Hidden Histories: A Spotter's Guide to the British Landscape

by Mary-Ann Ochota

For the times when you’ re driving past a lumpy, bumpy field and you wonder what made the lumps and bumps; for when you’ re walking between two lines of grand trees, wondering when and why they were planted; for when you see a brown heritage sign pointing to a ‘ tumulus’ but you don’ t know what to look for… Entertaining and factually rigorous,  Hidden Histories  will help you decipher the story of our landscape through the features you can see around you.

This Spotter’ s Guide arms the amateur explorer with the crucial information needed to ‘ read’ the landscape and spot the human activities that have shaped our green and pleasant land. Photographs and diagrams point out specific details and typical examples to help the curious Spotter ‘ get their eye in’ and understand what they’ re looking at, or looking for. Specially commissioned illustrations bring to life the processes that shaped the landscape (from medieval ploughing to Roman road building). 

Stand-alone capsules explore interesting aspects of history (like the Highland Clearances or the coming of Christianity), and text boxes provide definitions of jargon or handy references as required (like a glossary of what different field names mean).  
Each chapter culminates in a checklist of key details to look for, other things it might be, and gives details of where to find some of the best examples in Britain.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, British Literature, Outdoors, Natural History, Travel

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 27, 2016

About the author

Mary-Ann Ochota writes about archaeology and anthropology, and you can also find her presenting on TV and radio. She's presented cult show Time Team, has romped round the UK with Clive Anderson on Mystic Britain on Smithsonian Channel, and explored Life After Chernobyl for Discovery.

She's presented radio documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service on subjects as diverse as deep ocean geology, the history of sound recording and dark tourism.

Mary-Ann is a hiking ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council, a loo-minary for the charity Toilet Twinning and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Find her on twitter and instagram @MaryAnnOchota.

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book covering all aspects of the British landscape and its history. My OH gave it to me for Xmas last year and I’ve been dipping into it from time to time. Not a book I’d read from cover to cover but I always find something interesting in it. The photographs and illustrations are very good.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The British landscape as we see it today smothers a whole load of history. But if you look very carefully at the scene in front of you, you can start to see hints of the features that lie just beneath. But what are they? This is where Hidden Histories can help. Ochota has compiled a guide to discovering what the lumps and bumps that dot our countryside really are, so you can tell your cursus from your barrow, standing stones from a rubbing stone and your stretchers from your English bond. For each of the sections, you are provided with lots of details on what to look for, how to make an assessment of just what it is you are looking at and how to determine just how ancient it really is.

The book is packed full of excellent photos as well as artworks, maps and detailed drawings of all sorts of places, buildings, landscapes and features. I particularly liked the way that he has chosen her top five of a specific feature, so you can go and have a look yourself. It is a very good guide for getting you out into the landscape to look at it with a different set of eyes and to discover the history that you probably haven’t noticed before. 3.5 stars

[Ape · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book. It's a shame I'm going to have to take it back to the library. Whenever I'm going somewhere I am one of those people who looks over the OS map in search of random features to explore, so a book like this is like gold. It isn't an exhaustive list and doesn't go into too much detail (just enough) on any one thing. This book takes you through features, both in the countryside, villages and towns, and shows you what you can see. There are lists of the best examples of each feature in the country, and plenty of photographs and illustrations. We're talking everything from stone circles, bridges, field lines, burial mounds, quarries, church features, pubs (didn't realise the pub notion went all the way back to the Romans), farming, common land, roads, signs and milestones, hedges and stone walls, village greens, cottages... and all the history and clues you can find therein. Ok, you get the general idea. I can imagine this would be very useful as an ongoing reference book (I did actually read this cover to cover) for those in the UK who love to explore the world around them.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn’t a book to read logically from cover to cover. Dip into it on whatever takes your fancy and then wander from there. It’s nicely written, beautifully illustrated and has manageably sized articles. I think it a valuable addition to anyone’s bookshelves if you have any interest in your surroundings and want a ready reference to things you see when you’re out walking and driving.

[Mark Bowden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. At first glance this book looks like a (much needed) fresh new beginners' guide to landscape archaeology and history, with lots of colour photographs and clear line drawings. However, closer inspection reveals several issues. The text is written in jaunty style which will appeal to many but which seems rather old-fashioned in a way that I can't quite put my finger on. Some of the photographs prove to be not so good as they appeared at first. More importantly, there are a number of factual errors: Maiden Castle is not the largest hillfort in Europe, it isn't even the largest in England; Danebury is in Hampshire, not Wiltshire; I haven't yet identified the barrow group shown in the aerial photograph on p28 but it isn't Winterbourne Stoke Crossroads; south-east England is curiously missing from the distribution map of hillforts.
The book is strangely organised - hillforts before causewayed enclosures, for instance - and uneven in coverage: churches are dealt with in some detail but stone castles are explicitly excluded; in fact military heritage generally is under-represented; more surprisingly, industrial landscapes and garden archaeology are largely ignored, though they have been popular areas of research in recent decades -perhaps this is why the book feels old-fashioned.
The greatest omission is any form of referencing. There are not even any 'suggestions for further reading', crucial for any book of this nature. There is a short section on online resources which does mention two sets of books, by Pevsner and Simon Jenkins, but no details are given to help the reader to access them; in any case, Simon Jenkins' books are thoroughly unreliable and largely irrelevant. Several first-rate landscape archaeologists and historians are mentioned in the acknowledgements, so why are their books not referenced?

[Derek MEACHER · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contrary to some advice I did read this book from cover to cover! It may be that in tomorrow's world of greater justice, art treasures 'stolen' will be returned where a national heritage has been broken up. Nevertheless here in Great Britain our history, its relics, its testimonies surround us, illustrating our past and opening up avenues of enquiry at almost any moment provided that we keep our eyes open.
This book's most precious contribution is to remind us of the heritage lying before us, starting within this book and going beyond.....

[Alex Boon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and helpful book, beautifully presented. I wish some sections were a little more detailed but I've been left with a great list of places to visit. I only wish it had a summary at the end, perhaps talking a little about the future for the British landscape so that it doesn't just suddenly end after graveyards!

[Johanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reference rather than a read through book. Ideally you want to go out and about with an expert but if you dont have one to hand then this is a good fall back for identifying things that standout in the landscape

[SophieJaneK · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and comprehensive overview of landscape and architectural features. I appreciate it was trying to pick 5 top places for each category in different parts of the UK, but in doing so, it missed many places of note.

[Tom Simpkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great guide to learn more about the landscape and history on your doorstep

[Barbpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating. I’ll have to remember to consult the index before my next visit to the UK. I don’t want to miss any of these cool landmarks.

[George Foord · Rating 5 out of 5]

A easy book to read and very informative.

[Suzanne Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed, easy to engage with and informative. I really enjoyed this book as it just makes you want to get out and closely explore our landscape.

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely book, very informative. For me it could have done with some more pictures, especially with the lists of top 5 to see.

[Daniel Salinas Córdova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated with photographs, drawings and diagrams, this field guide is perfect to better understand the cultural landscape of Britain, helping you identify tumulus, hillforts, standing stones, ancient paths and roads, and the different elements of vernacular architecture. It really makes you want to go out there and wander across fields, woods, moors and tiny villages!

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book with scores of essays on evidence of the past all around us in the countryside. I would usually find such a book superficial and unsatisfactory, but this is an author who really knows her stuff, and how to write about it.