The Deviant Dead in the Norfolk Landscape

Abstract

This article examines the geographical and historical context of gibbets in Norfolk at the end of the eighteenth century. By adopting a broad chronological perspective it is argued that a deep-rooted knowledge existed among local communities; parish boundaries, and the tracts of commonland that they crossed, carried symbolism and meaning if used for the purpose of burying or displaying the bodies of executed criminals and other 'deviant' deaths. The memory of this practice was created and sustained through the naming of the landscape, and in the interpretation of the material remains of the past, in particular, prehistoric burial mounds. While important strands of continuity can be traced in the landscape context of the 'deviant' dead, it is also argued that these meanings and associations changed across time. Finally the article considers the impact of large-scale Parliamentary enclosure on popular memory and perceptions of the landscape.