This study sets out to establish the link between enclosure and agricultural improvement in a group of parishes in north-west Lindsey, Lincolnshire between the sixteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century. In particular it emphasises the continuity of enclosure history through time, rather than concentrating only on the period of parliamentary enclosure as has often been the case in the past, and on links to agricultural improvement which include land reclamation, draining and warping. It shows that a simple explanation of enclosure in terms of driving up rents and allowing individual farmers to take their own farming decisions, fails to take into account the particular local circumstances of this area. Using a combination of enclosure documents and related material such as glebe terriers, land tax assessments, census materials,the 1801 agricultural returns and estate papers it sets out to show how agricultural improvement transformed both the landscape and the farming techniques in this area. In this process it covers a range of related topics including landownership, population, and the socio-economic structure of the villages of north-west Lindsey. It shows clearly that in this area enclosure is as much as anything associated with land drainage, and with improvements brought about by warping. These processes were interwoven, and separating enclosure out as a single movement underestimates the complexity of the farming arrangements required to ensure the most productive farming in this area.

This thesis explores the interaction of bishops with both the English crown and members of late medieval society more generally by focusing on petitions and the supplicatory strategies adopted by bishops in their endeavours to secure legal remedy. Aside from revealing that bishops were often indistinguishable from lay petitioners in terms of the content of their petitions, with many of their complaints arising from their role as great landlords and tenants-in-chief rather than relating to the exercise of episcopal office, this research has also demonstrated that distinct supplicatory cultures separated the clergy from the laity. Notably, whereas petitions from lay supplicants often incorporated crown-alignment rhetoric into their petitions, thereby mirroring the language of ‘common profit’ found in common petitions, petitions from bishops reflected the supplicatory character of the clerical gravamina and presented requests for the exclusive interest of the church. As such, petitions from bishops, alongside the clerical gravamina, encapsulated a set of values, manifest through the use of language and rhetoric, which sought to assert the institutional independence of the church. Yet, despite being part of a supplicatory culture which sought to defend church autonomy and ecclesiastical jurisdictional integrity, the petitionary system in England sapped the supplicatory strength of the clergy and reduced their ability to defend their autonomy in the face of royal demands.

The thesis explores social transformations in the settlement and economy of Anglo-Saxon England, between c.450 and 1100 AD, by using detailed case studies of rural settlement remains within a sub-region, coastal West Norfolk, to construct a systematic narrative of their development. The archaeological evidence for analysis is mainly composed of portable cultural material from rural settlements, combined with surveyed and excavated evidence of their morphology. Multiple and superimposed forms of evidence such as geophysical survey and fieldwalking survey are employed to analyse the diversity of rural settlements and the material expressions of social and economic change in this period and to challenge existing models. The key findings of this thesis are that surface-find sites discovered by metal detectorists, upon detailed investigation, show themselves to be complex rural settlements engaged in trade and exchange. Importantly, these sites also have the capacity to change over time. The findings of this thesis enables a re-characterisation of early medieval rural social identities as complex, dynamic and ever changing. It is argued that the employment of integrated survey methodologies in other sub-regions of Europe might achieve similar results.

This thesis offers a new approach to the understanding of the recurrent crises of the period c.1320 to 1335, covering the final years of Edward II’s turbulent reign, the deposition, and its repercussions into the period of the Regency and the first years of the majority rule of Edward III. This has been achieved through an archive led study of the accounts of the ‘complaint and redress’ encompassed in the records of the Ancient Petitions presented to the Crown, held by The National Archives and designated as the SC 8 series. These records contain some of the most vivid contemporary and individual records of the lives and concerns of the king’s subjects during this turbulent period. This thesis illustrates that these records contain the genuine ‘voice’ of the petitioners, and can be used to reveal the impact on those seeking the king’s justice during the recurring crises of this defining moment in late medieval English history. Although there has been much interest in the events leading to the deposition and death of Edward II, research to date has focused mainly on its effect on the noble members of society, their place in administrative and governmental history, and the workings of the judicial system. In contrast, this study considers the nature of these complaints and requests in order to illustrate specific events. It places them in historical, social and political context to further illustrate Michael Prestwich’s assertion that ‘personalities mattered more (in the fourteenth century) than abstract principles of reform’. This fresh approach to the study of the petitions examines how the changing fortunes of Thomas 2nd earl of Lancaster, Hugh Despenser the younger, his father Hugh Despenser the elder, Edward II’s queen, Isabella and her partner Sir Roger Mortimer of Wigmore affected the lives of those seemingly unimportant people that made up the majority of the king’s subjects.

The recent work of D. H. Green and others on the benefits of combining linguistic, archaeological and historical evidence has highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration to early medieval studies. In this context, the Whittlewood Project (WP) lays important foundations for future projects, both in the UK and elsewhere, which seek to understand local settings in greater depth than any single discipline could permit. The WP is a multi-disciplinary project, encompassing not only the research and analysis in this thesis but also the surveys and findings conducted by Dr Richard Jones (archaeologist) and Dr Mark Page (historian), amongst other scholars. The Project focuses on twelve parishes which straddle the county boundary between Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire. The general aim is to build a picture of its medieval setting, with particular interest in the chronology of medieval settlement formation and subsequent changes in the way that communities responded to and utilised the landscape. Chapter 2 presents a catalogue of Whittlewood place-name material, of which all names recorded before 1600 are analysed. The major place-names of Whittlewood and the surrounding area are investigated in Chapter 3. The band of parishes around Whittlewood adds context to the work solely on Whittlewood parishes; patterns may be further exploited. Chapter 4 draws from the minor names in this catalogue, weaving together the findings from the archaeological and historical surveys with those of place-names. This thesis provides a framework that can be used to aid future onomastic research projects with a cross-disciplinary focus.

This study has two principal aims. The first is to identify the characteristic features of Leicestershire’s politics at a time of turbulence in English political history and the second to examine the relationship between political activity at a local level and nationally. For the purpose of this study ‘politics’ is defined as the way individuals manoeuvred, intrigued and competed with rivals to maintain their personal position and secure political objectives. The focus therefore is on the way men behaved politically in a variety of formal and informal contexts. Five settings are used to examine this behaviour: the role played by the leading aristocrats and gentry, the appointment of local governors, the established church and non-conformity, parliamentary elections and the borough of Leicester. The opening chapters set the national and local context for the research findings that follow. Inter alia the study looks at the local impact of Charles II and James II’ policies of re-modelling local offices to ensure that the militia, the commission of the peace and the corporation were composed of men who would support royal policy and also at the course of parliamentary elections throughout the four decades with particular reference to those during 1678-81, 1701-2 and 1710-15. These elections show the divisions which existed within the political community, the extent to which they were influenced by differences over religion and the way that they were exploited for partisan advantage. Although focussed on local politics, this study is predicated on the assumption that local politics can only be fully understood when the national context is taken into account.

This thesis will argue that the most effective way of understanding the physical development of medieval towns, particularly the larger, more complex, towns and those which lack extensive and detailed contemporary documentation is by a structured integration of the data derived from the archaeological investigation of individual sites with detailed town-plan analyses following the methodology introduced and developed by Conzen. This will be demonstrated by two case-studies, designed to explore the Interaction of the different sources of evidence at two different scales of investigation. The first case-study is a detailed analysis of the plan and development of the whole of a large medieval town,(Worcester), the second is a study of a single street (Pride Hill) in Shrewsbury. The analysis of Worcester illuminates, in particular, the boundaries and internal layout of the late 9th-century burh, suggesting that it was an extension to the pre-existing Roman earthwork circuit and incorporated an area subject to regular town planning, possibly following Wessex models, and an area of irregular settlement that included the bishop of Worcester's haga recorded in 904. The defences were, it is argued, partly dismantled for the extension of urban settlement. The Shrewsbury case-study examines an unusually concentrated building pattern of halls behind the street frontage, and sets this in its contemporary context by an analysis of the contemporary plot-pattern, identified in part by its association with surveyed medieval undercrofts. The earlier history of the area is explored through further analysis of the plot-pattern which predates and is cut by the town wall. It is suggested that the area in question was, like other sectors of the early medieval urban fringe, possibly subject to some type of regular land-allotment for grazing and access to the riverbank. Issues, illustrating the mutually-illuminating character of town plan analysis and urban archaeology, arising from the two case-studies, are discussed. These include the role of archaeology in reconstructing morphological change, the problems of the chronology of urban extensions, archaeology and the interpretation of cartographically-recorded features, and the role of plan-analysis in establishing a contemporary spatial context for individual and multiple archaeological investigations in early medieval towns.

The thesis is a study of the General Hospital, the General Dispensary and the Poor Law system in Nottingham, to evaluate the nature of the public healthcare provision each offered, the way in which they complemented one another and the extent to which they provided comprehensive cover of the healthcare needs of the sick poor and of the pauper sick and geriatric. The types of patients admitted or excluded by each institution and the recommendation systems which operated for the two charities are described. In-, out- and home patient numbers over time are quantified, and comment made in relation to population growth. An analysis and comparison of patient costs is made between the three Nottingham institutions and with comparative data from elsewhere. A major study of the General Hospital finances is made, analysing its management and showing the growing secularisation of funding. The Dispensary finances are also examined. The organisation of the Dispensary, the expansion of its medical districts and medical officers, and its provision of drugs are discussed. The healthcare provision under the Poor Law system is traced from its parochial days until the arrangements made from 1836 when the Union was founded, and the subsequent developments as the Poor Law system had increasingly to address the needs of the pauper sick and geriatric rather than the ablebodied unemployed. Topics treated are accommodation, medical officers and medical districts, drug dispensing and costs, care of imbeciles and those with infectious diseases, vaccination and nursing. The thesis attempts to evaluate the positive aspects of the healthcare provided by each institution while drawing attention to the shortcomings.

Chapter 1: Sets out the present nature of the landownership debate and outlines the aspects still in contention which will be subject to reappraisal. Chapter 2: Discusses the problem of defining a historical region, and presents an assessment of what are thought to be the old historical regions of Nottinghamshire, followed by a brief description of the economy. Chapter 3: Introduces the social structure of the data set families which comprise the stable core of landowners with which the study is concerned. Chapter 4: Discusses the social and geographical distribution of property and some of the factors which contributed to the changes experienced in the local pattern of landownership. Chapter 5: Outlines the contentious nature of the strict settlement debate, and assesses how the demographic implications affected the chequered patterns of inheritance, the form and timing of the settlement device, and the cumulative burden of indebtedness. Chapter 6: Factors influencing the level of activity on the local land market are presented, and compared with the findings of other regional studies. Chapters 7,8, and 9: Present a series of three family histories bringing together the principal lines of argument, and setting them in the wider context of estate economics. These chapters emphasise the contrasting responses of individuals to crises and challenges in order to maintain continuity of both family and estates. Chapter 10: Points the way towards a new model which could form the basis for future interregional comparisons, as it is essentially from an understanding of the regional variations that an appreciation of the changing patterns of landownership, will emerge.

The focus of this research is on well educated, middle-class Iranian migrant women who left their homeland at least ten years ago and are now living in the UK. The purpose of this research is to consider the first generation (who individually decided to migrate to the UK) and the second generation (the daughters of the first generation who had no other choice but to live in the country that their parents had selected) of Iranian migrant women according to intergenerational differences in their experiences of the migratory process. This study explores how Iranian women migrants (first and second generation) understand their gender roles in their homeland (Iran) and in their host country (Britain), therefore mapping the impacts of migration onto their gendered subjectivities. Based on in-depth interviews, this research focuses on the reasons why the first generation Iranian women migrated to the UK, their views on their gender roles within the family and host society, and their attachment to cultural values. Iranian migrant women left their homeland and had to rebuild their lives in a new country. I examine whether their perceptions of gender roles have changed as a result of migrating to a new country. The study attempts to show the extent to which the Iranian women migrating to the UK were affected by the issues surrounding women's status in response to political developments in their homeland during the 1979 Revolution in Iran. I also seek to uncover if these Iranian women import the traditional roles into their new society, in particular how their views about women's status differ from those they held in Iran. By exploring the migration process among two generations of Iranian women in the same family, the thesis seeks to reveal the gap between the family cultures with regards to protecting the Iranian values, and the effect of the host country's culture on the actual practices of migrant women which lead to shaping their identity. It also examines the extent to which these migrant women have kept their cultural values and transferred them to their daughters.