Wharram Settlement Series

Wharram XIII: A History of Wharram Percy and its Neighbours

Edited by Stuart Wrathmell

The final volume in the Wharram series charts the history of Wharram Percy from later prehistoric times to the 16th century. It summarises the excavation programme and discusses key influences on the methods and techniques adopted at Wharram. It also introduces the results of earthwork and geophysical surveys carried out since the end of the excavations, and explores their role in generating new understandings of Wharram’s settlement history. The creation of the earliest elements of the medieval village plan in the Late Saxon period is examined and debated in the context of Scandinavian overlordship in the locality. Evidence for the fields and farms, homes and daily lives of peasant farmers both at Wharram and in nearby communities is also explored, and the circumstances of depopulation and desertion are re-examined.

Review in Medieval Archaeology Vol 57, 2013: ‘The volume is stuffed full of very fine scholarship and innovation by a range of scholars’ and ‘Importantly, this volume, along with its 12 predecessors, is a vindication of what Wharram has always so clearly demonstrated: that repeated interrogation of one site and its landscape context is the best way to achieve meaningful results. As such it is a triumph.’

This volume can be purchased from Oxbow Books.

For further details on other titles in the Wharram Settlement series and to purchase copies see the Oxbow website.

Medieval Rural Settlement: Britain and Ireland, AD 800-1600

Edited by Neil Christie and Paul Stamper

This volume is a major assessment and review of the origins, forms and evolutions of medieval rural settlement in Britain and Ireland across the period c. AD 800-1600. It offers a comprehensive analysis of early to late medieval settlement, land use, economics and population, bringing together evidence drawn from archaeological excavations and surveys, historical geographical analysis and documentary and place-name study. It is the flagship publication of the MSRG and offers systematic appraisal of 60 years’ work across the whole field of medieval settlement, designed to inspire the next generation of researchers.

Review by Professor Chris Gerrard in Current Archaeology Issue 268 (July 2012):

“This is an exceptional volume…”
“A strong and sensible editorial vision…”
“This is later medieval archaeology at its best…”

Further details, including full table of contents, are available from Oxbow Books.

Life in Medieval Landscapes: People and Places in the Middle Ages

Edited by Sam Turner and Bob Silvester

The first part of the volume explores the use and experience of different types of landscapes incl. marshlands, uplands, woodland and woodpasture. A particular theme in several papers is the exploration of social, economic and spatial marginality. The second part presents new studies of labour and lordship, which focus on aspects of the land market before the Black Death, the organisation of village communities, and how changing settlements related to demography and occupations. The main themes of the book reflect the interests of Professor Harold Fox, whose death in 2007 was marked by a number of conferences from which this book is drawn.

Review in Medieval Archaeology vol 56, 2012: ‘This collection is a fitting tribute to Harold Fox, the distinguished Leicester-based agrarian and landscape historian…. Perhaps rightly, no strong central theme emerges, but there is an emphasis in several papers on subjects which numbered among Fox’s main preoccupations, notably the lives and occupations of ordinary inhabitants, the utilisation of different types of landscape and transhumance and seasonal settlement…’

Further details, including full table of contents, are available from Oxbow Books.