Dr Stephen Rippon studied archaeology at the University of Reading, where he was awarded his PhD on 'Landscape Evolution and Wetland Reclamation Around the Severn Estuary'. He went on to become a British Academy Research Fellow, and then a lecturer in archaeology (now Reader in Landscape Archaeology) at the University of Exeter. His research interests include the transformation of wetland landscapes through reclamation in the Roman and medieval period, and the origins and development of regional variation in landscape character.

• 1. Introduction: Beyond Villages and Open Fields ; 2. At the Margins of the Champion Countryside: The Emergence of Villages and Common Fields in Somerset ; 3. Abbots, Bishops, Thegns or Communities: who was Responsible for Somerset's Champion Countryside? ; 4. Across the Watershed: The Development of Landscapes Characterized by Dispersed Settlement in the South West ; 5. Champion and Woodland? Landscape Evolution Beyond the 'Central Province' in Greater East Anglia ; 6. Marching On? The Development of Villages and Open Fields in South Wales ; 7. Conclusions

Essential reading for all of those engaged in studying the development of the early medieval landscape.