Waterways and Canal-Building in Medieval England

by Blair, John

• ISBN13: 9780199217151
• ISBN10: 0199217157
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

John Blair is Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at Oxford University.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Waterways, Geography and Economy

Barrier or Unifying Feature? Defining the Nature of EarlyMedieval Water Transport in the North-West

Uses of Waterways in Anglo-Saxon England

The Place-Name Evidence for Water Transport in Early MedievalEngland

Hythes, Small Ports and Other Landing Places in Later MedievalEngland

The Efficiency of Inland Water Transport in Medieval England

Improved Waterways and Canals

Identifying Human Modification of River Channels

Canal Construction in the Early Middle Ages: an IntroductoryReview

Waterways and Water Transport on Reclaimed CoastalMarshlands: the Somerset Levels and Beyond

The Water Roads of Somerset

Glastonbury's Anglo-Saxon Canal and Dunstan'sDyke

Early Water Management on the Lower River Itchen inHampshire

Transport and Canal-Building on the Upper Thames, 1000-1300

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