A Frontier Landscape

The North West in the Middle Ages

N. J. Higham

This table gives the books price, published date, ISBN reference and other details
Price:	£25.00
Published:	November 2004
ISBN:	0-9545575-6-5
Details:	PB, 240 pp; illus: 12 colour, 75 b/w

Synopsis

The historic counties of Lancashire and Cheshire - at the periphery of the kingdom, both politically and economically - have been comparatively neglected in the history of the English landscape. This book redresses the balance. N. J. Higham portrays North West England as a frontier landscape which, between c. 1050 and 1550, went through successive changes which have left a deep impression on the region today.

The book starts by painting a picture of the North West at the time of Domesday: a sparsely settled land of little hamlets, fells, woods and marshes. It then tells the story of the region's dynamic economic growth between 1100 and 1350: the development of open fields, the new exploitation of wastes and woodland, and an expanding population. Manchester, Liverpool and above all Chester grew as potent urban centres, and Tudor enclosure also had a major impact on the countryside.

Reviews

'Comprehensive and authoritative, and does much to redress the balance in favour of an area seemingly neglected in the past (it is described as peripheral in 1066 and still marginal in the Middle Ages) and by modern scholarship. "If local variation has value, this is one of the richest landscapes in England". ' Antiquity
'Those curious about the roots of the dramatic post-medieval rise of the north-west will profit from reading it, as will all those interested in the economic history of the Middle Ages and its more tangible manifestations. Methodologically too, it serves as an exemplar of the insights to be obtained from synthesis of a wide range of historical, archaeological and morphological evidence. '
Economic History Review