Peasants Making History. Living in an English Region 1200–1540

Abstract

This is an important book about medieval peasants and their role in the development of the west midlands region of England. Dyer’s study takes a peasant-centred approach to a range of spheres including agriculture, rural industry and urban growth, and he considers peasant values and identities as well as the nature of village communities. The emphasis is on the decisions that ordinary people took to improve their lives, while acknowledging the power of lords, the pressures on small rural producers and differences relating to holding size, tenure and stage in the life-cycle. The findings build on the author’s long engagement with the varied landscapes of Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, where mainly small towns met the needs of producers from champion vales and wolds, in which arable farming was carried out in extensive open fields, and from woodland areas where small open fields and enclosures supported a more mixed economy. The Forest of Dean in the south-west was a markedly industrialised area with a strong sense of identity. Nine main chapters cover the making of the medieval landscape; social structures; individuals and communities (including discussion of migration, social mobility and charity); family and household; cereal farming; the management of livestock and pasture; towns (including peasant influences on their fortunes); industry (observing its link with poverty); and peasant outlooks and perceptions. Attention is paid to change over time – more closely in some chapters than in others – with the Black Death dividing an expansive phase and a later period of retreat and reorientation. The analysis is based on documents, archaeology and fieldwork, including that carried out by the author and his collaborators. Dyer squeezes a good deal from specialist reports on crops and animal bones as well as from manorial records, tithe receipts and literary texts. His writing style is, as ever, clear and enjoyable to read, with specialist terms explained in a useful glossary. Elegantly drawn and well-chosen figures include distribution maps and plans of specific locations, such as that showing pottery production sites at Hanley Castle by the River Severn. Peasants Making History is a thoroughly humane study which sets a high bar for future work in medieval regional and social history. Arguments are deftly balanced and supported by deep knowledge of the period. Novel approaches are deployed, for instance in looking at the plays which villagers performed for their lords as an indication of their ability to co-ordinate complex activities and as evidence of local traditions of music and drama. A measure of confidence in the findings is that sometimes one might want the author to go further. Common trends are rightly identified, but how significant were differences? Factors promoting individualism in enclosed landscapes are presented alongside reasons for collaboration, but can an overall assessment be reached about the character of social bonds or local identities in different landscapes? Can more be said about the differing experiences and agency of the richest peasants or the poorest cottagers? Such questions underline the rewarding character of the book, which many readers will surely return to again and again.