Discover Medieval Leicestershire

Archaeologists and historians from the University have contributed to a new book examining Leicester life in the Middle Ages.

Medieval Leicestershire, a 270-page collection of articles by 16 archaeologists, takes evidence from excavations in and around the city and county and compiles them into a compendium of local history.

Staff from the University of Leicester Archaelogical Services (ULAS) have contributed four papers:

• John Thomas has written about the evidence from excavations in the villages of Leicestershire and Rutland with information about how rural settlement changed over the medieval period.
• Dr Richard Buckley has contributed a paper which summarises the new information about medieval Leicester from recent excavations at Highcross together with previous investigations in the town as well as the Castle and the Abbey. This also includes the brewery at Freeschool Lane.
• Angela Monckton has compiled the information from environmental archaeology from seeds and cereal grains, fish bones, animal bones and shells to show the food ingredients available in Leicester in medieval times and the sites which were sampled in town and country.
• Harriet Jacklin has written about her work on over a thousand skeletons from the cemetery of the lost church of St Peter, found during the Highcross excavations - finding out about health, disease and death in medieval Leicester.

Mike Hawkes, from our School of Archaeology and Ancient History, has contributed the illustrations to a paper about church archaeology in the county, written with Matthew Godfrey.

Tony Brown, formerly of our School of Education, has written about his work on medieval field systems in the south of the County.

Emeritus Professor Christopher Dyer from our School of History has written an introduction to the volume about new research on the medieval settlement of Leicester.

In addition, a variety of other papers by local archaeologists cover the evidence for churches, abbeys, fortified sites, finds of metalwork, coal mining and even the gargoyle project.

The book, edited by Kathleen Elkin of the Leicestershire Fieldworkers, contains a number of illustrations, a foreword by historian and television presenter Michael Wood and is packed full of information about local sites and monuments.

Medieval Leicestershire – Recent Research on the Medieval Archaeology of Leicestershire, published by the Leicestershire Fieldworkers, costs £20 and can be ordered from the University's Bookshop.