Browse Items (35 total)

  • Collection: Medieval

The origins of the village in South Wales: a study in landscape archaeology

The debate on the origins of nucleated settlement and their associated open-field agricultural systems is now one of the most frequently encountered in landscape studies. This thesis has explored this debate in a processual framework. A…

Encountering the Environment: Rural communities in England, 1086-1348

Our current understanding of the medieval local environment is largely based on scholarly writings focusing on the policies towards the landscape pursued by the social elite. This presents us with some obvious problems if we want to understand local…

Church dedications and landed units of lordship and administration in the pre-Reformation diocese of Worcester

One of the few quantifiable measures available for any study of society in the medieval period, other than economic and fiscal data, is the evidence of shared beliefs and values as expressed through the cult of saints. The chronology and geography of…

The composite manor of Brent: a study of a large wetland-edge estate up to 1350

A fascinating alluvial landscape dominated by Brent Knoll, plus surviving surveys from 1189,1235,1260 and 1307, intermittent account-rolls from 1257 and court-rolls from 1265, together render the ancient estate of Brent with its component manors of…

The Changing Landscape and Economy of Wisbech Hundred: 1250-1550

There is the ever-present danger that the study of local history can be seen as parochial and of limited value in understanding the forces that shape the society and economy of a country. This thesis demonstrates the value of local research as a…

The Peasant land-market in Berkshire during the later Middle Ages

Small-scale traffic in land was endemic in peasant society and is reflected in the earliest surviving court rolls of the thirteenth century. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a fall in the manorial population and the leasing of demesne…

Moated sites in Medieval England: A reassessment

This thesis sets out to reassess medieval moated sites in England in light of up-to-date information, and to investigate a number of key areas: where moated sites were located, why they were dug, who had them dug, and their relationship with their…

Stanley Abbey and its estates, 1150-c1640

This thesis assesses the impact of a Cistercian monastery on the landscape and how, in its turn, the landscape influenced the monastery. It also tests some of the traditional early ideals of the Cistercians such as their attitude to colonisation,…