North Of Britain Research Articles

Hadrian and Britain: The Civil Zone

AbstractThe lack of written sources and the difficulties of establishing close chronologies from archaeological material mean that it is difficult to identify initiatives other than the commissioning of Hadrian's Wall that can confidently be attributed either to the emperor's visit to Britain in 122 or to his reign more generally. However, the early second century presents several archaeological proxies which point to a quickening of economic activity integrating the frontiers of Wales and the north of Britain with the civil zone of the south. Developments in the countryside hint at the growth of larger estates, including the emergence of larger, ‘complex’ farms, villages and better communications, together assuring the province's sustained ability to feed both military and civilian populations. At the same time there is evidence for public building across the towns of the south, especially of forum basilicas, which may be linked to administrative reforms including the establishment of new civitates.

Victorian Artists’ Autograph Replicas: Auras, Aesthetics, Patronage and the Art Market, edited by Julie F. Codell

Reviewed by: Victorian Artists’ Autograph Replicas: Auras, Aesthetics, Patronage and the Art Market ed. by Julie F. Codell Joan DelPlato (bio) Victorian Artists’ Autograph Replicas: Auras, Aesthetics, Patronage and the Art Market, edited by Julie F. Codell; pp. xv + 298. New York and London: Routledge, 2020, £115.00, $160.00. Victorian Artists’ Autograph Replicas: Auras, Aesthetics, Patronage and the Art Market, edited by Julie F. Codell, is a unique foray into the proliferation of Victorian replicas of paintings authorized by the artist and produced by her or his own hand. The book offers an understanding of a little-known but bustling practice in the history of the art market. Framed by an erudite introduction, this edited volume investigates sixteen case studies of well-known Victorian artists, countering replicas’ misunderstanding as unoriginal or crass displays of copyism. It also studies questions we now associate with intellectual property: in short, did the artist or the patron of an original retain the right to sanction autograph replicas? Opinion tended to favor the patron. Surprisingly, contributors to this volume demonstrate how the aesthetic and monetary value of the replica could be enhanced over the original. It is a challenge to synthesize this dense and fact-laden book. The introduction incisively articulates the study’s theoretical premises and its interventions into conventional Victorian art history, particularly as these replica studies redefine an artwork’s aura. Collectively, the authors build a sociology of the autograph replica’s patronage, using [End Page 444] tools of reception theory to shift from an exclusive focus on the artist to include patrons. Nearly all of the essays are conceptually strong. A few contribute mightily to the volume as a compendium of information, even though they are not quite digested. Throughout, whole paragraphs or very long in-text citations filled with information on replicas’ locations might have been assigned either to endnotes or to the appendix that charts so clearly the autograph replicas of only five of the artists studied. The essays consider not only royalty and aristocrats but also and especially the Victorian industrialists and professionals wealthy enough to purchase replicas as an investment, as a contribution to the arts, and as a status symbol. Newly rich middle-class buyers included silk merchants, gin distillers, doctors, brewers, clergymen, wool manufacturers, members of Parliament, military tailors, and lawyers. Artists sold replicas to dealers like Thomas Agnew and Ernest Gambart. Men of finance—bankers, accountants, and stockbrokers, and the American railroad magnate William Henry Vanderbilt— purchased them. Artists sold replicas to Charles Dickens, other artists, and architects. Curiously, Royal Academy teacher William Dyce commissioned William Holman Hunt to replicate Dyce’s own work. David Roberts sold to his dentist and gifted replicas to his daughter, whose father-in-law Elhanan Bicknell, head of a company that made candles from whale oil, bought replicas. A subset of replica purchasers were rich industrialists, often from the north of Britain. In their new civic roles, they were saluted by one critic for national enrichment in donating their purchases to public museums. Replicas were purchased by leaders in heavy industry such as Glasgow iron and steel manufacturers, Sheffield foundry owners, Manchester spinners, Lancashire cotton producers, and a Midlands farm machinery owner. Liverpool ship-owner Frederick Richards Leyland, who had twenty-five trade ships crossing the Atlantic, was a well-known patron of Pre-Raphaelite originals and replicas. In the art world, the Victorian middle class became professionals not only as buyers but also as critics and curators. And the overlap between original and replica did not just parallel but indeed “mimicked” the production and distribution of other Victorian commodities at home and abroad (10). Lead manufacturer James Leathart bought a replica of Ford Madox Brown’s Work (1852–63), which was further replicated within Brown’s portrait of Leathart alongside his leadworks. Yet projections of the self might also be less visible, more suggestive. Were manufacturers of cloth drawn to John Frederick Lewis’s replicas depicting gorgeous fabric clothing, admired by John Ruskin and painted with such a startling degree of verisimilitude as to invite touch? In these essays, more specific linkages could have been made from patrons’ identities to the subjects or other characteristics of...

Stones of the Saints? Inscribed Stones, Monasticism and the Evangelisation of Western and Northern Britain in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries

Despite the paucity of written sources for fifth- and sixth-century Britain, there are many inscriptions containing brief texts in Latin or Irish. This paper reinterprets these inscribed stones, showing that, contrary to the universal current assumption that most represent the memorials of secular notables, a much stronger case can be made for understanding them as ecclesiastical monuments associated with the cult of saints. Read in this way, they offer new insights into the fifth- and sixth-century British Church and the evangelisation of the west and north of Britain during these centuries.

Multi-isotope evidence for cattle droving at Roman Worcester

Tooth enamel from six cattle mandibles excavated from Roman deposits at The Hive development site, Worcester (mid-2nd to early 4th century AD) was subjected to strontium, oxygen and carbon isotope analyses (87Sr/86Sr, δ18O and δ13C) to investigate the movement of cattle into Worcester, a purported regional cattle market, during the Roman period. Strontium isotope ratios show that none of the cattle were born and bred in close proximity to Worcester and arrived as mature beasts some time before death. Whilst two are consistent with origins in the region of Old Red Sandstone of Herefordshire to the west, the unusually high strontium isotope ratios of four of the cattle (i.e. >0.714) show that they originated in a region of ancient or radiogenic rocks such as granites which are found only in the west and north of Britain (e.g. Wales, the Lake District and northern Scotland) based on the currently available biosphere data. Comparison of the oxygen and carbon isotope values also suggests that the cattle were not from the same herd, but interpretation is complicated by the lack of comparative cattle data for the Roman period as well as other time periods. The severe wear of the molars from the aged cattle in this study also limits the interpretation of the results. More isotopic analyses are needed from other British sites in order to fully understand the implications of cattle movement into urban centres during the Roman period.

Customer relationship management and service quality: Influences in higher education

This study with international students in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector adopts a qualitative research approach to examine the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) and service quality. From the literature six construct themes for measuring customer relationship management were suggested and the interview data with focus groups from a university in the north of Britain were analysed using a thematic template analysis technique. The study showed that an effective CRM programme to improve service quality has the ability of inducing positive advocacy behaviour from its international students. The paper makes a recommendation for policy makers in the higher education sector to embrace investment in CRM.

Consequences of a warming climate for social organisation in sweat bees.

The progression from solitary living to caste-based sociality is commonly regarded as a major evolutionary transition. However, it has recently been shown that in some taxa, sociality may be plastic and dependent on local conditions. If sociality can be environmentally driven, the question arises as to how projected climate change will influence features of social organisation that were previously thought to be of macroevolutionary proportions. Depending on the time available in spring during which a foundress can produce worker offspring, the sweat bee Halictus rubicundus is either social or solitary. We analysed detailed foraging data in relation to climate change predictions for Great Britain to assess when and where switches from a solitary to social lifestyle may be expected. We demonstrate that worker numbers should increase throughout Great Britain under predicted climate change scenarios, and importantly, that sociality should appear in northern areas where it has never before been observed. This dramatic shift in social organisation due to climate change should lead to a bigger workforce being available for summer pollination and may contribute towards mitigating the current pollinator crisis.Significance StatementThe sweat bee Halictus rubicundus is socially polymorphic, expressing both solitary and social forms, and is socially plastic, capable of transitioning from solitary to social forms, depending on local environmental conditions. Here, we analyse detailed foraging data in relation to climate change predictions for Great Britain to show that worker numbers and sociality both increase under predicted climate change scenarios. Especially dramatic will be the appearance of social H. rubicundus nests in the north of Britain, where previously only solitary forms are found. Particularly, if more taxa are found to be socially plastic, environmentally driven shifts in social organisation may help to mitigate future pollinator crises by providing more individuals for pollination.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00265-016-2118-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Assessing trends in biodiversity over space and time using the example ofBritish breeding birds

SummaryPartitioning biodiversity change spatially and temporally is required for effective management, both to determine whether action is required and whether it should be applied at a regional level or targeted more locally. As biodiversity is a multifaceted concept, comparative analyses of different indices, focussing on different components of biodiversity change (evenness vs. abundance), give better information than a single headline index.We model changes in the spatial and temporal distribution ofBritish breeding birds using generalized additive models applied to count data collected between 1994 and 2011. Abundance estimates, accounting for differences in detectability, are then used in community‐specific (farmland and woodland) biodiversity indices. Temporal trends in biodiversity, and change points in those trends, are assessed at different spatial scales. The geometric mean of relative abundance, a headline indicator of biodiversity change, is assessed together with a goodness‐of‐fit evenness measure focussing separately on the rare and common species in the communities.Our analysis reveals predominantly declining trends in biodiversity indices for farmland and woodland bird communities in southern and easternEngland, perhaps signalling environmental deterioration in this part of the country. Conversely, our results also show generally more positive trends in the north ofBritain, consistent with north–south gradient expectations from the effects of climate change. We also reveal predominantly positive changes in evenness for the common species and negative changes in evenness for the rarer species in the communities, consistent with previously documented homogenization in bird communities.Synthesis and applications. Bird populations are seen as good indicators of ecosystem health, and trends for different communities can be indicative of wider biodiversity changes within their respective habitats. However, temporal trends in biodiversity at the national level may miss opposing trends occurring at different locations within the nation. We develop methods that allow assessment of how temporal trends vary spatially and whether these trends differ for the rare and common species in the respective communities. Our methods may be used to test hypotheses about the processes that generate the trends.

Two recurrent mutations are associated with GNE myopathy in the North of Britain

ObjectiveGNE myopathy is a rare recessive myopathy associated with inclusion bodies on muscle biopsy. The clinical phenotype is associated with distal muscle weakness with quadriceps sparing. Most of the current...

Observations on the re-emergence of a binary system in UK universities for economics degree programmes

An audit of economics provision shows that over the past decade economics has disappeared from large parts of the UK's higher education landscape, especially the post-1992 universities. In the north of Britain the binary system has effectively re-emerged leaving many potential students unable to study key subjects such as economics. Post-1992 institutions appear to have responded to forces in the higher education market by retreating from key subjects. The experience of economics shows how universities exercising their autonomy deal with complex issues such as the link between research and subject provision and the stratification of applicants along social class lines.

The Aetiology of Disseminated Sclerosis

Based upon a Dissertation on “Disseminated Sclerosis” given before the Society on Friday, 10th January 1958. Disseminated sclerosis is the commonest nervous disease in this country; in the north of Britain at least one in 1300 adults is affected. If any rational or successful therapy is to be introduced the cause must be found and I therefore propose briefly to discuss the main theories of its aetiology. Disseminated sclerosis is one of the primary demyelinating diseases (as opposed to those causing secondary demyelination such as infarcts) which can be defined as “diseases of the central nervous system showing destruction of myelin sheaths with relative sparing of axon cylinders and supportive tissues usually occurring in multiple foci.”

Northern Britain and the Fall of the Roman Empire

This article examines Roman-barbarian relations in the north of Britain in the context of cultural interactions on the other imperial frontiers. On the basis of the less confrontational model of Romano-barbarian interaction that this suggests, a rethinking of northern British politics is put forward. The withdrawal of effective Roman presence from the northern frontier (suggested in the later fourth century) caused political crises in the region between the walls and a break-up of the earlier Pictish confederacy. Change around 600 led, in turn, to the submerging of the British polities that had dominated the region since 400 by new powers, the English and the Scots, whose kingdoms’ foundation might belong to this period. Internal Pictish strife might explain why the Picts do not seem to be a very active player in the early seventh-century politics that are visible to us.

Patterns of Holocene relative sea level change in the North of Britain and Ireland

Temporal and spatial patterns of relative sea level (RSL) change in the North of Britain and Ireland during the Holocene are examined. Four episodes, each defined by marked changes in the RSL trend, are identified. Each episode is marked by a rise to a culminating shoreline followed by a fall. Episode HRSL-1 dates from the Younger Dryas to early in the Holocene; HRSL-2 to HRSL-4 occurred later in the Holocene. There is extensive evidence for each episode, and on this basis the spatial distribution of the altitude data for three culminating shorelines and a shoreline formed at the time of the Holocene Storegga Slide tsunami (ca 8110 ± 100 cal. BP) is analysed. Ordinary Kriging is used to determine the general pattern, following which Gaussian Trend Surface Analysis is employed. Recognising that empirical measurements of RSL change can be unevenly distributed spatially, a new approach is introduced which enables the developing pattern to be identified. The patterns for the most widely occurring shorelines were analysed and found to be similar and common centre and axis models were developed for all shorelines. The analyses described provide models of the spatial pattern of Holocene RSL change in the area between ca 8100 cal. BP and ca 1000 cal. BP based on 2262 high resolution shoreline altitude measurements. These models fit the data closely, no shoreline altitude measurement lying more than −1.70 m or +1.82 m from the predicted value. The models disclose a similar pattern to a recently published Glacial Isostatic Adjustment model for present RSL change across the area, indicating that the overall spatial pattern of RSL change may not have varied greatly during the last ca 8000 years.

Large-scale climatic influences on precipitation and discharge for a British river basin

This article aims to identify the large-scale climate variables that yield significant statistical relationships with precipitation and discharge for a British river basin (Dyfi). Ranked correlation analysis was performed between gridded ERA-40 atmospheric data and Dyfi precipitation and discharge for individual months. Precipitation and discharge demonstrate significant negative correlation with mean sea level pressure (MSLP). Strongest MSLP correlation areas move from north of Britain in winter to central Britain in summer; this shift is associated with a displacement of geopotential (Z) and zonal wind (U). Movement of significant correlation regions (not captured by the North Atlantic Oscillation Index) highlights the dynamic nature of precipitation and river flow generating weather systems throughout the year. Existence of strong significant correlation shows potential for exploiting large-scale climate variables in forecasting precipitation and river flow in Britain. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Palaeolithic and Quaternary research in the Trent Valley (UK): contributions by early collectors

A brief history is presented here of the activities of the three most notable collectors of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts from Quaternary river terrace deposits in the Trent Valley, derived from archival material that has been largely ignored by previous research. Two, Mr. Fred W.G. Davey and Mr. George F. Turton, were local amateur collectors who did not publish the results of their work themselves and were reliant on collaboration with established archaeologists. The third, Mr. A. Leslie Armstrong, was an archaeologist best known for his work at Creswell Crags and Grimes Graves. Armstrong also made many Palaeolithic discoveries in the Trent Valley but published few details of his own material. Although such details of early Palaeolithic research in the Midlands and North of Britain are predominantly of historical interest only, they nonetheless provide a number of insights into the apparent lack of interest shown in areas north of the ‘Severn–Wash Line’ by collectors of Palaeolithic artefacts. Importantly, the dataset assembled by the Trent Valley Palaeolithic Project (TVPP) and summarized here is the only complete record of the known artefacts and archival material from the Trent, a proportion of which is now unavailable to the research community, having entered unknown private ownership since being studied. The second part of the paper relates this early research to current knowledge of the British Palaeolithic at its most northern fringes and to recent developments in reconstructing the Quaternary evolution of the River Trent.

Health visitors’ perceptions of nurse prescribing: a qualitative field work study

This article details the findings of a study on the perceptions and opinions of health visitors towards nurse prescribing. The study was undertaken in a primary care trust in the north of Britain. Following a pilot study, eight prescribing health visitors from different areas of the trust were interviewed on their own perceptions of nurse prescribing. Several themes emerged from the interviews, including the belief that nurse prescribing led to an increase in workload for the health visitors, but also that it has provided a better level of service to patients.

Excavation of an Iron Age burial mound, Loch Borralie, Durness, Sutherland

As part of the Historic Scotland Human Remains Call Off Contract, Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) undertook an archaeological evaluation of the find spot of a human skull from a cairn at Loch Borralie, Sutherland (NGR NC 3790 6761). Excavation recovered the remains of two burials beneath the cairn and established that the cairn was multi-phased. One individual was an adult male (Skeleton 1), while the other was immature and of undeterminable sex (Skeleton 2). Both individuals showed signs of ill health, and dogs and/or rats appear to have gnawed their bones. A ring-headed pin was recovered close to Skeleton 1 during the excavation. A radiocarbon date was obtained from the left humerus of Skeleton 1 of 40 cal BC - cal AD210 at 2 sigma (OxA-10253). Excavation revealed that the cairn, broadly sub-rectangular in form, had a maximum height of 1.2m and was composed of large, sub-angular and sub-rounded rocks (including quartz and quartzite) and occasional rounded cobbles within yellow-orange sand. One inhumation, Skeleton 2, lay within an irregular grave, cut through the red brown sand that was sealed by the cairn and into the natural gravel sand below. The other inhumation, Skeleton 1, was sealed by the red brown sand and had been placed on a low primary cairn of stone and earth, the full extent and depth of which remains unknown. The tradition of extended inhumations within sub-rectangular cairns is a recognised funerary practice in the north of Britain during the first millennium AD. Many of these burials are generally considered to be Pictish in date, but Loch Borralie indicates that the tradition commenced in the Iron Age. There is increasing evidence for the variety of ways in which human remains were treated after death in the Iron Age, including cremations in re-used cists, single inhumations in graves and cists, multiple inhumations and the incorporation of human remains in 'domestic' contexts. The results of the excavation of the burial mound at Loch Borralie provide a useful addition to the range of mortuary and funerary rites which were practised during the Iron Age in Scotland.

Excavation of an Iron Age burial mound, Loch Borralie, Durness, Sutherland

As part of the Historic Scotland Human Remains Call Off Contract, Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) undertook an archaeological evaluation of the find spot of a human skull from a cairn at Loch Borralie, Sutherland (NGR: NC 3790 6761). Excavation recovered the remains of two burials beneath the cairn and established that the cairn was multi-phased. One individual was an adult male (Skeleton 1), while the other was immature and of undeterminable sex (Skeleton 2). Both individuals showed signs of ill health, and dogs and/or rats appear to have gnawed their bones. A ring-headed pin was recovered close to Skeleton 1 during the excavation. A radiocarbon date was obtained from the left humerus of Skeleton 1 of 40 cal BC - cal AD210 at 2 sigma (OxA-10253). Excavation revealed that the cairn, broadly sub-rectangular in form, had a maximum height of 1.2m and was composed of large, sub-angular and sub-rounded rocks (including quartz and quartzite) and occasional rounded cobbles within yellow-orange sand. One inhumation, Skeleton 2, lay within an irregular grave, cut through the red brown sand that was sealed by the cairn and into the natural gravel sand below. The other inhumation, Skeleton 1, was sealed by the red brown sand and had been placed on a low primary cairn of stone and earth, the full extent and depth of which remains unknown. The tradition of extended inhumations within sub-rectangular cairns is a recognised funerary practice in the north of Britain during the first millennium AD. Many of these burials are generally considered to be Pictish in date, but Loch Borralie indicates that the tradition commenced in the Iron Age. There is increasing evidence for the variety of ways in which human remains were treated after death in the Iron Age, including cremations in re-used cists, single inhumations in graves and cists, multiple inhumations and the incorporation of human remains in 'domestic' contexts. The results of the excavation of the burial mound at Loch Borralie provide a useful addition to the range of mortuary and funerary rites which were practised during the Iron Age in Scotland.

Koeleria macrantha (Ledeb.) Schultes (K. alpigena Domin, K. cristata (L.) Pers. pro parte, K. gracilis Pers., K. albescens auct. non DC.)

<i>Koeleria macrantha</i> (Ledeb.) Schultes (<i>K. alpigena</i> Domin, <i>K. cristata</i> (L.) Pers. pro parte, <i>K. gracilis</i> Pers., <i>K. albescens</i> auct. non DC.)

A Note on, 'The Building of the Legionary Fortress of Inchtuthil'

Elizabeth A.M. Shirley has recently made a valuable attempt to estimate the amount of material and labour used in the construction of the fortress.107 It is probable that the Roman builders adopted an empirical approach to the design and construction of their buildings, and would quickly have learnt that weather conditions in the North of Britain were different from those in the Mediterranean provinces. Rook108 quotes evidence for a pitch of about 20 degrees for tegula and imbrex roofs in Italy. The pitch of any roof has to take into account the nature of its covering and the exposure rating; usually the more exposed the position and greater the rainfall the steeper the pitch. Roofs steeper than 35 degrees generally present sufficient exposure for there to be positive pressure on the exposed face and suction on the lee face. However, with slopes of less than 30 degrees the windward pitch can be subject to severe suction or negative pressure, and is not less prone to windward uplift as stated by Shirley.109 The other factors to be taken into account are wind speed parameters. These vary considerably over the country and can be 37 m/sec in the South-East of England, to 50 m/sec in South-Eastern Scotland.1 10 There is a little evidence for the pitches of tiled roofs in Roman Britain; the aisled roofs to the building at Meonstoke1 being c. 20 degrees, and the roof to the villa at Redlands Farm1 12 laid to 22.5 degrees, both sites being in sheltered positions in southern England. Evidence from the fourthto fifth-century basilica churches in North Syria,'113 which had tiled roofs, shows a consistent roof pitch of c. 30 degrees. This pitch was used, rather than the lower pitch of c. 15 degrees reflecting that of the Greek pediment which would have conformed with the strong Hellenistic traditions114 inherited by the province. The implication must be that the pitch of the roof was dictated by practical as well as probable cultural considerations. Brodribb has shown that few tegulae had nail-holes formed in their surfaces,115 the great majority having none. The tegulae, therefore, remained in position on a boarded surface by virtue of their own weight.I11

Plasma esterase polymorphism in the Bank vole, Clethrionomys glareolus, in Britain

Three hundred and eighty‐three Clethrionomys glareolus from 20 localities in England, Wales and Scotland were typed for plasma esterase and a genetic polymorphism was discovered. The esterase was named Es‐1. Breeding tests suggested that three alleles were segregating: Es‐1o when homozygous results in complete absence of enzyme activity. The active alleles Es‐1f and Es‐1s code for enzyme variants which migrate more rapidly and less rapidly, respectively, under starch gel electrophoresis. Of these active alleles, Es‐1f is morc common in the north of Britain and Es‐18 in the south. A 23‐month field study on two areas at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire, suggested that animals possessing Es‐1s survived less well at high population densities, perhaps through their being more likely to emigrate.