In this controversial and wide-ranging study, the author argues that such differences were largely a consequence of environmental factors: of the influence of climate, soils and hydrology, and of the patterns of contact and communication engendered by natural topography. The book will be essential reading for all those interested in the character of the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian settlements, in early medieval social and territorial organization, and in the origins of the England's medieval landscapes.

Author suggests that such environmental influences have been neglected over recent decades by generations of scholars who are embedded in an urban culture and largely divorced from the natural world; and that an appreciation of the fundamental role of physical geography in shaping human affairs can throw much new light on a number of important debates about early medieval society.

Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Settlement and Society
2. Nature’s Frame
3. Culture, Ethnicity and Topography
4. Small Shires, Deep Roots
5. The Gradient of Freedom
6. Two Countrysides?
7. Village, Farm and Field
8. Landscape and Settlement
9. Woodland and Pasture
Conclusion : Time and Topography
Bibliography
Index


Tom Williamson is Professor of Landscape History, University of East Anglia; he has written widely on landscape archaeology, agricultural history, and the history of landscape design.

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