Roadworks: Medieval Britain, medieval roads

doi:10.7765/9781784996703

This collection of essays on roads in Britain in the Middle Ages addresses the topic from a cultural, anthropological and literary point of view, as well as a historical and archaeological one. Taking up Jacques Derrida's proposal that 'the history of writing and the history of the road' be 'meditated upon' together, it considers how roads ‘write’ landscapes. The anthology sets Britain’s thoroughfares against the backdrop of the extant Roman road system and argues for a technique of road construction and care that is distinctively medieval. As well as synthesizing information on medieval road terminology, roads as rights of passage and the road as an idea as much as a physical entity, individual essays look afresh at sources for the study of the medieval English road system, legal definitions of the highway, road-breaking and road-mending, wayfinding, the architecture of the street and its role in popular urban government, English hermits and the road as spiritual metaphor, royal itineraries, pilgrimage roads, roads in medieval English romances, English river transport, roads in medieval Wales, and roads in the Anglo-Scottish border zone.

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Contents

Front matter
pp i-iv
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Contents
pp v-vi
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List of figures
pp vii-vii
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List of tables
pp viii-viii
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List of contributors
pp ix-xi
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Acknowledgements
pp xii-xii
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List of abbreviations
pp xiii-xiv
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1 - Introduction: Roads and writing
pp 1-32
- By Valerie Allen, Ruth Evans
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2 - Sources for the English medieval road system
pp 33-49
- By Paul Hindle
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3 - Once a highway, always a highway: Roads and English law, <italic>c.</italic> 1150–1300
pp 50-73
- By Alan Cooper
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4 - When things break: Mending roads, being social
pp 74-96
- By Valerie Allen
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5 - The word on the street: Chaucer and the regulation of nuisance in post-plague London
pp 97-126
- By Sarah Rees Jones
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6 - Getting there: Wayfinding in the Middle Ages
pp 127-156
- By Ruth Evans
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7 - The function of material and spiritual roads in the English eremitic tradition
pp 157-176
- By Michelle M. Sauer
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8 - The royal itinerary and roads in England under Edward I
pp 177-197
- By Michael Prestwich
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9 - The pilgrimage road in late medieval English literature
pp 198-219
- By Shayne Aaron Legassie
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10 - The romance of the road in <italic>Athelston</italic> and two late medieval Robin Hood ballads
pp 220-248
- By Christine Chism
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11 - London: The hub of an English river transport network, 1250–1550
pp 249-276
- By Claire A. Martin
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12 - Conquest, roads and resistance in medieval Wales
pp 277-302
- By Dylan Foster Evans
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13 - Trackless, impenetrable and underdeveloped?: Roads, colonization and environmental transformation in the Anglo-Scottish border zone, <italic>c.</italic> 1100 to <italic>c.</italic> 1300
pp 303-325
- By Richard Oram
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Bibliography
pp 326-359
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Index
pp 360-367
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Roadworks

Medieval Britain, medieval roads

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Contents

Front matter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

List of figures
pp vii-vii

List of tables
pp viii-viii

List of contributors
pp ix-xi

Acknowledgements
pp xii-xii

List of abbreviations
pp xiii-xiv

1 - Introduction: Roads and writing
pp 1-32

2 - Sources for the English medieval road system
pp 33-49

3 - Once a highway, always a highway: Roads and English law, <italic>c.</italic> 1150–1300
pp 50-73

4 - When things break: Mending roads, being social
pp 74-96

5 - The word on the street: Chaucer and the regulation of nuisance in post-plague London
pp 97-126

6 - Getting there: Wayfinding in the Middle Ages
pp 127-156

7 - The function of material and spiritual roads in the English eremitic tradition
pp 157-176

8 - The royal itinerary and roads in England under Edward I
pp 177-197

9 - The pilgrimage road in late medieval English literature
pp 198-219

10 - The romance of the road in <italic>Athelston</italic> and two late medieval Robin Hood ballads
pp 220-248

11 - London: The hub of an English river transport network, 1250–1550
pp 249-276

12 - Conquest, roads and resistance in medieval Wales
pp 277-302

13 - Trackless, impenetrable and underdeveloped?: Roads, colonization and environmental transformation in the Anglo-Scottish border zone, <italic>c.</italic> 1100 to <italic>c.</italic> 1300
pp 303-325

Bibliography
pp 326-359

Index
pp 360-367

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Roadworks

Medieval Britain, medieval roads

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