Browse Items (239 total)

The Laws of Settlement : Their impact on the poor inhabitants of the Daventry area of Northamptonshire, 1750-1834

The aim of this thesis has been to analyse the Laws of Settlement. It is based on a collection of documents at the Northamptonshire Record Office which originated in the offices of several long-established firms of solicitors.;It is obvious that the…

The Holland Fen: Social and topographical changes in a Fenland environment, 1750-1945

Although much has been written about the consequences of drainage work carried out in peat fens, the result of eighteenth-century drainage and parliamentary enclosures in Lincolnshire silt fens has received little attention other than at a general…

The history of the Forest of Dean as a timber-producing Forest

Archaelogical research has abundantly shown that the primitive lands of a wide area, of which the Forest of Dean is a survival, were densely wooded. The abundance of wood was eroded through centuries by assarting, industrial activity, neglect, and…

The Growth of Gloucester, 1820-1851: Tradition and innovation in a county town

This study examines the extent to which innovative forces altered Gloucester's character in the period 1820-1851, a time of accelerating change. The analysis is developed at three inter-related levels: the town itself, its regional functions and its…

The governance of Wolverhampton, 1848-1888

The concept of governance is used to construct an urban biography of Wolverhampton between incorporation in 1848 and achievement of County Borough status in 1888. Intensive manufacturing is shown to have generated a sharp polarisation between eastern…

The experiences of war widows during and after the British civil wars, with particular reference to the Midlands

The British civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century are collectively estimated to have been the bloodiest conflict in British history. More than three percent of the pre-war population in England and Wales perished during the wars, a figure…

The experience of war widows in mid seventeenth-century England, with special reference to Kent and Sussex

This thesis investigates the experience of war widows in mid seventeenth-century England by examining the county pension and sequestration schemes during the Civil Wars. It focuses on how these processes impacted the lives of women who lost their…

The Essex gentry, 1381-1450

The subject of this thesis is the gentry of Essex during the years 1381-1450, with particular reference to their lifestyle.;The thesis may be divided into seven sections. The first puts the gentry into context; it discusses the history, geology,…