The varied character of Britain's countryside and towns provides communities with a strong sense of local identity. One of the most significant features of the southern British landscape is the way that its character differs from region to region, with compact villages in the Midlands contrasting with the sprawling hamlets of East Anglia and isolated farmsteads of Devon. Even more remarkable is the very 'English' feel of the landscape in southern Pembrokeshire, in the far south west of Wales. Hoskins described the English landscape as 'the richest historical record we possess', and in this book Stephen Rippon explores the origins of regional variations in landscape character, arguing that while some landscapes date back to the centuries either side of the Norman Conquest, other areas across southern Britain underwent a profound change around the 8th century AD.

Dr Stephen Rippon studied archaeology at the University of Reading, where he was awarded his PhD on 'Landscape Evolution and Wetland Reclamation Around the Severn Estuary'. He went on to become a British Academy Research Fellow, and then a lecturer in archaeology (now Reader in Landscape Archaeology) at the University of Exeter. His research interests include the transformation of wetland landscapes through reclamation in the Roman and medieval period, and the origins and development of regional variation in landscape character.