Waterways and Canal-Building in Medieval England
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:25th Oct '07
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£45.99(9780198723134)
The first study of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman canals and waterways, this book is based on new evidence surrounding the nature of water transport in the period. England is naturally well-endowed with a network of navigable rivers, especially the easterly systems draining into the Thames, Wash and Humber. The central middle ages saw innovative and extensive development of this network, including the digging of canals bypassing difficult stretches of rivers, or linking rivers to important production centres. The eleventh and twelfth centuries seem to have been the high point for this dynamic approach to water-transport: after 1200, the improvement of roads and bridges increasingly diverted resources away from the canals, many of which stagnated with the reassertion of natural drainage patterns. The new perspective presented in this study has an important bearing on the economy, landscape, settlement patterns and inter-regional contacts of medieval England. Essays from economic historians, geographers, geomorphologists, archaeologists, and place-name scholars unearth this neglected but important aspect of medieval engineering and economic growth.
While Waterways and Canal Building in Medieval England is a book for specialists in the history of our countrys waterways, there is also much to find of interest for the general reader... There has been much research into this fascinating subject over the past 20 years, and this is most likely continuing. * Elizabeth Rogers, Tow Path Talk *
This book has much new information and many ideas (indluding agendas for future work) which should be explored in order for us to develop a more sophisticated appreciation of the medieval economy. * Early Medieval Europe 17 (2) *
This is a fine book which achieves what it sets out to do. * Economic History Review *
[John Blair] and the contributors to this volume ... should not be unduly modest about their achievement. * Society for Landscape Studies *
This book greatly assists our understanding of the extent of early inland navigation in England. * Grahame Boyes, Railway and Canal Society *
...an excellent overview... * Northern History *
...enormously useful...a book which should be warmly welcomed. * Bob Silvester The Society for Medieval Archaeology *
a volume full of insights which makes a stimulating introduction to an important subject. * D. Harrison, English Historical Review *
- Winner of Winner of the Railway and Canal Historical Society Prize 2009 2009 Transport History Book of the Year Award.
ISBN: 9780199217151
Dimensions: 253mm x 176mm x 22mm
Weight: 813g
336 pages