The Rural settlements of medieval England : studies dedicated to Maurice Beresford and John Hurst by Michael Aston
Expensive? Yes, definately! Informative? Perhaps, if you know nothing about landscape history already. A milestone in the study of Medieval settlement? Not really.
The debt owed to Maurice Beresford and John Hurst by landscape historians is acknowledged with this present collection of papers. Using an interdisciplinary approach, in keeping with Beresford and Hurst's view of the historical landscape, this book represents a tripartite analysis of the rural English medieval settlement. The editors have collected together a series of papers from researchers in a number of fields, many of whom are themselves members of the Medieval Settlement Research Group, a grandchild as it were of Beresford's original Deserted Medieval Village Research Group. It is, however, impossible to give a full consideration of all these papers in such a small space. The book is, on the whole, well presented, with clear maps and diagrams (though one or two seem over-large) and a number of good black-and-white photographs of long-lost landscapes.
When its book is finally closed, what impressions does this book give? There is unashamedly no underlying theme to the book as it covers a diverse spread of ideas and approaches within the fields of documentation, fieldwork and archaeology. Papers included range from settlement dispersion to peasant farm buildings and from 'Grassy Hummocks...' to 'Truffle hunters...'. Many papers are, howevewr, reviews of past or current research. There is even a wide disparity show more of terminology, of county boundaries and what we actually mean by 'the Medieval period'. It ought, however, to be congratulated for its 'whole landscape' view, of not seeing inidividual settlements as isolated, but as part of dynamic systems, in both time and space. The book also mirrors the break with tradition which has recently developed in historical geography, as the 'Midland system' of widespread open fields and nucleated villages has been replaced by the growing realisation by workers of the great variety in the landscape. Furthermore, as the book introduces much of the new methodology of landscape research, it could be a good starting point for many a new student project, with its many case studies. At its hefty cover price, however, I feel that this book, useful as it may be, is beyond the reach of many, and its place on the bookshelf may have been taken by a handful of books already. show less
The debt owed to Maurice Beresford and John Hurst by landscape historians is acknowledged with this present collection of papers. Using an interdisciplinary approach, in keeping with Beresford and Hurst's view of the historical landscape, this book represents a tripartite analysis of the rural English medieval settlement. The editors have collected together a series of papers from researchers in a number of fields, many of whom are themselves members of the Medieval Settlement Research Group, a grandchild as it were of Beresford's original Deserted Medieval Village Research Group. It is, however, impossible to give a full consideration of all these papers in such a small space. The book is, on the whole, well presented, with clear maps and diagrams (though one or two seem over-large) and a number of good black-and-white photographs of long-lost landscapes.
When its book is finally closed, what impressions does this book give? There is unashamedly no underlying theme to the book as it covers a diverse spread of ideas and approaches within the fields of documentation, fieldwork and archaeology. Papers included range from settlement dispersion to peasant farm buildings and from 'Grassy Hummocks...' to 'Truffle hunters...'. Many papers are, howevewr, reviews of past or current research. There is even a wide disparity show more of terminology, of county boundaries and what we actually mean by 'the Medieval period'. It ought, however, to be congratulated for its 'whole landscape' view, of not seeing inidividual settlements as isolated, but as part of dynamic systems, in both time and space. The book also mirrors the break with tradition which has recently developed in historical geography, as the 'Midland system' of widespread open fields and nucleated villages has been replaced by the growing realisation by workers of the great variety in the landscape. Furthermore, as the book introduces much of the new methodology of landscape research, it could be a good starting point for many a new student project, with its many case studies. At its hefty cover price, however, I feel that this book, useful as it may be, is beyond the reach of many, and its place on the bookshelf may have been taken by a handful of books already. show less