Englishness. What does this word mean to me? My own understanding is that Englishness is identity of the English. It is both multiple and flexible, with a large number of ingredients such as language, religion, culture and history. England's history reaches back far into time and its influence is inescapable. English art, music, poetry and language trace their roots to the Saxons and beyond.
Drystone walls are, with hedgerows, one of the most commonly used field boundaries in England, and they help to create what we now regard as the traditional pattern of field and lanes so evocative of rural England.
The roots of drystone walling as a method of enclosing fields lie at least as far back as the Iron Age. Dry stone walls are commonly used as field boundaries in the highlands, such as the Yorkshire Dales. In the lowland regions of England hedges are the most common traditional boundary. Drystone walling fell out of favour in the Dark Ages, not least because the Anglo-Saxons tended to settle in the lowlands, where their agricultural techniques were more successful. Drystone walls are not merely features of agricultural interest; they are in a sense, living history; a legacy of the movement towards enclosure of common farming and grazing land as English society moved away from feudalism.
Language is one of the determining factors of national identity. The English grammar and vocabulary which is used in public speaking, radio and television news broadcasts, books and newspapers is known as “standard British English”. Language is also indicative of class. Most working-class people use lots of words and grammatical forms in their everyday speech which are known as “non-standard”.
Religion is another aspect of culture. The Anglican Church (or the Church of England) is a Protestant church. It was set out in the sixteenth century in a document called the Thirty Nine Articles. Protestantism in England has political and personal roots. King Henry VIII of England wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, because she had not given him a son. The Pope refused and Henry VIII decided to declare himself Head of the Church of England.
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