Town and Country in England: Frameworks for Archaeological Research

The relationship between towns, or urban centers, and the countryside around them is a complex one. Beneath the striking cover of this book lies the results of a research project that promotes new ways of thinking about, and investigating, this relationship. The Urban Hinterlands Project of the Universities of Leicester and York (1997-8) sought to investigate the social and economic dependencies between town and country and sees the latter as the major source of power for the elite who imposed urban centers on the landscape to serve their needs and aspirations. This report combines theoretical and methodological approaches, which are largely based on archaeological finds, it highlights the quality and quantity of archaeological evidence available and presents a series of case studies from areas such as East Anglia, London, Hampshire and Yorkshire.