Overview
To explain the rich, complex patterns in the English landscape today, we have to understand how the land was farmed in the medieval period. Some regions had large villages with extensive open fields; others had scattered hamlets and less communal forms of agriculture. These differences are still with us - in the shape of fields, the form of settlement, and the character of hedges and woods. Archaeologists, historians and geographers have long argued about when, why and how these variations developed. In this radical and important book Tom Williamson overhauls many of the ideas about how they came about. Some scholars have argued that geographical differences in customs and culture, in the strength of lordship, and in population pressure were involved. Williamson in contrast argues that the overriding determinant was the practicality of working the land. Using a wealth of evidence from the Thames to the Wash, he shows how subtle differences in soils and climate shaped not only the layout of fields and farms, but the very structure of the societies that farmed them. This is a book which puts the environment back where it belongs - at the centre of the historical stage. It will be essential reading for all those interested in the history of the English landscape, social and economic history, and the way life was lived in the medieval countryside. 2nd edition with new cover and corrections.
Synopsis
This is an updated edition of a 2003 book, although it doesn't say so on the book. Williamson (U. of East Anglia) reminds us that where farmers put their fields, before parliamentary enclosure, depended on what was there first. Williamson uses photographs and maps to show how medieval societies and economies formed on top of the geography of the Thames and the Wash, demonstrating how soils, elevations, streams, and climate created the environments for houses, fields, forests, and grazing land. He shows how those various environments, and whether they were managed communally or individually, shaped the societies built upon them. Distributed by the David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR