BBC – Norman Walks: Exploring Historic Britain (2010) Part 3: The Northern Abbeys
English | Documentary | Size: 791 MB
Acclaimed TV historian Dan Snow explores historic Britain through the eyes of the Norman conquerors. As part of the BBC’s Norman season, Dan Snow puts his walking boots on and sets off to see what the great British landscape can teach us about our Norman predecessors. From their violent arrival on these shores, to their most sustaining legacies, Dan’s three walks follow an evolutionary path through the Normans’ era from invasion, to conquest, to successful rule and colonization.
This history walking series follows Dan Snow as he uncovers the ‘forgotten’ Norman Empire, one that has been largely overlooked yet laid the foundation for modern Britain. In keeping with Dan’s forensic examination of the past, each episode has a different line of inquiry, following in the foot-steps of the Normans, and taking in prominent and relevant Norman landmarks along the way.
On the Sussex coast, along the Welsh border and on the edge of the North York Moors, Dan explores the landscape and whatever evidence might remain; earthmounds, changing coastlines, viewpoints, and of course the giant stone castles and buildings that were the great symbol of Norman rule. All these elements offer clues as to how the Norman elite were ultimately able to dominate and rule our Anglo-Saxon kingdom.
Using a variety of sources – including historical accounts, maps and passionate historians – Dan’s walk becomes a vehicle for looking beyond the modern world to investigate the same patch of land almost a thousand years ago. Using detailed local stories and expert interviews, Dan paints a broad, vivid and relevant picture of Norman history.
As Dan discovers, there are a great many unknowns about events in 1066 and thereafter. But one thing is clear – wherever they went, the varied British landscape and its diverse people offered a fresh challenge to the Normans. This perspective shines new light on landscapes and histories we have come to take for granted and reveals a texture to the landscape of Britain that time has almost erased.
Series Produced & Directed by Owen Rodd ; Skyworks for BBC
Part 3: Yorkshire: The Northern Abbeys
Dan’s final walk takes him north, to lands brutally devastated by the Normans four years after the Invasion. York was the focal point for William the Conqueror’s infamous Harrying of the North, a period of terror that devastated the country between York and Durham five years after the conquest.
But the genocide of the Harrying of the North campaign was the final act that brought the whole of England under Norman control. The walk explores how the area became the setting for one of the Normans’ greatest legacies – the abbeys and monasteries of northern England. We discover how the first Cistercian monks, with the support of Walter Espec, brought communications, wool and mining industries to the north. From Helmsley Castle to Rievaulx Abbey, Dan investigates how one local lord established an institution that would revolutionise the community and commerce of the moors. With numerous similar abbeys the ambitious Normans would create a new era that defined northern England throughout the Middle Ages.
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