Anglo Saxon England

Anglo Saxon England – The Revival

This series is a revival in 2023 of a new limited series about the Anglo Saxons. It is based on a series I did for Members back in 2017; and in 2023 I have tweaked and updated it (maybe 20% of it). I loved doing the series so much that I wanted to make it available to everyone, I do hope Members will not mind, since they have essentially funded it (thank you!). If things happen, I may then publish occasionally into it, as the mood takes me.

The series is called Society and Countryside, and it’s about how life and society worked – what did it mean to be Anglo Saxon? For resources please go to the first episode. Or download the ‘all important PDF file’ here.

So much changes over the period; from the early settler society of the 6th century, the economy begins to change and become more sophsticated and that brings change. I love the way landscape still bears the marks of English from their earliest days; landscapes shaped society, but the Anglo Saxons change the landscape too. And you can see their mark still. Society was unique and worked very differently to today, and I try to explan a bit of that;  and then how lordship changes, and society with it.

I also got into local history a lot while writing this; I currently live in South Oxfordshire, which is interesting because is straddles two types of lowland landscapes – Planned and Ancient.  So I use the ancient scir of the Benson hundreds to illustrate some features of the landscape. I hope you will recognise similar features in other areas of England too.

And then I talk about the old question – did the Norman colonisation simply accelerate changes already present?  Or did it fundamentally change the way society worked?

All this takes 9 episodes, including the introduction, and will take us from the 5th to 11th centurues.  For the politcal history of Anglo Saxon England  which I wrote orginally in 2011 and rewrote in 2017, please go across to History of England, Series 1, which includes 22 episodes.