Landscape, Materiality and Heritage An Object Biography Tim Edensor Landscape, Materiality and Heritage Tim Edensor Landscape, Materiality and Heritage An Object Biography Tim Edensor Institute of Place Management Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester, UK ISBN 978-981-19-7029-0 ISBN 978-981-19-7030-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7030-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21- 01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore A cknowledgements Writing this book has been a labour of love, involving a deep reacquain- tance with an artefact I knew well in my childhood. As with all research projects, family, friends, advice and wise counsel from many people have been critical. Several fellow academics have offered invaluable advice in helping me compile this book. Most especially, I want to acknowledge the enormous help offered by Sally Foster, whose wise critical advice has been most wel- come. I also thank the supportive comments of David C Harvey. Big thanks to Kenny Brophy for sending me the little-known volume by Ludovic Mann, War Memorials and the Barochan Cross, that has proved so useful. Also thanks to Tim Clarkson, John Moreland and Adam Drazin for their knowledge and wisdom and to Gordon Masterton for his insight into the Bridge of Weir War Memorial. I am also grateful for a number of local people who have provided me with stories and opinions, including Duncan Beaton, Robert Colquhoun, Ian Jackson, Jim McBeath, Bill Robb, Richard Strachan and Craig Morris. I also want to thank Marion Duval at Palgrave for her enthusiasm and support for this project, and my excellent colleagues at the Institute for Place Management, Manchester Metropolitan University. Finally, I want to thank my mum, Rosemary Williams, for her company on a great visit to several sites connected with the cross and above all, to the amazing Uma Kothari, who is invariably supportive besides being such a fantastic companion. v c ontents 1 Introduction 1 2 Making Sense of Landscape 9 3 Scholarly Interpretations of the Barochan Cross: Religious and Military Landscapes 29 4 Imagining the Early Medieval Landscape 39 5 Moving the Cross Uphill: Creating a Romantic Landscape 51 6 The Cross and the First World War: Landscapes of Commemoration 61 7 Revaluing the Cross: Its Incorporation into the Heritage Landscape 73 8 Mending the Cross: Landscapes of Repair and Maintenance 87 9 Relocating the Cross: Re-enrolment into a Christian Landscape 101 vii viii CONTENTS 10 The Future of the Cross: Continued Absence, Replicas or Something Else? 109 11 Conclusion: Things, Landscapes, Heritage 121 References 133 Index 145 l f ist of igures Fig. 1.1 The Barochan Cross, 1941, courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland 2 Fig. 1.2 Location of the Barochan Cross 3 Fig. 3.1 The Barochan Cross details. John Stuart, Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 1856 30 Fig. 4.1 Map of the original and secondary location of the Barochan Cross 41 Fig. 4.2 St Peter’s Well 43 Fig. 4.3 Barochan Glen. Possible original site of the Barochan Cross 46 Fig. 5.1 Engraving of Barochan Cross, Theodore Brotchie, Some Sylvan Scenes Near Glasgow (1921) 54 Fig. 5.2 Socket stone of the Barochan Cross, summit of the hill, viewed from the bottom of the hill 55 Fig. 5.3 The socket stone of the Barochan Cross on top of the hill 56 Fig. 5.4 View towards Kilpatrick Hills from the socket stone of the Barochan Cross 57 Fig. 6.1 Frontispiece, Ludovic Mann, War Memorials and the Barochan Cross 65 Fig. 6.2 Bridge of Weir, First World War memorial 67 Fig. 6.3 Detail of soldiers, Bridge of Weir, First World War memorial 68 Fig. 6.4 Memorial, Govan. Head modelled on that of the Barochan Cross 70 Fig. 7.1 Ruined interior of Castle Semple Collegiate Church, Lochwinnoch 79 Fig. 8.1 The Barochan Cross. Under repair at Stenhouse Conservation Centre, Edinburgh, Courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland 96 Fig. 9.1 The Barochan Cross, Paisley Abbey 104 Fig. 10.1 Socket stone of the Barochan Cross 117 ix CHAPTER 1 Introduction Abstract This chapter introduces readers to the Barochan Cross, identi- fies the key themes, and approaches and lays out the book’s structure. Keywords Interdisciplinarity • Multiple stories • Composite biography • Object • Landscape • Heritage From 1965 to 1975, I spent most of my school holidays at my grand- mother’s small cottage in Renfrewshire, situated between Bishopton and Houston. Days were spent exploring the local area by car and on foot, trips fuelled by my nan’s insatiable curiosity for local history, geography and culture. One of our favourite excursions was to the old Barochan Cross, sited on the summit of a nearby hill. We would first picnic in the nearby Barochan Burn, interspersing our meal with paddling and fishing for minnows and bullheads, and resting on the green, grassy banks of the stream. Afterwards, we would leave the glen and walk to the summit of the steep grassy mound to see the cross and take in the views in all direc- tions (see Fig. 1.1). Three and a half metres high, the cross was sculpted out of local sandstone in the ninth or tenth century CE. In January 2021, driving past the hill for the first time in several decades, I was disconcerted to see that the cross was no longer there. I urgently tried to find out the fate of the cross, and I was relieved to find that it still existed. My © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1 Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 T. Edensor, Landscape, Materiality and Heritage, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7030-6_1 2 T. EDENSOR Fig. 1.1 The Barochan Cross, 1941, courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland explorations disclosed that the cross had been subject to an abundance of interpretations, practices and relocations over its long life, and these con- tinue to surround the ancient artefact. Indeed, the site on the top of the hill on which I had encountered the cross was not its original location (Fig. 1.2). Like many other ancient sculpted stones, it has experienced widely varying fortunes. Like most of these artefacts, it has not remained in situ at the site at which it was first installed some eleven hundred years ago (Fraser, 2005). Some crosses have been recycled as building materials while others have been subject to iconoclastic destruction and