Publications
Stane Street in the Dark Ages, by Gordon J. Copley, published 1950 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 89, article, pp.98-104) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2174] & The Keep [LIB/500340] & S.A.S. library
An Archaeology of the South-East of England: A Study on Continuity, by Gordon J. Copley, published 1958 (Phoenix House)
Review by A. E. W. [A. E. Wilson] in Sussex Notes and Queries, November 1958:Dr. Copley has now followed his "Going into the Past" with this more ambitious work addressed to the enthusiastic amateur. The first chapter discusses sensibly the place of the amateur in archaeology, and the contribution he may expect to make and a later chapter gives advice on the study of a locality. In between lies a number of chapters on the archaeological periods from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages in which the author has collected and summarised all the relevant information. In these chapters and in the Gazetteer, which is arranged under parishes he uses and gives short explanations of all the technical terms and algebraical classifications which archaeologists have come to adopt. This arouses the question of the author's aims Few readers can be fully acquainted with these terms and they are more likely to go direct to the excavation reports for their information. "The enthusiastic amateur" will have to look elsewhere for drawings or photographs of the different types of implements, weapons, pottery etc., or search them out in a museum.
In his gazetteer he has not been consistent in his use of parishes. If he classifies Hollingbury under Brighton, surely Cissbury should come under Worthing and not under West Tarring. In any case it was in Broadwater. The Caburn is in Glynde and not Beddingham.
The volume has a number of useful distribution and regional maps and a set of well-chosen photographs. Many will welcome it as a work of reference, but the beginner will need to supplement it with books giving fuller explanation and illustration of the many technical terms used.
In his gazetteer he has not been consistent in his use of parishes. If he classifies Hollingbury under Brighton, surely Cissbury should come under Worthing and not under West Tarring. In any case it was in Broadwater. The Caburn is in Glynde and not Beddingham.
The volume has a number of useful distribution and regional maps and a set of well-chosen photographs. Many will welcome it as a work of reference, but the beginner will need to supplement it with books giving fuller explanation and illustration of the many technical terms used.
Going into the Past, by Gordon J. Copley, published 1958 (Puffin)
Camden's Britannia: Surrey and Sussex, by William Camden and edited by Gordon J. Copley, published 1 May 1977 (80 pp., London: Hutchinson, ISBN-10: 0091220009 & ISBN-13: 9780091220006) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 6425] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Abstract:William Camden's "Britannia" (1610) was the first great text describing the British nation, its antiquities and culture. The work by Camden (1551-1623), often dubbed as the "father" of British history, deploys sophisticated historical material in the fashion of a geographical chorography. Organized by a set of country descriptions arranged according to the tribes of the Saxon Heptarchy, the work provided the benchmark by which later chorographers defined themselves. Originally published in Latin in 1586, this reprinting of Camden's epic geographical work is of the rare, revised, amended and enlarged English translation by the "translator general" Philimon Holland. Lavishly illustrated and revised six times over 20 years, Britannia is a product of European humanism, and remains an indispensable work on history, geography and national identity from the age of Elizabeth to the end of the Georgian era. Of great relevance to historians, geographers and critics "Britannia" was, is and remains an intricate fusion of geography and history.