Agricultural History Review, Volume 52 Part 2 (2004), p. 208

This book is a substantially-revised version of David Hey’s The making of South Yorkshire, published in 1979, which takes account of research undertaken in the intervening generation. Hey’s original purpose was to produce a general survey to update interested amateurs and general readers that took account of new approaches and findings, and showed that ‘South Yorkshire’s history was as long and as interesting as that of other parts of England’ and that ‘local history could be studied in many different ways’ (p.6). Assessed in these terms, Hey has achieved his objectives.

Chapter 1 explores ‘The Roman and British Legacy’, including Roman forts, roads, industries and villas, Iron Age and Roman management of land and forests and occupation of farmsteads, the changes in land management and farming when Roman power ended, British place-names and kingdoms, the impact of the Anglian conquests, and defensive frontier earthworks. This is followed by a chapter exploring the origins, date and meaning of different forms of place-names, and the lightcast by place-names on the Anglian and Viking conquests and settlements. Chapter 3 addresses ‘Estates, villages and churches’, including tenth- and eleventh-century changes in a period ‘when most of our villages assumed their present shapes and farmers began to practise common-field agriculture’ (p.39). The disintegration of ‘shires’, establishment of new parishes andparish churches, nature of ancient districts and wapentakes, pre-Conquest importance of Conisbrough, Anglo-Scandinavian crosses, churches with Anglo- Scandinavian architecture, and preservation and alteration of village and estate structures are among the subjects covered. The book moves on to discuss theimpact of the Normans, including the ‘Harrying of the North’. The honours, families and religious patronage of Domesday tenants-in-chief are surveyed, as are post- 1086 seigniorial and tenurial transformations (though this is pursued in only a limited way beyond 1135) and the region’s castles and their remains. Chapter 5 examines knightly families and their moated sites, chapels, manors houses and deer parks, some of which can still be seen. Religious houses and their possessions and remains provide the focus of the next chapter, which gives special attention to Roche abbey. The discussion also features Rotherham’s College of Jesus, founded by Thomas Rotherham (1423–1500), Archbishop of York and Chancellor of England. Chapter 7 examines parish churches and influences on their location, Norman and Gothic architectural survivals, church interiors, stone crosses, and the impact of the Reformation. The region’s six medieval towns are then discussed in turn.

In Chapters 9 and 10 the book considers subjects which are, perhaps, of greatest relevance to the readers of this journal: ‘Villages, fields and farmhouses’, and ‘Lords and peasants’. Here Hey emphasizes the importance of village markets and the damaging effects on them of late medieval economic decline. He explores the distribution of and reasons for deserted medieval villages, the colonization of waste land, land reclamation, communal farming, establishment of new farms, types of farming and farming systems, rhythm of agricultural life, importance of cattle and sheep farming and turf digging, drainage projects, and surviving timber-framed buildings. These chapters also examine tenurial and economic relations between lords and their tenants, the terms on which land was held, estate incomes and management, peasant restrictions and opportunities, types of crops grown, specialized cattle and sheep farms, the rearing or keeping of other animals, other resources exploited by lords (including mills, minerals, and woodland), transport routes, family names, and peasant mobility.

The extensive range of subjects covered will doubtless provide general readers with a variety of interesting and appetising tasters, but in a number of places these are too thin and fast-changing to be properly enjoyed, as the discussion skips rapidly and somewhat disjointedly from topic to topic. But there is far more in Hey’s book to admire than to quibble with. It brings its subject to life, not least through the many black-and-white photographs, maps and illustrations with which it is adorned. These are accompanied by a readable and entertaining text which benefits from the author’s own extensive fieldwork and substantial knowledge of various types of evidence, including documents, aerial photography, archaeology, place-names, architecture and geology. One of the book’s greatest merits is the way in which Hey weaves this material together into an informative and engaging discussion. It does much to illustrate and convey the richness of its subject, and not only to its intended audience of amateurs and general readers. The book will also be of value to specialists and students; including those interested in agricultural history, which features prominently in a number of sections. And to anyone interested in local medieval history, whether that of South Yorkshire or elsewhere, Hey’s work will serve as an important and rewarding reminder that such history is far less distant, obscure and document-based than we might think; that it is all around us, manifest in many and often surprising ways in the landscape that we inhabit.