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Stories from the Edge: Creating Identities in Early Medieval Staffordshire
Matthew Blake
Stories from the Edge identifies a methodology to illuminate the early medieval history of places that lack the compelling evidence to be included in national surveys of the period. It demonstrates that even in seemingly unpromising places something can be said about the people of the period. In landscape terms it is a study of the little world, the local, the manorial complex with its church and burial place, a micro-topography, investigating the construction of social memory. Through this we see the way the early medieval landscape was perceived and how people engaged with it in a creative and imaginative series of responses. Their past and present were negotiated and expressed through the landscape. It is about stories and storytelling, about the creation of memory, the invention of home, spirituality and social hierarchy. This study re-tells some of those stories and recaptures the early medieval sense of place in Pirehill. Above all though, this is an account of living in a mutable landscape and the stories people once told there.
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Cover
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Title Page
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Copyright
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Of Related Interest
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Acknowledgements
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Contents
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List of Figures
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Abbreviations
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Abstract
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Introduction
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Historiography
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1. The Creation of Memory: Law-less Staffordshire?
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‘Real’ barrows
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Barrows associated with inhumations in Staffordshire
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Barrows without evidence of associated inhumations in Staffordshire
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Staffordshire barrow sites – early excavations
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Barrow forms
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Barrow composition
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Place-names: hlāw, beorg and crūg
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Barrows: major place-pames: beorg, hlāw and crūg
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Naming hlāws
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Naming hlāws: summary
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Minor place-names: hlāw field-names in Pirehill
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Local study 1: Blurton
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Local Study 2: Aston and Burston
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Local Study 3: Catholme
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Exploiting meaning, establishing memory: the invention of local landscapes
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Creation of meanings
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Creation of ancestors
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Biographies
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Conclusion: The work of the dead
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2. The Reality of Saintly Stories in the Landscape: Staffordshire’s ‘Worthless’ Saints
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Æthelred and Æthelflaed
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The saints of Pirehill and Staffordshire
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Æthelflaed and Wærburh
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Wulfhad and Ruffin
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The Wulfhad and Ruffin story in the Staffordshire landscape
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Beorhthelm
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Using the dead: their power and their memory
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3. Public and Permanent Statements: The ‘Rickety Arched Frames’ of Staffordshire
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Provenance
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Production
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The Staffordshire corpus
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Trent Valley Group
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Dove Valley Group
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Pennine Fringes Group
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Dating
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Regional influences
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Stone sculpture and identity
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Memorialisation and manorialisation
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Discussion
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4. The Thegnly Moment: An Anatomy of Estate Centres
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Background: multiple estates
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Thegns and their estates
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Methodology: an anatomy of a thegnly estate centre in Staffordshire
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Defining the landscape: townships
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Ecclesiastical developments
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The Domesday Survey evidence
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Taxatio Ecclesiastica
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Place-names: OE tūn
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Case studies
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Darlaston
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Madeley
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Mucklestone
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Standon
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Blithfield
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Colton
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Wolstanton
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Discussion: wateriness and life on the e(d)g(e)
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Trentham
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Stoke
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Church Eaton
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Seeking out the e(d)g(e)
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Discussion: a commonality of topographies
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5. A 10th-Century Family: Kinship in Practice in the Staffordshire Landscape
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A 10th-century continuity?
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The family Wulf and their religious houses
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Conclusion
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Conclusion
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Bibliography
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Primary Sources: printed
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Primary sources: not in print
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Secondary Sources
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Back Cover
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Citable Link
Published: 2020
Publisher: BAR Publishing
- 9781407316697 (paper)
- 9781407355740 (ebook)
BAR Number: B657