Characterizing Rural Settlement and Landscape: Whittlewood Forest in the Middle Ages

Medieval Archaeology, 47, 53-83
The paper examines a sample area of countryside and seeks to explain the medieval pattern of settlement and landscape in terms of the classifications devised by previous scholars. The physical environment of the area and its development before AD 400 shared many characteristics with the wider region. However in the medieval period, as woodland regenerated, the area assumed a hybrid character, adopting some features of woodland societies together with others distinctive of the arable or `champion' countryside surrounding it. The paper demonstrates the mix of settlement and landscape types in the area and illustrates the utility of the concept of pays.