There is scope for clarifying characteristics that distinguish small towns in the Middle Ages both from larger and lesser settlements and from each other. This will involve investigating their economy, their role in their area and their social…
Much of the East Anglian landscape can still be regarded by the historical geographer as an unknown palimpsest. Its medieval field pattern, for example, still awaits adequate explanation and the whole fascinating development of the roads and tracks…
This thesis takes as its research area the southern half of Pirehill Hundred, Staffordshire. Despite being in the Mercian heartland, it is an area that has remained on the periphery of discussions by scholars of the early medieval period. To bring…
An inter-disciplinary approach has been adopted for the study of historical process in the landscape of one particular area of south-east Leicestershire. The value of combining archaeological data with documentary evidence is its potential for…
This thesis examines the role of place and the landscape in the construction and expression of gentry identity in late medieval Leicestershire. Land has been said to be the gentry’s most prized possession, and the myriad ways in which the gentry have…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
