The thesis examines conceptions and experiences of space in later medieval and early modern England with specific reference to the Yorkshire Wolds, a region of low chalk hills in the historic East Riding of Yorkshire. Particular attention is paid to the spatial and symbolic relationships between manor houses, parish churches and rural settlements in the period before c. 1600, and to the ways power was articulated through such a landscape. Chapter IV examines evidence for early church foundations and argues that the geographical relationships between manor houses and churches evident in the Wolds and elsewhere in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were not simply an outcome of earlier pre-Conquest practices. The remainder of the thesis explores the continued meaning of these relationships in the later medieval and early modern period, arguing that while landowners might constitute or maintain their power through the architecture of their houses or patronage of nearby churches, these practices were at least partially dependent on the geographical relationships between manor, churches and settlements. Chapters V and VI examine the use and meaning of manorial and church space in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in greater detail. Both chapters are attentive to the ways that manorial lords might articulate their gentility, status and power, as well as their piety, through these spaces. Conversely, the thesis also investigates evidence for public use of manorial and church space, and consideration is given to the ways manor houses and churches might be constituted and experienced as public, private, secular or religious spaces. The thesis also examines evidence for the meaning of private space and property within the wider landscape and in doing so, investigates a variety of sites at which individuals and groups other than the gentry might assert identity, status and power. The thesis concludes by suggesting that buildings and landscapes not only reflected the status, wealth and lineage of those who occupied and used them, but also provided sites through which social status and political power could be actively negotiated and maintained.

This thesis considers the various church building schemes that took place in Glasgow during the early nineteenth century, focussing upon one particular model – that of church extension – to examine the way in which the Established Church of Scotland negotiated a space materially and culturally within the rapidly shifting socio-spatial dynamics of a city in the midst of processes of urbanisation and industrialisation. In so doing, the study asks what such schemes reveal of the Church’s understanding of both the city and its own role within society. The arguments used to persuade influential actors within the city to support the cause of church building are examined, and it is claimed that these arguments both drew upon and reiterated a series of claims that C. Brown has identified as belonging to a discourse of the ‘unholy city’. The material plans of church extension are next considered, detailing the mechanisms by which it was thought to work and the role of social élites in its establishment. It is claimed that, while clearly in keeping with earlier church-building plans, church extension was fundamentally different in concentrating upon churches not as means of accommodating worshippers but as centre points of a mechanism for evangelism, capable of impacting upon the manners and morals of wider society. Attention is drawn to the key influence of the Reverend Thomas Chalmers in the creation and application this model. Finally, the impacts that this was designed to have upon the city are considered, and used as a means of gaining insight into the shape of society sought by proponents of church extension. The thesis concludes by suggesting that while church extension can be interpreted critically as a tool of the Establishment, it is better conceived as a form of evangelism in which social improvement was a fundamental part, inseparable from the movement’s spiritual aspirations. Thus, it argues for the importance of understanding the Church as a religious community whose task is to engage theologically with society, and as a collection of individuals who are each a part of the very society upon which they seek to impact.