Robin E. Glasscock

The changing geographical distribution of wealth in England: 1086–1334–1525

Abstract Attempts hitherto made to assess changes in the geographical distribution of wealth in medieval England have inevitably been based upon county totals. A more detailed coverage is now possible with the completion of the mapping of information from the Domesday Inquest of 1086 and the lay subsidies of 1334 and 1524–1525. The outstanding feature that emerges is that there were considerable changes, but that the areas of change in 1086–1334 were very different from those of 1334–1525. Before 1334, the main increases in wealth took place in three areas: (1) in the silt belt of the Fenland; (2) in the north where William the Conqueror had devastated the countryside in 1069–1070; and (3) in scattered areas of marsh, wood and afforested land over the rest of the countryside. After 1334, the main areas of increment were five: (1) the south-west peninsula, extending eastwards to include the cloth-making districts of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire; (2) the cloth-making areas of Essex and Suffolk; (3) part of the West Riding; (4) London and much of the countryside around; and (5) the peat area of the southern Fenland.

Historic Landscapes of Britain from the Air

Uses the perspective of aerial photography to reveal humankinds ever-increasing impact on the British landscape since prehistoric times. It reveals how factors such as technology, the universal needs for food and shelter, transport and recreation, and more have affected the landscape.

Book Reviews : An historical geography of Ireland. Edited by B. J. Graham and L. J. Proudfoot. London, Academic Press. 1993. xviii + 454 pp. £24.95, paper. ISBN 0 12 294881 5

price, is a valuable addition to the literature on the history and geography of Ireland. How far it is historical geography is another question, but there is little room for this debate in a short review. Whatever the answer, the importance of the book is that it addresses many of the major themes in the cultural history of Ireland, sometimes from new angles and with fresh insights. Much is made by the editors (both geographers, living and working in Ulster) of the fact that this is a ’revisionist’ synthesis. I find this doctrinaire label unhelpful and slightly arrogant, for not only do many valuable and so-called ’traditional’ lines of inquiry fail to find a place in this book but the end product is far less revisionist than the editors lead us to expect. Much of the content is, in fact, deeply rooted in, and draws heavily upon, ’traditional’ and more recently published work as is shown, for example, in the very frequent references to the New history of Ireland. What the book does in fact do is to build upon existing literature by adding new information and by highlighting some wider perspectives that have been evolving over the last twenty years. There is, therefore, stress on the plurality of Irish identity ( contra nationalism),