Skill 2: Why Was It Built Here?

Location was never accidental. Every historical site was placed where it was for specific reasons — military, economic, social, or symbolic. Understanding the location is part of reading the site.

Reading the Landscape

• Defensive position: Castles were typically built on high ground, inside river bends (water on three sides), or on rocky outcrops that are naturally hard to attack. Norman mottes were artificial mounds designed to give defenders height advantage.
• Transport links: Markets, guildhalls, and industrial sites were placed near navigable rivers, Roman roads, or later canal and rail routes. Access to trade routes determined economic success.
• Resources nearby: Iron works needed iron ore and charcoal or coal nearby. Water mills needed fast-flowing streams. Quarries determined local building materials.
• Political statement: Major buildings were often placed to be seen — a cathedral on a hilltop, a castle overlooking a conquered town, a country house at the end of a long formal approach. The visibility of a building was part of its message.
• Religious significance: Churches and abbeys were often built on sites with pre-existing religious importance, on land donated by powerful patrons, or at places of pilgrimage.

Using Maps and Aerial Photography

Ordnance Survey (OS) maps are a key source for understanding site location. Historical OS maps (available from the 1840s onwards) show buildings, field patterns, and features as they were at specific dates. Comparing maps from different periods reveals how a site and its surroundings changed over time.

Aerial photography — particularly oblique aerial photographs taken at different times of day and year — reveals features invisible from the ground. Crop marks show where buried walls, ditches, or pits affect plant growth. Shadow marks in low-angle sunlight reveal earthwork humps and hollows that are imperceptible at ground level.

Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) technology uses laser pulses from aircraft to create detailed elevation models of the ground surface, revealing earthworks even under tree cover or dense vegetation.