Hasted Prize Submission for 2013 - K.A.S. Publications Committee

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Elizabethan and Jacobean Deer Parks in Kent,  Susan Pittman, PhD Kent, 2011.
    now online as pdf files

Abstract
Although many researchers have contributed to the knowledge and understanding of the number, characteristics, landscape, management and ethos of medieval deer parks, there has been little coverage of deer parks in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, interest re-emerging with the upsurge of eighteenth century landscaped parks. This thesis aims to redress the imbalance somewhat by concentrating on the deer parks in one county, Kent, during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.
    The trigger for the choice of period was the earliest printed list of parks, which appeared in Lambarde's 'A Perambulation of Kent' published in 1576, with a second edition in 1596. After a discussion about the accuracy of the lists, topics such as the number, distribution, location, shape, size and longevity of Kentish deer parks are covered in Part I. How deer parks were managed forms two chapters in Part II, with the process of and reasons for disparkment and the management of disparked parks occupying another chapter. The ownership of parks in Part III addresses issues such as who held parks in 1558, how ownership was acquired, the reasons behind the successful retention of parks, which parks changed hands or were created and whether there were differences between new owners and established owners. Lastly, one chapter in Part IV investigates the role Kentish parks played in enhancing the lifestyle of their owners, while another chapter concentrates on the negative perception of deer parks among those excluded from them and how this was expressed in a complexity of park violations.
   Lambarde left readers with the impression that deer parks in Kent were in decline, but this research shows that they retained their potent symbolism and indeed were generally flourishing throughout the period under review.