care about variations in weather or lighting, if they even notice it
Happy New Year.
@@AllotmentFox Honestly, keep it simple, as you are doing, you've got the perfect format. This is pure antiquarianism, nobody is expecting (or wants!) Time Team. As for You Tube, I'm a subscriber so I get no ads in anything I watch, I would like to think that some of that monthly sub is going to you.
I find most people have a short span of attention therefore I try to make short videos (20 mins) but it doesn't always work out that way!
Even with ruthless editing my videos tend average 30 mins plus.
I have 2 channels and I have never been able to crack the algorithms, there are too any factors involved.
Trending words, attention grabbing titles, click bait, I've tried the lot but I think it all boils down to churn and catch 22, more subs = more views = more subs, ad infinitum.
Nope I think you have it right, good job
Dutch pronunciation is pretty straight forward. English pronunciation only makes sense to linguists.
Apnea, heather, learn, ocean, steak, beak. So many sounds for just one letter combination!
And ei is just as inconsistent.
Heather, learn and ocean sound the same to me and steak I had to think hard whether it was different but it is. This may be my southern English accent where vowels are seeming to merge over time. Heather, learn and beak are derived from OE. There are reasons for the odd spelling, I tend to ignore Middle English but I think that is the culprit. We won’t change, they tried to drag us into a rational, standardised world amd it didn’t work.
I really love how you make tangible the land that existed hundreds if not thousands of years ago, with the language that also so clearly connects from then to this day and age.
For me, your videos help me to get a better sense of proportion when I take a break from it all and walk though my own local patch of semi-wilderness - and I often wonder, who was here before me? What can I see? Where are the clues?