Christopher Hadley - Hollow Places: An Unusual History of Land and Legend

Contents

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

www.harpercollins.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Canada

Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower

22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor

Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada

www.harpercollins.ca

India

HarperCollins India

A 75, Sector 57

Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201 301, India

www.harpercollins.co.in

New Zealand

HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand

Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive

Rosedale 0632

Auckland, New Zealand

www.harpercollins.co.nz

United Kingdom

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF, UK

www.harpercollins.co.uk

United States

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

195 Broadway

New York, NY 10007

www.harpercollins.com

This book would have been impossible to write without the encouragement and kindness of many friends, and no end of complete strangers who responded to my requests for help and advice.

I started to take an interest in Shonks as long ago as 2007, and that year I spoke at one of the Folklore Societys legendary weekends about the yew tree and its felling. That talk formed the kernel of what would eventually become the first act or part of this book. Thanks to Jeremy Harte for accepting my offer of a talk and later for sending me copies of some of the geomantic writings about Shonks. Jacqueline Simpson was there that weekend in Sussex and suggested I write something, although I think she meant an article and not an entire book. Her work on dragons was an inspiration and some of the wisdom she shared with me that weekend has found its way into this book.

Another event from around the same time helped to motivate my initial research. At the annual meeting of the British Association of Local History, I listened to the Cambridge historian Evelyn Lord say that she was pleased with the amount of local history being written but regretted that much of it was too narrow, lacked ambition, didnt look beyond the village bounds to find a wider context, or consider how a local interest might bear on bigger themes. At least thats what I took from it. I doubt she had any intention to encourage the writing of a book like this, but it seemed like a challenge worth accepting.

Nick Connell at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies encouraged and advised me from the outset. Not only did he help me to navigate my way around the papers of the Herts antiquaries he loves and knows so well, but every now and again I would receive an email from Nick with some new snippet he had spotted about Shonks. He was my go-to with Herts questions: Hello Nick, any idea who the photographer W.W.E. was? Or Do you know anyone whos an expert on Barkway? In the fallow years when much of this book lay in the proverbial bottom drawer, Nick never stopped nagging me to get it finished. His colleagues at HALS have aided me on many occasions too, helping me to read undecipherable handwriting, suggesting other lines of research, pointing me to the standard text on one obscure topic or another, or reminding me for the umpteenth time how to find a particular class of record.

My research took me further afield and I am grateful also to a number of institutions that have granted me access and/or assistance: the British Library, the National Archives, the Bodleian Library, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, the Mills Archive, the Society of Antiquaries, Lambeth Palace Library, Guildhall Library, London Metropolitan Library, Bishops Stortford Library. More specific gratitude is in the notes.

No end of experts also feature in the notes. It constantly amazes me how generous busy people are with their expertise and time to someone who emails them out of the blue about Latin prosody, thirteenth-century travel, medieval iconography and so on. Special mention must go to Paul Brand. He wont know it, but his kindness and tact with someone wandering lost among the intricacies of medieval law spurred me on to finish this book. Hilary Wheeler at the Church Monuments Society responded to my enquiries and offered to put me in touch with Brian and Moira Gittos, who despite being busy with their own book on medieval effigies, helped me move beyond a merely impressionistic account of cross-slabs, patiently answering my questions and sending me extensive reading lists and suggestions, including an itinerary for my visit to the Isle of Purbeck. There, I am indebted to Trev and Mark Haysom who shared their unrivalled knowledge of Purbeck marble quarrying and ensured that I made the most of the week I spent in Dorset.

Closer to home, thanks are due to Ted and Lizzie Barclay, who welcomed me into Beeches several times to talk about Shonks and allowed me to tramp over their land on innumerable occasions. Thanks also to my friends and local historians Steve and Linda Bratt; they have always lent a willing ear to my musings and when I could only vaguely recall seeing or reading something that suddenly seemed vital for a particular chapter, Steve and Linda would usually know what I was after.

I must add, as is customary, but is particularly important in a book like this where I stray into so many areas of knowledge, that all the errors are mine.

My in-laws Rob and Wendy Mitten, my friends Ben Oliver, James and Suzy Roberts, Egbert and Penny Charlish-Jackson have always been there for me. Chris and Hannah Hines have supported me more than they know. Some years ago now, in a case of completely mistaken identity, David Burton accidentally resurrected my journalism career, continued to champion my writing and sent me on some cracking assignments. Thanks to all of you.

I am minded to extend my thanks much further back than the first time I wrote the name Piers Shonks in my notebook, because I was blessed with many amazing teachers at Christ Church Primary School and the Friary School, Lichfield. They gifted me a lifelong curiosity with almost everything and I am certain I would not have been a writer if it wasnt for John Burton, Jane Barker, N. T. M. and Jan Wilkowski (who will have no idea why, but it involves being set lines for messing around in art lessons).

To my wonder and delight, my extraordinary editor Arabella Pike shared my vision for this book, profoundly helped me shape it and re-ignited my self-belief. I want to embrace my agent David Godwin every time I see him as he embraced me and this project and made all the difference. To the ever patient Iain Hunt and Jo Thompson, and everyone else at DGA and William Collins who have helped make this book, thank you. I was told that Joe McLaren was a genius when he was asked to come up with a concept for the cover and that wasnt wrong; his eagerness to engage with my words was so heartening and has had amazing results.

My extraordinary friend, my dearest friend, the talented photographer and author Dominick Tyler has been there for me in so many ways over the years. No one is a better listener or wiser counsellor.