The Anglo-Saxon landscape The kingdom of the Hwicce [Paperback]

The landscape of pre-Conquest England can often be reconstructed in minute detail. Yet this is one of the first attempts at such a project. Here the evidence is examined for the West Midlands - the counties of Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, much of which formed the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the Hwicce.

Della Hooke reveals the intimate local landscape through the medium of place names, contemporary documents and archaeological evidence. Her detailed picture brings the Anglo-Saxon countryside very much to life. The patterns which emerge in this period go far to explain the nature of later medieval patterns of settlement and field systems, and provide the key to understanding territorial organisation in the region.

Illustrations and tables

Preface

Introduction

The Kingdom of Hwicce

Sources of evidence

The organisation of the Kingdom

Aspects of the region's economy

Woodland and heath

The agricultural regions

The developing regions

Conclusions

Bibliography

Index

Della Hooke is an Honorary Fellow in the Arts and Social Sciences department of the University of Birmingham, and Editor of the Society for Landscape Studies, Landscape History journal, President and Editor of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeologica