The Harvest of the Hills

This illustrated environmental history of rural life in Northern England and the Scottish Borders in the late medieval and early modern periods explores the relationship between society and the environment -- the ways in which humans responded to and used the environment in which they lived. The author uses the orders and bylaws made by manorial courts to build up a picture of how pastoral society in the Pennine, Lake District and Border hills husbanded the resources of the uplands. It offers an upland, pastoral paradigm of land use, the management of common land, and the transition from medieval to early-modern farming systems to balance the extensive literature on the agrarian history of the lowlands. The geographical scope of the book includes the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, the Border hills, the North Pennines and the Forest of Bowland. Through a lively text and carefully selected illustrations the author captures the distinctive local culture of traditional pastoral communities in these much visited areas of Britain.