Shaping medieval landscapes : settlement, society, environment / Tom Williamson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williamson, Tom, 1955-

Contributor:

Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Landscape changes.

History.

Land settlement.

Landscapes.

Land use.

England--Historical geography.

England.

Historical geography.

Land use--England--History--To 1500.

Landscapes--England--History--To 1500.

Land settlement--England--History--To 1500.

England--Social conditions--1066-1485.

Social conditions.

Landscape changes--England--History--To 1500.

Physical Description:

x, 214 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Bollington, Macclesfield, Cheshire : Windgather Press, 2004.

Summary:

The English landscape of today owes much to changes and transformations that took place in the medieval period, i.e. before the large-scale planned enclosures from the 1700s onwards. What went before was a much more open system of fields with regional variations in the configuration of settlement, fields, hedgerows, roads and paths. Throughout this book Tom Williamson discusses the dichotomy between 'planned' and 'ancient', 'woodland' and 'champion' landscapes; between areas where nucleated villages were separated by regular open fields, as opposed to isolated farms and small hamlets with fields enclosed by hedges and larger amounts of woodland. Collating a great deal of information from an area extending from the Thames to the Wash, Williamson reveals fresh insights into the complex social, economic and demographic pressures that led to regional variation in landscape types.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 200-209) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

ISBN:

0954557581

OCLC:

55130400