ABSTRACT
All landscapes possess historical association: this may be expressed overtly or more subtly. People are drawn to historical cityscapes, to stately homes, medieval castles or to ancient world heritage sites. Many such places experience intense visitor pressure and are key features of national or even global place-marketing strategies. But how many people are drawn to the urban edge? There are of course key sites that can be found on the edge of London: Epping Forest with its Elizabethan hunting lodge or Hampton Court which might be described as a historic jewel on the capital’s periphery. But these are not the subtle landscapes of the rural-urban fringe, where history does not announce itself with a fanfare, but is often tangled within a patchwork of redevelopment or has itself taken on a new role. In this chapter, we intend to show that the fringe is a historic landscape and often the product of the ebb and flow of industrial, agricultural or military development at the edges of many towns and cities. We will argue that the fringe is host to a rich and diverse archaeological and historical legacy that is not always fully appreciated, or valued.
