Contents
Page
1. Introduction
3
2. Using a Checklist
4
3. Setting Coursework Tasks
5
4. Using the Visible Remains
6
4.1 Interpreting Historical Representations
7
4.2 Wharram Percy From The Air
7
4.3 The Church of St Martin and the Graveyard
8
4.3.i. Some Background Information
8
4.3.ii. The Tower
9
4.3.iii. A Window and Gargoyles
10
4.3.iv. Investigating Changes to the Church
Walls
11
4.3.v. Comparing Two Windows
12
4.3.vi. Masons’ Marks
13
4.3.vii. Changes in the Building
14
4.3.viii. The Base of the Font
15
4.3.ix. Questioning a Modern Reconstruction
16
4.4 Further Ideas for Interpreting Evidence
17
4.4.ii. Hypothesis 1.
18
4.4.ii. Hypothesis 2.
19
4.4.iii. Hypothesis 3.
21
4.4.iv. Hypothesis 4.
22
4.4.v. Hypothesis 5.
23
24
5. Appendix: Assessment Objectives
5.1 Setting Coursework Tasks on AO 6.1
24
5.2 Setting Coursework Tasks on AO 6.2 and 6.3
24
Written by Maxine Squire and Andrew Moore
Photographs by Chris Brown
© East Riding of Yorkshire School Improvement Service, 2005
The Wharram Percy site is owned and managed by English Heritage.
Website: www.english-heritage.org.uk
‘It is our job at English Heritage to make sure that the historic environment of England is properly maintained and
cared for. By employing some of the country's very best architects, archaeologists and historians, we aim to help
people understand and appreciate why the historic buildings and landscapes around them matter. From the first
traces of civilisation, to the most significant buildings of the 20th century, we want every important historic site to get
the care and attention it deserves.’
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1. Introduction
This guide is written for learners and teachers who are preparing coursework for assessment on GCSE
specifications that follow the Schools’ History Project in the UK.
The History Around Us section of your GCSE course allows you to study history through relating the
visible remains and features of an historical site to its wider historical context. This will involve you in
visiting a site and engaging in some “hands on” history as you collect and interpret evidence in order to
test the hypothesis that has been set through your coursework question(s). The important thing to
remember is that the coursework asks you to engage in a personal investigation of the site and your
school will arrange for you to take part in a visit to the site that has been chosen for your coursework
however, it is always very useful to try and visit the site yourself as this will allow you extra time to
investigate the site thoroughly. This coursework guidance will use a study of the deserted medieval
village at Wharram Percy in the East Riding of Yorkshire as an example of how you could develop and
present your History Around Us coursework.
Good coursework will clearly show how the evidence you have collected from the site proves or
disproves the original hypothesis. For instance, you may have been asked to investigate whether
Wharram Percy represents a typical medieval village. In order to reach your conclusion, you will have to
use evidence about the layout of the village and its buildings and check it against other medieval villages.
This would involve you in using a range of evidence including

maps,

village plans,

photographs of the site and

reconstructed drawings
You will use these to conduct a full investigation of the site.
When you are on the site you should

ask your teacher and other students as many questions as possible and

look for evidence of changes and evidence of features that may be atypical (not typical) of, or unique
to, that particular site.
Before you visit the site you should have spent some time studying the historical context of the site. For
example, if you are visiting a medieval castle you will have spent some time studying the development of
castles in Britain between 1066 and 1550. During your visit you will be looking for evidence of how your
particular castle does or does not reflect that general history of development.
You may also reflect on why it is or is not typical of what you have found elsewhere. Does it follow the
rule or is it the exception that is said to prove the rule? This means that a good rule will both be true
generally, but will have a small number of exceptions – which often illustrate some other rule.
It is important that when you are taking photographs or making sketches that you keep in mind the
coursework task you will do later. This may help you collect relevant evidence that you can then use in
your answers to the coursework tasks. But it is better to collect more evidence than you need, and select
from it later, than find you do not have what you need to make a detailed study.
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2. Using a Checklist
You could begin by gathering together a checklist of the typical features of the type of site/building you
are investigating. You can use this to cross-reference these general features with the evidence from the
site you are visiting. For example if you coursework involved a study of how far Wharram Percy
represents a typical medieval village you could construct a chart similar to the one shown below:
A typical medieval village has
Evidence from Wharram Percy

A mill to grind corn and other
cereals grown in the village

Wharram Percy had a water mill until the 13th century. You
could consider how typical water mills were in medieval
villages.

A stone church with a
graveyard

A small stone church was built in the village in Saxon times.
The church was rebuilt in 12th century and it was made much
larger, as the builders added a west tower and an apse at the
east end. During the 15th century the builders made the
chancel longer and added a south aisle chapel. The building
was re-roofed and the top of the tower was changed. The
church fell into disuse by the early 20th century. Part of the
tower collapsed and the roof was removed in 1959. The
graveyard was in use from 8th to the early 20th century.

A stone manor house

Wharram Percy had two manor houses, the North and South
Manor. The South Manor buildings were dismantled in the 13th
century.

Open fields

Open fields surround Wharram Percy, and there is evidence of
strip farming having taken place.

Peasant houses made of mud,
wood and thatch,
approximately 10m x 5m in
size.

Foundations of the houses were made from chalk rubble
quarried from within the village area. The walls and roof were
constructed from curved tree trunks (the peasant houses were
cruck framed houses). The walls were constructed from wattle
and daub. Peasant houses had a thatched roof. Houses
varied in size. Each house had a garden.

A pond

Wharram Percy has a pond that was created by damming the
beck. During the 13th century it was stocked with fish.
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3. Setting Coursework Tasks
A study of Wharram Percy would allow your teacher to set tasks that fulfil many of the areas suggested in
the coursework guidance provided by the exam boards. A study of Wharram Percy would allow you to
study the site in the context of one of the following suggested areas:

Prehistoric Britain – it would be possible to look at the evidence of early settlement at the site in
the context of prehistoric Britain (the time before written records began). This could lead you to
investigate how typical Wharram Percy is as evidence of a prehistoric settlement.

Roman Britain – there were at least five farms in the valley in the Roman period and fragments of
window glass found on the North Manor site suggest that there was a Roman villa nearby. The
aerial photographs of the area also show the remains of a 1st century AD farm.

Castles and fortified houses, 1066-1550 – the coursework tasks could focus on an investigation
of the North and South Manor houses in the context of how typical they are as examples of
fortified medieval manor houses.

Church buildings and furnishing, 1066-1550 – St Martin’s Church and its graveyard have
undergone extensive investigation and would provide a useful focus for coursework tasks as the
site provides evidence of change between 1000 and 1910.

Studies in the making of the rural landscape – a study of Wharram Percy would provide evidence
of the changes that occurred as a result of the shift from arable to sheep farming in the late
middle ages. The site has a long history of agricultural occupation from 700 BC to the 20 th
century and it would be possible to investigate how far these changes reflect the pattern of
agricultural development in the Wolds and in Britain as a whole.

Aspects of the historical development of the locality – a study of Wharram Percy in the context of
the development of settlement in the Wolds. It would be possible to consider why Wharram Percy
was abandoned, when the neighbouring village of Thixendale continues to survive.
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4. Using the Visible Remains
The purpose of this piece of coursework is to allow you to take part in a personal investigation of the
visible remains of an historical site. The coursework task does not require you to write a description of
the site. If you just write a description of the site it will be impossible for you to gain grade C or above.
Grade A* to C coursework involves students in testing a hypothesis or an investigation of historical
interpretations or representations of the site. You need to remember this when you are investigating
the site; you will be using the visible remains to prove or disprove a hypothesis or interpretation or
representation of the site.
4.1 Interpreting Historical Representations
You could, for example, be asked to investigate the accuracy or reliability of an historical representation
of the site by using the evidence from the visible remains. Many sites have aspects of reconstruction or
reconstruction drawings exist of the site. You could be asked to test the accuracy or reliability of these
reconstructions or drawings, like the pictures of Wharram Percy shown below. An artist produced both
these drawings in the 20th century. They show images of the church and North Manor house at Wharram
Percy. You would need to look for evidence on the site to test the accuracy and reliability of these
images. To conduct a successful investigation it is a good idea to think of a list of questions you would
like to ask about the pictures. This can help you to focus your investigation when you visit the site.
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
How does the artist know about the
size and shape of the peasant houses
and the church?

What stage of the history of the village
do the drawings represent?

Which parts of the drawings have come
from the artist’s imagination?

Where are the millpond and the stream
in relation to the church?
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4.2 Wharram Percy From The Air
When you visit the site, you may find it hard to see the remains of the old village around you. The site
shows some of these features more clearly from the air. You are not likely to have this view, but you can
use the aerial photograph below to look for evidence of the mediaeval settlement, and later
developments on the site.
Remains of the track
passing the pond and
the church
St Martin’s Church
Remains of the open
fields
Remains of the
peasant houses
The cottages from the
18th century
The mill-pond and
water mill
Remains of the tracks that
ran through the village
Error!
Your study will need to include descriptions and analyses of specific areas of the village to prove or
disprove your theories and this will involve you in being able to interpret the visible remains of the village
and place them in their historical context. One way to do this will be through including well-annotated
photographs and drawings of parts of the village. For example you may want to use photographs of the
church to record the changes that took place in the village between the 10th and 16th centuries.
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4.3 The Church of St Martin and the Graveyard
4.3.i. Some Background Information
The Church of St Martin at Wharram Percy was the first complete excavation of a medieval church in
Britain. The excavations took place between 1962 and 1974 and the archaeologists were able to build a
detailed picture of the changes in shape and size that took place at St Martin’s over a period of 1000
years.
The Church played a very important part in the lives of medieval people. This importance is shown by the
fact that churches were built in stone when many other medieval buildings were built in wood. The church
was added to and enlarged between the 10 th and 16th centuries. This also reflects its importance to the
villagers at Wharram Percy. Churches played a central role in medieval villages: they were the main
meeting place in the village, fairs and markets were held in the churchyards and the priest often settled
legal disputes and managed wills. Medieval people were proud of their churches and devoted great care
and attention to their upkeep and improvement. Villagers would often leave precious objects and small
sums of money in their wills to the church in order to gain the priest’s prayers for themselves and their
ancestors to ease their way through purgatory and ensure their places in heaven.
The archaeologists’ excavations showed that the first stone church was built on the site in the 11 th
century. However, they believe that the church site was a holy place long before Christianity came to
Britain. Before the Romans came to Britain the Celts had worshipped water and there is evidence that
there were farms in the valley during the Bronze and Iron Ages. It is possible that the Bronze and Iron
Age farmers worshipped the springs that run through the valley and the archaeologists have found the
remains of a Celtic burial mound in the graveyard.
The graveyard has been excavated and nearly 1000 skeletons of men, women and children have been
dug up and examined. Most of these skeletons are the remains of farmers who lived at Wharram Percy
between 1000 AD and 1500 AD. Most of these bodies had no grave markers; in the past only the very
rich had grave memorials. The gravestones that remain in the graveyard are from the 18th and 19th
centuries and mark the graves of wealthy tenant farmers who lived in the valley.
The evidence of the skeletons has provided very useful information about the people who lived at
Wharram Percy. The skeletons tell scientists of the diseases the people suffered from and the length of
their lives.
Over half the skeletons excavated are of babies and young children. This suggests that during the period
when the cemetery was in use, fewer than half of the village’s people survived to be adults. (It is possible
that more survived, but were buried somewhere else – which could happen if they left the village to live
and work elsewhere.)
If all the people born in Wharram Percy are also buried there (which is very likely), then we can say that
only about half of them reached the age of 18. Many of the bones show evidence of arrested growth; this
may have resulted from starvation when crops failed. The bones also show that the average 14 th century
15 year old at Wharram Percy reached the height of an average 10 year old of today. One possible
explanation is that the frequent food shortages caused young people not to grow to their full potential.
We could check this by looking at skeletons of more wealthy people, to see if they grew taller on
average.
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4.3.ii. The Tower
This is a perpendicular
Gothic window. This
design was used
between 1375 AD and
1530 AD.
The tower was rebuilt
and made higher in 15th
century.
This was the roofline of
the 12th century tower.
This shows evidence of
change to the site.
The remains of arcading
built in the 15th century.
This is a rounded
Romanesque arch. The
Romanesque style was
popular between the 11th
and the 12th centuries;
this suggests that this
part of the tower was
built before 1200 AD.
The photograph above shows the likely appearance of the tower by 1450. During the 15 th century the
whole building was re-roofed and the top stage of the tower was rebuilt in its present form. Of course, in
the 15th Century, anyone standing in the position from which, centuries later, this photograph was taken
would not see the whole tower – as the church ceiling would be in the way…
Questions or prompts for further discussion

Why was the tower rebuilt?

Is the design of the tower typical of the 15th century?

Why was arcading built in the early 15th century only to be demolished by the late 15th/early 16th
century?

Was the church changed as a result of the English Reformation in the 16th century?

Why did people continue to make changes to the church after the village was deserted?
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4.3.iii. A Window and Gargoyles
This is a decorated Gothic
window. This style of
window was popular
between 1275 AD and
1375 AD.
These are gargoyles. They
often represented local
people or famous people of
the time e.g. kings or lords.
Some historians have also suggested that gargoyles represent a link with the pagan traditions people
had before the Christian era as the head often became an object to be worshipped or feared. Many early
religions involved the production of the representations of heads to represent or ward off spirits.
A popular gargoyle that can be found on many churches is the Green Man and this links back to an
ancient pagan tradition that was so powerful that it survived the growth in Christian belief. It is always
interesting to look for carvings of the Green Man when you are investigating churches. More information
about the Green Man and gargoyles can be found at:

http://www.mikeharding.co.uk/greenman
Questions or prompts for further discussion

It would be interesting to try and identify who is being represented in the gargoyles this may tell
you something about the villages attitudes towards local lords and figures from the national
government e.g. the king and his ministers.
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4.3.iv. Investigating Changes to the Church Walls
Type your text here.
Type your text here.
Type your text here.
St Martin’s underwent a number of changes during its 900 year history and many of this can been seen
when making a careful examination of the interior walls. The photograph above shows some of the
changes that were made when the interior was remodelled in the 15 th and 16th centuries. The picture
above shows evidence of the arcading that was added to the church in the 15 th century and the blocking
of the arcades that took place in the 16th century.
Was this change typical of what was happening in English churches during the 16 th century or were the
changes made for purely local reasons?
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4.3.v. Comparing Two Windows
This picture would provide you with useful evidence about some of the changes that have taken place at
the church between 1000 and 1500. You can clearly see differences in the shape and design of the
windows and this will help you to describe and date the changes that have taken place.
The photograph below clearly shows two different styles of window and the arches above them. The style
of the arches will help you to date when the changes were made. Careful examination of the stonework
also shows that changes have been made to shape, size and height of the windows. You can find more
information about Medieval Churches and Architecture at

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Medieval_art_and_architecture.htm
Tracery
This is a decorated
Gothic window
(1275 AD- 1375
AD). These windows
were wider than the
Norman windows,
and were
ornamented.
The original window was higher and narrower and had a
more rounded shape at the top. Narrow windows with
rounded arches were a feature of the Romanesque period.
This is a Norman Gothic window (1066-1200 AD).
The decoration of windows was simple and similar
to the Romanesque style.
The newer decorated window (right) is beneath/inside a more rounded Romanesque style of arch. This
suggests that when the villages made changes to their church between the 13 th and the 15th century they
were aware of changes of fashion in church architecture and wanted to modernise their church in
response to architectural trends.
At the time that the changes to the windows were made the church was undergoing a major period
development that led to the church’s being extended and the tower heightened. The strange thing is that
at the time that these major changes were taking place the population of the village was declining. This
shows that the church was not only important to the people who lived at Wharram Percy but to people in
the surrounding villages for example Thixendale, which did not have a church and people continued to
use St Martin’s Church long after the last four families were evicted from Wharram Percy in 1500.
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This perhaps reflects the site’s importance as a place of worship and local people may have believed that
the site was holy. Certainly archaeological evidence suggests that the site occupied by St Martin’s
Church and Graveyard had been a place of worship in the pre-Christian era and it was common for
churches to be built on ancient sacred sites, as the local people often believed that these areas were
special.
4.3.vi. Masons’ Marks
Masons made these marks on the
church wall. The stonemasons
who shaped the stones often left
evidence about themselves by
leaving marks on the stones. Most
of them could not write and the
marks were their way of leaving
their signatures on the stones.
Questions or prompts for further discussion

What do the marks suggest about the masons who made them?

You could look for further evidence of mason’s marks on the site. What would this evidence
suggest to you about the construction of the church at Wharram Percy?
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4.3.vii. Changes in the Building
Here you can see clearly some
changes in the building of the
church. The stone is different in
each section. The original church
has been made wider and longer,
these changes took place
between 1200 AD and 1500 AD.
Questions or prompts for further discussion

Why was the church been made wider and longer?

Was there a growth in the population or wealth of the village?

Were the changes made in response to changes in architectural fashions?

Was the local lord or landowner responsible for the changes or did the villagers play a part in
expanding their church?

Why were the changes made at that particular stage in the history of the village?

What do the changes to the church suggest to us about the importance of churches in medieval
village society?
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4.3.viii. The Base of the Font
This is the base of the font. The
font was a container, generally
made of stone, which contained
the holy water for baptism. It
was usually located near the
west door. The font from St
Martin’s dates from AD 1200. It
is now kept in the church of St
Michael and All Angels, Hull.
The last baptism at Wharram
Percy took place in 1946.
Questions or prompts for further discussion

Why were baptisms still being held in the church long after the village was deserted?

What do the physical remains of the font suggest about its size and shape?

Is the location of the font near the west door a typical feature of medieval churches?
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4.3.ix. Questioning a Modern Reconstruction
Consider whether the picture below is an accurate reconstruction of St Martin’s Church and graveyard.
After studying the photographic evidence you could question the accuracy of this drawing. Among other
things, you need to consider what period in the history of the church and the village this drawing is
designed to represent.
This is an apse – the domed or
vaulted east end of the church.
In Britain it was more usual to
have a square rather than a
rounded apse. Rounded apses
were more popular on the
continent. What does this
suggest to you about the people
who designed and built St
Martin’s Church?
Questions or prompts for further discussion

Look carefully at the tower of the church, how does the tower in the reconstruction differ from the
remains of the tower in the photographic evidence?

Do the differences mean that the artist’s drawing is an unreliable source of evidence about
Wharram Percy?

What questions would you have to ask to test the reliability/usefulness of the artist’s
reconstruction?

An interesting point to consider is the church’s location in the village. The church is located away
from the peasants’ houses and is at the opposite end of the village from the manor houses. Was
this typical of medieval villages or is this feature unique to Wharram Percy?
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4.4 Further Ideas for Interpreting Evidence
Your coursework may well focus on investigating the reasons why the village was deserted. This will
require you to use evidence from the site and other sources of evidence to substantiate your theories.
For example the changes made to the church during the 15 th century could be used to support the theory
that the village was not deserted as a result of the effects of the Black Death in 1349. This used to be a
popular theory used to explain the desertion of many medieval villages.
Why was Wharram Percy abandoned? Hypotheses and evidence trails.
Follow the evidence trails to reach a substantiated conclusion about why the village was deserted.
Remember you must use evidence from the site and from the historical records to support your theories.
This guide contains examples of historical evidence that may support or challenge the hypotheses. For
the first few there are several examples. For the later hypotheses, there are fewer. This does not mean
that there is no historical evidence, but you may have to look further for it.
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4.4.i. Hypothesis 1: The village was abandoned because of the Black Death (bubonic plague) in
1349.
Evidence for
The population of the village fell.
The Lord of the Manor, William de Heslerton, died
of the plague in 1349.
The village priest died of the plague in 1349.
Evidence against
By 1368 the number of houses in the village had
increased to 30.
By 1368 a corn barn, common oven and kiln were
in use.
The water mill was no longer being used (this
might be a precaution against infection).
Historical evidence about the effects of the Black Death on Britain
Chronicle of Louth Park Abbey, written in 14th century
In the year of our Lord, 1349, the hand of God struck the human race a deadly blow. This scourge in
many places left less than one fifth of the population surviving. It struck terror into the hearts of the whole
world. So great a pestilence had never been seen or heard or written of before this time. So huge a
number was not even swept away by the flood that happened in the days of Noah.
Court Roll of the Manor of Sladen, Buckinghamshire, 1349
A jury in August 1349 declared under oath that the mill was of no value, for not only was the miller dead,
but there were no tenants who wanted to grind any corn. The total rents of the freemen and serfs in the
previous year (1348) amounted to £12. In this year (1349) nothing had been collected and the land was
not being farmed.
Other evidence
--Put your own examples of evidence in this box—
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4.4.ii. Hypothesis 2: The village was abandoned in the 16 th century because sheep farming
became more profitable than arable farming.
Evidence for
Evidence against
The Hilton family became owners of the village in 1403 and
began to convert the land from arable to sheep farms.
In 1500 four families were evicted from Wharram Percy and
their houses were pulled down.
Many of the objects found at Wharram Percy by
archaeologists are made from sheep and cattle bones.
A farm remained in the valley in 1573.
The church and graveyard continued to be
used.
In the late 1700s a new farmhouse and
outbuildings were built and new farming
methods introduced.
By 1500 England’s most important export was woollen
cloth. This is symbolised by the fact that the Lord
Chancellor continues to sit on a woolsack in the House of
Lords.
Evidence about the importance of sheep farming in late medieval and early modern Britain
A school history textbook published in 1992
More of the land in the village was used for animal farming. Sheep farming became very popular in many
areas. Fields that had once grown wheat or barley were often turned into grazing for sheep.
From Cardinal Wolsey’s Commission of Inquiry, 1517
He held this land on 2nd March 1489 when those messages were laid waste and thrown down, and lands
formerly used for arable he turned over to pasture for animals, so three ploughs are now out of use there,
and 18 people who used to work on that land and earn their living there and who dwelled in the houses
have gone away to take to the roads in their misery, and seek their bread elsewhere and so are led into
idleness.
An Act of 1489 made it an offence to convert open fields in to pasture if it involved the removal of
smallholdings over 20 acres.
Great inconveniences daily do increase by desolation and pulling down and wilful waste of houses and
towns within the King’s laying to pasture lands which have been customarily used in tillage. Idleness, the
cause and beginning of all mischiefs, daily increases where in some towns 200 persons were occupied
and lived by their lawful labours, now they are occupied by 2 or 3 herdsmen.
From Sir Thomas More’s book ‘Utopia’ written in 1516
There are noblemen, gentlemen, and even some abbots, though otherwise holy men, who are not
satisfied with the annual revenues and profits that their predecessors used to derive from their estates.
They are not content to do no good to their country; they must do it positive harm. They leave no ground
to be tilled; they enclose every bit of land for pasture; they pull down houses and destroy towns, leaving
only a church to pen the sheep in. And, as if enough English land were not wasted on ranges and
preserves of game, those good fellows turn all human habitations and all cultivated land into a
wilderness… A single shepherd or herdsman is sufficient for grazing livestock on that land for whose
cultivation many hands once required to make it raise crops.
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Other evidence
--Put your own examples of evidence in this box—
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4.4.iii. Hypothesis 3: The village was abandoned because the villagers were afraid of being
attacked by Scottish raiders in the 14th century.
Evidence for
14th
Evidence against
In the
century Scottish raiders destroyed a
number of Northern villages.
Wharram Percy was not attacked when Thixendale
was burned.
Scottish raiders burnt Thixendale, a neighbouring
village to Wharram Percy.
People continued to live in the village after the 14th
Century.
Evidence about Border Raiders
Statement by Maxine Squire, UK teacher of history, 2005
Many families who lived on the borders between England and Scotland took to reiving. This means that
they began to organise raids into England to steal cattle and crops to feed themselves and their families.
Scottish reivers attacked villages as far south as Yorkshire. They struck at night when they had good
cover and tended to go on raids between August and February after the harvest had been collected in,
and during the time when the courts were in recess. This meant they had a good chance of escaping
detection and punishment.
Other evidence
--Put your own examples of evidence in this box—
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4.4.iv. Hypothesis 4: The village was abandoned because there was a shortage of water on the
site.
Evidence for
Water is a rare commodity on the Wolds:
streams often flow underground beneath the
chalk.
Dams had to be built at Wharram Percy from
the 9th Century AD. This created a pond
where people collected water for cooking and
drinking and watered their animals. The
water was also used to power the mill.
By the 12th or 13th century the water mill had
to be abandoned.
Evidence against
The Beck at Wharram Percy is fed by underground
springs.
The pond is still at Wharram Percy, filled with water.
Farmers regularly repaired the dam until the 19th century.
Water from the springs was still being used to supply
other settlements until 1935.
During the construction of the Burdale railway tunnel in
the 1850s a pumping engine had to be set up to pump
water from underground to allow the tunnel to be built.
You can use an Ordnance Survey Map to find more evidence about the availability of water at Wharram
Percy, and the possibilities of storing it.
In the past, many people and animals used the pond. This does not happen today, so the reduced use
may affect the volume of water that you will see there on a visit.
Other evidence
--Put your own examples of evidence in this box—
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4.4.v. Hypothesis 5: The village was abandoned because local landowners weren’t interested in
the village.
Evidence for
Evidence against
From 1573 to 1636 the village was owned by
a series of absentee landlords.
In 1775 Sir Charles Buck bought the land and began to
make improvements.
The land began to be leased to tenant
farmers.
The church and its graveyard continued to be used until
1910.
Evidence about landowners
From Christopher Hill, The English Revolution, 1940
The northern and western parts of England remained relatively untouched by the new commercial spirit
radiating from London and the ports; but in the south and east many landowners were beginning to
exploit their estates in a new way. Both in the Middle Ages and in the seventeenth century the first
importance of an estate was that it supplied a landowner (through his control over the labour of others)
with the means of livelihood. But over and above this, the large estates had in the Middle Ages
maintained with their surplus agricultural produce a body of retainers who would on occasion act as
soldiers, and so were the basis of the political power of the feudal lords.
Now, with the development of the capitalist mode of production within the structure of feudalism, many
landowners began either to market that portion of the produce of their estates, which was not consumed
by their families, or to lease their lands to a farmer who would produce for the market. So landowners
came to regard their estates in a new light: as a source of money profit, of profits that were elastic and
could be increased. Rents used to be fixed at levels maintained so long that they came to be regarded as
“customary,” as having existed “from time immemorial”; so did the many extortionate legal charges which
feudal landowners extracted from the peasantry; but now they were being “racked up” to fantastically
high levels.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/hill-christopher/english-revolution/
Other evidence
--Put your own examples of evidence in this box—
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5. Appendix: Assessment Objectives
Use this guidance to make sure you are doing what the examiners require you to do.
This study of history from its visible remains affords opportunities for candidates to:
i.
describe, analyse and explain a chosen historical site (AO 6.1) ;
ii.
relate a chosen site to its broader historical context (AO 6.1) ;
iii.
use sources to investigate the historical site and/or its context, appreciating that the visible
remains of the past are themselves as important a resource for our understanding of history as
documentary sources (AO 6.3).
5.1 Setting Coursework Tasks on AO 6.1: Relating an historical site to its
historical context.
The candidate must place the chosen site clearly in its historical context in order to show the part played
by the site in that context.
The ability to explain features of the site, which are typical or atypical of the broader historical context, is
a particularly useful assessment activity enabling candidates of all abilities to have access to the highest
levels of achievement. Presenting candidates with a hypothesis or question, which allows a personal
analysis of an issue, is likely to contribute to a successful coursework assignment.
5.2 Setting Coursework Tasks on AO 6.2 and 6.3: Using sources to
investigate an historical site.
It should be appreciated that this coursework assignment is not a site description. The site must allow
personal investigation and other forms of evidence must be available. The tasks set must involve an
evaluation of the evidence provided by the site and the other sources, e.g. by the candidate assessing
the reliability, usefulness and limitations of the evidence.
Tasks could take the form of a hypothesis for the candidate to check and verify with supporting evidence,
or reject after testing for omissions and deficiencies in the evidence. Such a task could be planned and
executed as part of a longer programme of work. A site description could be carried out beforehand but
would not necessarily form part of the GCSE assessment itself.
An historical site will readily lend itself to work on historical interpretations and representations of some of
the following are available: guidebooks, tape/slide presentations, model re-constructions engravings,
paintings, etc. It may also be possible to use photographs, maps and plans, memoirs, diaries, census
returns etc., as sources of evidence about the site. The list of possible sources and interpretations given
for the Modern World Study may also be relevant for History Around Us.
Information from a site can be recorded very successfully in the form of maps, plans, annotated
diagrams, photographs and sketches. If such techniques are used, they should be clearly integrated into
the assignment not merely appended to it. The most effective sketches, for example, are those that pick
out particular features of a building to illustrate a particular point.
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