Making a Christian Landscape: The Countryside in Early-Medieval Cornwall, Devon and Wessex

Making a Christian Landscape is an important new interpretation of early medieval patterns of landscape development.

Sam Turner's new book traces landscape change in south-west Britian from the introduction of Christianity to the Norman Conquest (AD c. 450-1070). It stresses the significance of political and religious ideology in both the 'Celtic' west (especially Cornwall) and the 'Anglo-Saxon' east (especially the Wessex counties of Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset). Combining innovative new research methods with archaeology, place-name evidence, historical sources and land-use patterns, it challenges previous work on the subject by suggesting that the two regions have much in common.

Employing modern mapping techniques to explore land-use trends, Turner advances a new model for the evolution of ecclesiastical institutions in south-west Britain. He shows that the early development of Christianity had an impact on the countryside that remains visible in the landscape we see today.

Accessibly written with a glossary of terms and a comprehensive bibliography, the book will appeal to both veterans and newcomers to landscape archaeology.