The Thorshof Local Lore Project, aims to map the heathen landscape of England in fine detail. This project is not for the fainthearted and (horrors) takes at least three days of precious time. A huge amount of work is required to cover the whole of England but from small acorns....
The main benefits of this self inflicted torture are:
1. To improve your own awareness of your local landscape.
2. To produce a list of sites of special heathen interest.
3. To make local research more accessible.
If you do not live in England you may wish to consider a similar project in your own area (if possible!) And if you are interested this is how you do it:
Stage 1 Defining your area.
The English maps are based on the Doomsday book, in which the entries are given by county and each county is subdivided into smaller areas. In Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire these subdivisions are called 'Hundreds' while in Sussex they are called 'Rapes'. These areas vary in size but are typically five to ten miles across and contain a handful of towns and villages. So stage one of the project is to find your local hundred and work out what area it covers. A good local library will have a translation of relevant section of the Doomsday book.
Stage 2 Producing an outline map
You will need a large map of the area to take notes on. I made a tracing from the Ordnance Survey street atlas for the county which produced a map about five feet across. (Budget note: grease-proof paper from the kitchen works fine!) Copy the main roads, town/village names, rivers, and county boundaries.
Stage 3 Adding relief
Refer to a contoured map of the area mark the position of hills. Be as accurate as you can and try and mark the course of valleys etc.
Stage 4 Research place names
You now need a good place name dictionary. You should be able to find one covering only your county in a good local reference library, this will cover far more settlements than one detailing the whole of England. Mark on the earliest known names for the towns, villages and farms in your area and give the date the early name was recorded. Also note the meaning of the name.
Stage 5 Check Anglo-Saxon land use
Using the Doomsday text again, take notes on the land use for each town and village (not all will be listed) and try and find the location of any lost villages. Arable land will be shown by the number of ploughs the settlement had, fisheries by the number of eels they yielded (yum yum!), pigs by the amount of woodland etc.
Stage 6 Mark sites of archaeological finds
Now check for any archaeological information. You should be able to find recent reports in a good local reference library. Most counties will have some kind of archaeological journal. Try to avoid using very old articles as they can be inaccurate. Don't forget that Iron Age hill forts/burial mounds and Roman settlement sites may have strong connections with the Anglo-Saxon period.
Stage 7 Folklore
Next add any relevant local folklore, holy wells, ghost stories etc.
Stage 8 Roads
Try and mark in the roads that would probably have been used in the period, this is very difficult, an old county map may help you.
Stage 9 Identify missing information
Make a list of information you are missing, old settlements that you cannot find, boundaries you are not sure of etc., so that these details can be checked later.
Stage 10 Heathen site summary
Make a list of sites of special heathen interest, with notes on their current condition.
Stage 11 Tidying up
Redraw the map in a tidy fashion showing all the information clearly. Keep it to scale so that the sites are easily to find. It is hoped that this project will progress slowly but steadily with the help of the Heathen Forum. If you want to help please contact Thorshof and let us know which area you want to cover, no point in duplication!