Ravensdale Park, Derbyshire, and medieval deer coursing

Abstract

A possible late medieval deer course has been discovered within a deer park at Ravensdale, Derbyshire. The site is described and analysed and its history summarised. The archaeological and historical evidence for post-medieval deer courses is examined and the complex rules of the sport, as well as its social background, are looked at. The conclusion reached is that deer coursing and courses must have developed earlier in the medieval period. The attempt to prove this involves a summary of the documentary, illustrative and archaeological evidence. The paper then traces the possible links between developments in hunting in late medieval times with political, economic and social changes. It ends with a reconstruction of the landscape of Ravensdale Park in the late fourteenth century.

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