Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape

John Blair is Fellow and Praelector in History at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Oxford. His interests centre on the landscape, society and settlement of Anglo-Saxon England, especially its built environment, with an emphasis on archaeological evidence. In 2013 he gave the James Ford Lectures in British History at Oxford University. His many books include The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society (OUP 2015) and Building Anglo-Saxon England (Princeton UP 2018). Stephen Rippon is Professor of Landscape Archaeology at the University of Exeter. He has served as President of the Medieval Settlement Research Group and Treasurer of the Society for Medieval Archaeology. His many books include Kingdom, Civitas, and County: The Evolution of Territory in the English Landscape (OUP 2018); The Fields of Britannia, with C. Smart and B. Pears (OUP 2015) and Beyond the Medieval Village: The Diversification of Landscape Character in Southern Britain (OUP 2nd edition 2014). Chris Smart is a Research Associate in Archaeology at the University of Exeter. He is a landscape archaeologist who specialises in the heritage of Roman and medieval Britain, and the use of GIS in ‘big data’ research. He is the editor of Industry and the Making of a Rural Landscape: the Regional Context of Iron and Pottery Production at Churchill’s Farm, Hemyock, Devon (BAR 2018).

• 1. Introduction2. Early medieval settlements and field systems3. Identifying planning in the early medieval landscape4. Planning technologies in post-Roman Europe and their impact on English practice5. Higher-status settlements in England, c.600-10506. Rural settlements in England, c.600-10507. ConclusionsAppendix A: Perches, post-holes and gridsAppendix B: Anglo-Saxon grids and the designing of buildings, with special reference to churches and the square root of twoAppendix C: Catalogue of Grid-Planned SitesBibliography

'Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape – the title of both the book and the research project on which it is based – is a major contribution to the long-running and much-debated question as to when and how the English medieval countryside took shape. [...] These and many other insights are presented clearly and concisely in a compact volume that is likely to become an essential reference text for all Anglo-Saxonists.'Neil Faulkner, Current Archaeology