Documenting One Hertfordshire Landscape Throughout the Seasons
About the Project
A Knebworth Field is a record of an unremarkable patch of Hertfordshire countryside. Its changing seasons, wildlife, hedgerows and history. The small details that are often overlooked and easily passed by.
What began with a camera and a familiar walking route has become an attempt to notice, record and understand on ordinary place more deeply.
The Place: Mapping the Knebworth Landscape
Every landscape has its own character, shaped by geology, history, weather and surrounding land uses.
This section introduces the field that lies at the heart of the project, offering a simple map of its features alongside a 360° view from its centre.
It is intended as a point of orientation - a way of becoming familiar with the land before exploring the photographs, field notes and seasonal observations that are found throughout the rest of the site.
Understanding the place itself provides context for everything else recorded here.
The Hedgerows & Margins: Documenting The Wild Fringes
These are the places where the "wild" comes to life. The liminal spaces, the margins and the fringes.
These areas include woodland, hedgerows, footpaths and tracks - the blurred boundaries between cultivated and uncultivated, where the arable and the untamed meet.
The History: From 1086 to Modern Day
Every landscape carries the marks of those who came before us.
Beneath today's crops and footpaths lie centuries of stories, from ancient woodland and medieval farming to changing field boundaries and the people whose lives have been shaped by this place.
Understanding the history of the field reveals that it has never stood still; it has been gradually evolving for hundreds of years, and its past continues to shape the landscape we see today.