ABSTRACT
The locale of investigation encompasses the very church and bridges of Hoskins' lesson in fieldwork. A common elaboration, one that seeks a monetary rather than a symbolic explanation, has it that churches were the original medieval tax shelter. It was left with many more churches than post-medieval populations, less numerous and increasingly dissident and secular, could support. This talk of churches reveals the principal dimensions that structure the discourse of the countryside: antiquity, authenticity, and distinctiveness unspoiled by 'modern'. The Norfolk countryside, especially the coast and the Broads, has been a destination for outsiders on holiday since the nineteenth century. Many are 'new-comers', retirees and white-collar commuters attracted to a 'country-life' lifestyle. In spite of the modern deconstruction of its myth, the discourse of the countryside retains a devoted band of avid defenders. In 1940, the German air force failed in its attempt to destroy Britain.
