"Landscapes, Documents and Maps integrates evidence from geography, history, economic history, archaeology, place-name studies, anthropology and even church architecture. Nevertheless, the underlying subject matter always engages with landscape studies. The objective is to combine these with the descriptive and analytical practices of history, and to draw both together using the cartographic methods of historical geography." "These enquiries lead to an investigation of the landed estates in which all settlements developed and their farming and social systems, the land holding arrangements integrated into the physical plans, the arrangements to share out the agricultural resources and common grazings, and finally the social divisions present within a changing society. It is clear from the evidence amassed that the deliberate founding of new villages and the establishment of new plans on older sites was taking place in Northern England in the centuries between about AD 900 and 1250." "Finally, the European roots of planned settlements are reviewed, to conclude with a hypothesis about the origins of villages in the whole of England. This offers challenges about our view of the 'old country' of Anglo-Saxon England."--Jacket.