Editing Spring line settlement

{{Short description|Settlements along a line of springs}}
{{single source|date=October 2024}}
'''Spring line settlements''' occur where a ridge of [[wiktionary:permeable|permeable]] rock lies over impermeable rock, resulting in a line of [[spring (hydrosphere)|springs]] along the contact between the two layers. Spring line (or springline) settlements will sometimes form around these springs, becoming villages.

In each case to build higher up the hill would have meant difficulties with water supply; to build lower would have taken the settlement further away from useful grazing land or nearer to the [[floodplain]].

Spring line villages are often the principal settlements in [[strip parish]]es, with long, narrow [[parish]] boundaries stretching up to the top of the ridge and down to the river but being narrow in the direction of adjacent spring line villages.<ref>Humphery-Smith (2003)</ref>

==Some examples in England==
* To the north and south of the [[Howardian Hills]] in the [[North Riding of Yorkshire]].<ref>Humphery-Smith (2003) Map 40</ref>
* To the west and east of the ridge that extends south from [[Lincoln, Lincolnshire|Lincoln]] and on top of which is the [[Roman road]] [[Ermine Street]]. The western line (which includes [[Boothby Graffoe]] and [[Navenby]]) is close under the escarpment; the eastern line (which includes [[Metheringham]]) is as much as {{convert|6|mi|0}} away from the crest of the ridge.<ref>Humphery-Smith (2003) Map 21B</ref>
* To the south of [[London]] and difficult to identify among the continuous housing development of later centuries, there are: [[Ewell]] (a derivative of the [[Old English]] ''Et Welle''), [[Cheam]], [[Sutton, London|Sutton]], [[Carshalton]], [[Wallington, London|Wallington]], [[Beddington]], [[Waddon]], [[Croydon]], [[Addiscombe]], [[Elmers End]] and [[Beckenham]].<ref>Humphery-Smith (2003) Map 33</ref> Road and place names to the north of the line provide evidence that that area was relatively uninhabited: Cheam [[common land|Common]], [[Sutton Common]], [[Thornton Heath]], and [[South Norwood|Norwood]] (a derivative of ''North Wood'').
* Below the northern [[escarpment]] of the [[South Downs]] are villages such as [[Edburton]], [[Fulking]] and [[Poynings]].<ref>Humphery-Smith (2003) Map 34</ref>
* In the [[Vale of the White Horse]] (now in [[Oxfordshire]], formerly in [[Berkshire]]), villages such as [[East Ginge]], West Ginge, [[Letcombe Bassett]], [[Childrey]] and [[Woolstone, Oxfordshire|Woolstone]] are at the top of wooded valleys below [[the Ridgeway]] on the north-facing scarp slope.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* In [[East Anglia]], spring line settlements such as [[Burwell, Cambridgeshire]], [[Swaffham Prior]] and [[Cherry Hinton]] mark the fen edge and are close to the probable Lower [[Icknield Way]].{{cn|date=October 2024}}
* In [[Somerset]], at the foot of the southwestern escarpment of the largely limestone [[Mendip Hills]], the settlements of [[Draycott, Somerset|Draycott]], [[Rodney Stoke]], [[Westbury-sub-Mendip]], [[Easton, Somerset|Easton]], [[Wookey Hole]], and [[Wells, Somerset|Wells]].  At the northern foot of the Mendip Hills, [[Burrington, Somerset|Burrington]], [[Blagdon]], [[Ubley]], [[Compton Martin]], [[West Harptree]], [[East Harptree]], and [[Chewton Mendip]].  By contrast there are very few settlements on Mendip itself, with only [[Priddy]] within the Mendip Hills [[National Landscape]].{{cn|date=October 2024}}

==See also==
* [[Fall line]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |last=Humphery-Smith |first=Cecil |authorlink=Cecil Humphery-Smith |title=The Phillimore Atlas & Index of Parish Registers |year=2003 |edition=3rd |publisher=[[William Phillimore Watts Phillimore|Phillimore & Co. Ltd]] |location=Chichester |isbn=1-86077-239-0}}

[[Category:Human geography]]