On behalf of the MSRG, Christopher Dyer, with the aid of Neil Christie (secretary), Mark Gardiner (president) and other members of MSRG applied to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding for a series of research workshops under their ‘Landscape and Environment Programme’. The application was successful and £15,000 was awarded.

The purpose of the workshops is designed to open up new avenues in medieval settlement studies, by exploring the mentality and culture that lay behind the founding, use and abandonment of settlements. Why were some settlements given regular plans ?  Why were divergent decisions made about the division between public and private space ?  How did the inhabitants regard their resources, draw boundaries around them, and defend them ?  How did they cope with changes, such as environmental degradation and economic crisis? What lay behind the preservation of older features of the landscape, and how was colonisation planned and designed ?  Did  villagers have a sense of identity, and to what extent did they have wider horizons ? More details of the rationale behind these workshops can be found from the left hand column 'Background and Rationale.

These approaches to landscape and settlement will be explored in these workshops .  The workshops will be small-scale seminars, and anyone with a particular commitment to a theme should approach the local organisers.  Clicking on the link in the left hand column will open a new page with details of each workshop.

Planning and meaning.  Belfast, 23 February 2007. Organisers: Mark Gardiner and Keith Lilley. 

Working and sharing. Edinburgh, 20 April 2007. Organiser: Piers Dixon. 

New people, new farms.  Exeter, 6 July 2007. Organisers: Oliver Creighton and Stephen Rippon.  A

Belonging, communication and interaction. York, 21 September 2007. Organisers: Kate Giles and Julian Richards.