3: Patterns of Ownership in Modernity

Large-scale external influences, such as invasions and revolutions, shape urban and rural spaces. The local conditions and circumstances on the ground will mediate their impact. The two Norfolk villages of Castle Acre (CA) and Broadlands showed considerable diversity. One's population exploded during the agrarian revolution and its morals declined correspondingly (Garry, 2009), whereas in Broadlands the impact was marginal – the village stayed the same size. By contrast, the Northants village discussed in-depth later (chapter 7) faced the threat of ‘former village’ status and being subsumed by the town – a kind of invasion via a pincer-attacking urban sprawl.

The regional or county situation holds significance across all three villages. Combined with their own character, it effected a sticky residue with the past and an impetus for the future. If such an impetus or claim is already present, then maintaining that momentum is easier than starting afresh. For Northants, in the twentieth century its location in the middle of England made it a desirable commuter and distribution hub. As one local put it, it's easy to get to everywhere. The Saxon establishment of a fortified settlement in CA had made it a target for the invading Normans. This chapter focuses upon Broadlands and argues that the inverse can hold, too. That is, absence or inertia can have a kind of impetus. As the chapter explains – there is, after all, something about nothing. This had profound consequences upon the contemporary village in a way that is not readily obvious.