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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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Change?
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thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat
6210 posts

Re: Change?
Jan 28, 2017, 18:27
Not familiar with Jodie Lewis, I've only dipped a toe into Somerset on a few occasions, it would be nice to find a decent gazetteer for the area.

I must admit most of my favourite archaeo(ish) books other than the Big 2 are regional rather than national or international in focus. I like books that are constantly useful, and easy to dip in and find out something, usually about a particular place or area.

In a similar vein the books that really got me going when I first started were couple of books about the Peaks (John Barnatt in particular) but most of all a series of little, beautiful booklets of walks to stones in West Penwith by Ian McNeil Cooke, which were sort-of compiled to make the Journey To The Stones book. I coupled those with Craig Weatherhill's Cornovia and Belerion, to make an almost unbeatable coverage of the west Cornwall sites in a very accessible gazetteer form, much like TMA and Burl really.

Since then I've often wished other counties or regions were so well covered in such an accessible, non-technical way. Over the years I've got some very good Welsh gazetteers (the HMSO books covering the four branches plus some lovely books on South- and Mid-Wales produced by the Logaston Press, all of which seem to be out of print now).

For Dartmoor you can't beat Jeremy Butler's exhaustive study in five parts with lots of plans, plus the lyrical writing of Crossing's Guide To Dartmoor from the early years of the 20th century. For Scotland I've yet to find anything as accessible or useful as Audrey Henshall on chambered tombs, but nothing comparable for other site types. There are a few others for other areas, but these are the stand-outs.

On a non-archaeo front but related to getting out and about, I've found Tony Leaver's "Pronouncing Welsh Place Names" and a couple of Welsh dictionaries invaluable, especially when I have to get the bus to somewhere out of the way!

Sorry, strayed off topic badly, but to try to close the circle, I'd say the paper TMA and also this website work so well for me because they are useful and practical guides aimed at the enthusiast not the expert.
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Re: Change? (moss)
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