Matthew Thomas
Current research interests include the cultural biography of the Dulcitone tuning-fork piano, the application of photogrammetry to the recovery of lost heritage, the use of digital recording methods to enhance interpretation, and stumbling across the odd lost medieval castle.
I previously toured the world as a DJ and produced records for much of my life, lending my sonic talents to recordings by U2, The Killers, Jamiroquai, UNKLE & Thom Yorke amongst others.
I previously toured the world as a DJ and produced records for much of my life, lending my sonic talents to recordings by U2, The Killers, Jamiroquai, UNKLE & Thom Yorke amongst others.
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In December 2015, Matthew Thomas, a first year undergraduate on the Bachelor of Arts degree programme in Archaeology at the University of Chester, identified what appears to have been a mound and related earthworks on the 1875 First Edition OS map in Poulton, west Cheshire (NGR SJ4033 5904). The mound is no longer extant; its disappearance is probably due to the creation of Poulton Airfield during the Second World War, now disused. The mound was positioned just west of the River Dee, and immediately south of the existing Pulford Approach road running between the Grosvenor estate lands at Pulford and at Eaton.
This paper provides the first known recorded mention and interpretation of the Poulton mound. Cartographic evidence indicates that the mound was positioned within the boundaries of medieval Cheshire, although this observation is not in itself sufficient to conclude that the mound must have existed during the Middle Ages. However, following joint research by these authors into the Poulton mound and its contextual historical and archaeological landscape, this paper concludes that it is highly probable that a ‘new’ castle has been discovered for medieval Cheshire.
In 1314, it was recorded in the Plea Rolls of the Chester County Court that Thomas Tuchet had a castle, park and a ‘Hyresoun’ in Tattenhall, Cheshire (‘herison’: spiked palisade/fencing around a fortification). Believed to be the only reference of any kind to a medieval castle existing at Tattenhall, this also appears to be the only known mention of a herison in the medieval Anglo-Welsh border county of Cheshire. In the absence of archaeological or any other evidence to confirm a castle build at Tattenhall, this paper considers the possible contemporary meanings of what we now translate as ‘castle’ and ‘herison’. The paper also explores the potentiality that by the fourteenth century, the documentary mention of these two words in the same phrase was by then more formulaic in stylistic terms, and referred more to a notional or archaic duty required of the lord of the manor’s tenants, and less to the herison of a fortified building in strictly physical terms. Because of its seemingly rare documentary mention generally, this paper focuses predominantly on the intended contemporary meaning of the word ‘herison’. In doing so, it provides the first in-depth research, analysis and interpretation of the multi-period (inter)national use of the term. Although conclusions are by necessity theoretical, this paper also provides an important contribution to what has been a small body of ‘herison’ and associated ‘castle’ evidence to date.
Papers
In December 2015, Matthew Thomas, a first year undergraduate on the Bachelor of Arts degree programme in Archaeology at the University of Chester, identified what appears to have been a mound and related earthworks on the 1875 First Edition OS map in Poulton, west Cheshire (NGR SJ4033 5904). The mound is no longer extant; its disappearance is probably due to the creation of Poulton Airfield during the Second World War, now disused. The mound was positioned just west of the River Dee, and immediately south of the existing Pulford Approach road running between the Grosvenor estate lands at Pulford and at Eaton.
This paper provides the first known recorded mention and interpretation of the Poulton mound. Cartographic evidence indicates that the mound was positioned within the boundaries of medieval Cheshire, although this observation is not in itself sufficient to conclude that the mound must have existed during the Middle Ages. However, following joint research by these authors into the Poulton mound and its contextual historical and archaeological landscape, this paper concludes that it is highly probable that a ‘new’ castle has been discovered for medieval Cheshire.
In 1314, it was recorded in the Plea Rolls of the Chester County Court that Thomas Tuchet had a castle, park and a ‘Hyresoun’ in Tattenhall, Cheshire (‘herison’: spiked palisade/fencing around a fortification). Believed to be the only reference of any kind to a medieval castle existing at Tattenhall, this also appears to be the only known mention of a herison in the medieval Anglo-Welsh border county of Cheshire. In the absence of archaeological or any other evidence to confirm a castle build at Tattenhall, this paper considers the possible contemporary meanings of what we now translate as ‘castle’ and ‘herison’. The paper also explores the potentiality that by the fourteenth century, the documentary mention of these two words in the same phrase was by then more formulaic in stylistic terms, and referred more to a notional or archaic duty required of the lord of the manor’s tenants, and less to the herison of a fortified building in strictly physical terms. Because of its seemingly rare documentary mention generally, this paper focuses predominantly on the intended contemporary meaning of the word ‘herison’. In doing so, it provides the first in-depth research, analysis and interpretation of the multi-period (inter)national use of the term. Although conclusions are by necessity theoretical, this paper also provides an important contribution to what has been a small body of ‘herison’ and associated ‘castle’ evidence to date.