Reconstructing the Development of Somerset’s Early Medieval Church

New Approaches to Understanding the Relationships between Post-Roman Church Sites, Early Medieval Minsters and Royal Villae in the South-West of England

By (author) Carole Lomas

Book cover: Reconstructing the Development of Somerset’s Early Medieval Church

Extent: 210 pages

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing

Subjects: Architecture, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(May 2024)

ISBN: 9781803275796

8.07 x 11.42 inches

Price: $56.00

In stock

This book uses Somerset as a case study to contribute to a broader understanding of how the Church developed across the British Isles during the transition from the post-Roman Church to the 11th century. It collates and cross-references all earlier research and offers the most up-to-date study of Somerset’s post-Roman churches.


Reconstructing the Development of Somerset’s Early Medieval Church uses Somerset as a case study in order to contribute to a broader understanding of how the Church developed across the British Isles during the transition from the post-Roman Church to that in existence in the 11th century. To facilitate this a large retrogressive data set was constructed which enabled new patterns of development to be identified; this has pushed forward understanding of how Somerset and the South-West evolved, including the reconstruction of Somerset’s early great estates and early medieval parochiae. Crucially, it demonstrates how the medieval archdeaconries and deaneries correlate with Somerset’s early great estates. This book identifies the pastorally pre-eminent early medieval churches across Somerset by using a weighting system which enables comparative assessments of different types of evidence, including both historical and topographical, to enable the changing significance of individual churches to be assessed. The two most important conclusions are that the development of the Church in Somerset varied from parochia to parochia

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Sources and methods

Chapter 3: Process and change: the early medieval Church in Somerset

Chapter 4: Identifying Somerset’s pre-eminent early medieval churches

Chapter 5: Identifying Somerset’s royal villae

Chapter 6: Reconstructing Somerset’s early medieval parochiae

Chapter 7: Understanding the context and physical setting of churches

Chapter 8: Somerset’s early medieval parochiae

Chapter 9: Discussion and conclusion

Appendix

Bibliography

Index of Somerset Place-names

  • By (author) Carole Lomas