W G Hoskins

Exeter is one of the oldest cities in Britain: people have lived here without a break for more than two thousand years. The High Street has been in continuous use as a thoroughfare throughout that long period. For centuries Exeter was one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the kingdom and has always been the mother city of the South West.In this book, first published in 1960 and acclaimed as a ‘small masterpiece’, the author traces the essential historic development and character of a leading provincial centre. He describes its adventure from a Roman camp to a modern city, with particular reference to its social history, to the lives and surroundings of ordinary people, to the buildings and landscapes of the past. Above all, he is concerned with the recent past and devotes three thorough chapters to the 19th and 20th centuries.W. G. Hoskins died in 1992. The task of bringing the work up to date and preparing text and illustrations for this new edition of a classic work has been undertaken by Hazel Harvey, a distinguished local historian of Exeter. Much of Exeter has been destroyed, but much of the historic past of this entrancing city still remains. Hoskins’ incomparable text is supported by a new selection of illustrations and maps, with an appendix on the street names of the city and place names in the neighbourhood.This book will be as valuable to the visitor as to the citizen of Exeter, for it tells where to look for the memorials of the past and for the history that lies behind them.

First published in 1968, this is a reprint edition of one of Hoskins' most important historical works.

A thought-provoking social and economic of Henry VIII's reign. Ideal for readers of Ian Mortimer, Christopher Hill and E. P. Thompson. Henry VIII is one of the most famous monarchs to have ruled England. Yet, what was life like for those that he ruled? How were they impacted by the wars with France, his marital disasters and the religious Reformation that his chief ministers implemented? The Age of Plunder does not dwell upon the lives of political and religious leaders such as Wolsey, Cromwell and Cranmer, but instead provides a vivid depiction of Tudor England from the perspective of those who tended the crops, sat at the looms and worked in the mines. "The scholarship is as sound, the sympathy as warm and the judgements as pugnacious as ever." New Statesman "This is a provocative and stimulating book, packed with statistical information, but saved from indigestibility by well-chosen and unusual examples drawn from the author's vast knowledge of local history." The Agricultural History Review In this book W. G. Hoskins reveals how inhabitants of early sixteenth century England were witnesses to the greatest act of plunder since the Norman Conquest, but this time by the native governing class.

Considered to be the classic introduction to the subject, this third edition has been carefully revised and updated to take account of the developments in the subject, and includes an extensive newly compiled bibliography and twice the number of illustrations as in previous editions.

W.G. Hoskins was one of the most original and influential British historians of the twentieth century. He realised that landscapes are the richest record we have of the past, and with his masterpiece, The Making of the English Landscape, he changed forever how we experience the places we live and work in.Where we see a picturesque scene of rolling hills, distant spires and wooded valleys, Hoskins shows us the line of a Bronze Age trackway, the ghostly impression of an open-field system, the gridiron pattern of an industrial town, or the footprint of a Roman villa. By revealing these traces of the past, Hoskins enables us to appreciate different landscapes as if they were pieces of music, a series of compositions which enrich our understanding of the symphonic whole.While planning and building our future villages and towns, in both green and urban places, this pioneering account reminds us why we must be sensitive to the land and its past as we leave our own marks in England's historical landscape.

The Midland Peasant, one of Hoskins’ most admired works, portrays, with the aid of local records, a monumentally stable peasant society, which greatly strengthened its roots during the 16th and 17th centuries. English agrarian life in this period is seen through Wigston Magna in Leicestershire, one of the largest villages in the Midlands, and the free peasantry were the largest single class within it. An open-field village of the ‘classic’ type, its three fields remained unchanged until their disappearance in 1766.

This is the single most important study of the county's history, valued as much for the information it contains as for the author's communicate style. W.G. Hoskins, as one of England's greatest social and economic historians, is famous for pioneering the study of landscape history and for revolutionising the approaches to local history. This essential study contains 16 chapters on aspects of the county's history, an extended gazetteer, updated bibliography, and information on population. A 'must' for anyone interested in England's most popular county.

Considered to be the classic introduction to the subject, this third edition has been carefully revised and updated to take account of the developments in the subject, and includes an extensive newly compiled bibliography and twice the number of illustrations as in previous editions.

DEVON has a great sense of its own separate history. Throughout the centuries it was relatively isolated, with two long coastlines and comparatively short land boundaries, both ancient: Celtic Cornwall to the west and the rest of England to the east. Until the 19th century communications were very poor and Devon developed a distinct culture, economy, dialect and landscape – contributing to its strong local pride and character. That Devon is different is a fact, and helps explain the interest in its history shown by Devon folk and their many visitors. A great history deserves a great historian. W.G. Hoskins was a Devon man and one of England’s foremost economic and social historians. He pioneered the study of landscape history and initiated the modern approach to local history. His seminal work Devon is universally regarded as a major masterpiece of local history, both in its research and its writing. Throughout the half century since its first appearance it has been reprinted many times, has been held up as a model throughout Britain, and has always remained the unchallenged, essential, authoritative history of Devon. This new, revised edition, with an up-to-date Introduction, a new, extensive bibliography, the most recent population and similar statistical figures, reproduces the author’s classic text in full, including the Gazetteer – at over two hundred pages a book in itself, describing every place, hamlet to city, in the county – and his superb collection of contemporary photographs. The book is packed with detailed information, as remarkable in its high quality as its huge quantity. This new edition will be warmly welcomed by all who know and love Devon – England’s most popular county.