Use and Ornament: Late-twentiethcentury Historians on The Late Medieval North-east

Review of periodical literature published in 2005

“…The urban economy and its regional dimension are themes also considered in a number of articles on northern history for this period. Pollard’s overview of the relevant regional historiography notes that it is especially through economic history that an approach has been made to the historical study of the ‘region’, while Crosby explores the relatively recent historiography of towns in Lancashire and Cheshire. He reminds us that themes familiar to medieval historians of towns in other parts of the country, including the discussion of the small‐town, hinterlands, and networks of exchange, are also central to their study in these counties.…”

England's Northern Frontier

“…51 With reference to the north-east generally and especially the work of Pollard, the trend has been to normalise local society, to minimise the extent of the area that can be characterised as a 'true frontier zone', 52 to acknowledge that the effects of war with Scotland were restricted to northern Northumberland 53 and to come to see the gentry of the north-east as 'in almost all respects like gentry societies elsewhere in late medieval England'. 54 There are dissenting voices. Ellis's focus on the north-west continues to highlight the turbulent 'otherness' of that part of the realm: relatively impoverished, violent and militarised.…”