British history
Wem lies on the North Shropshire Plain, about nine miles north of Shrewsbury. The centre of a much larger medieval manor and parish, the township consists of the small medieval market town and its immediate rural hinterland. Anglo-Saxon in origin, the town developed after the Norman Conquest, with a castle, parish church, market and water mill. The urban area of the township, ‘within the bars’, was distinguished from the rural, ‘without the bars’. Burgages were laid out, with a customary borough-hold tenure, but the borough never attained corporate status. Isolated from the main regional transport routes, Wem developed as a centre of local government and trade in agricultural produce, especially cheese. It was thrust onto the national...
Medieval Londoners were a diverse group, some born in the city, others drawn to the capital from across the realm and from overseas. For some, London became the sole focus of their lives, while others retained or developed networks and loyalties that spread far and wide. The rich evidence for the medieval city, including archaeological and documentary sources, means that the study of London and its inhabitants remains a vibrant field. This volume brings together archaeologists, historians, art historians and literary scholars whose essays provide glimpses of medieval Londoners in all their variety.
Medieval Londoners is offered to Caroline M. Barron, Emeritus Professor of the History of London at Royal Holloway,...
Thomas Frederick Tout (1855–1929) was arguably the most prolific English medieval historian of the early twentieth century. The son of an unsuccessful publican, he was described at his Oxford scholarship exam as ‘uncouth and untidy’; however he went on to publish hundreds of books throughout his distinguished career with a legacy that extended well beyond the academy. Tout pioneered the use of archival research, welcomed women into academia and augmented the University of Manchester’s growing reputation for pioneering research.
This book presents the first full assessment of Tout’s life and work, from his early career at Lampeter, to his work in Manchester and his wide-ranging service to the study of history. Selected essays take...
Basingstoke is frequently seen as a very modern town, the product of the last decades of the 20th century. In reality it has a long, rich and prosperous history. From its beginnings c.1000 it became a significant market centre for the area around, and a place on the route to London from the west. By 1500 it was among the top 60 towns in England by wealth and taxpayers, and the centre of a major industrial area, whose manufactured cloths formed part of international patterns of trade. Moreover, it is well documented particularly for the 15th and 16th century, when it was at its peak, and should provide a useful addition to the limited number of studies of small medieval towns.
Much of the old town has been...
"Not only was Churchill the most illustrious and the most distinguished Chancellor that the University of Bristol has ever had, but he was also in his prime, from the 1940s onwards, probably the most famous and the most distinguished chancellor of any university anywhere in the world."
David Cannadine
Her Majesty the Queen has graciously permitted the Victoria County History to rededicate its series of county volumes, in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. The History keeps the name it was given in honour of Queen Victoria when it was founded in 1899 as one of great national projects of that time. It has remained one of the foundations of knowledge about English localities, publishing a remarkable series of encyclopaedic volumes, county-by-county, parish-by-parish.
This book is about the Victoria County History of today: how it developed in
its early commercial years through the commitment of its General Editors and a
team of experts, before becoming a great public project based at the University
of London,...
Peter Dronke Arbor eterna: A Ninth-Century Welsh Latin Sequence.
Maria Amalia D’Aronco: How ‘English’ is Anglo-Saxon...