Early settlement in Derbyshire

the long version

The present-day Derbyshire landscape is an amalgam of natural and human processes that have been in operation for considerably varying lengths of time. This book serves as a general introduction of the processes that were to determine the character of the countryside in the time between man's arrival in Derbyshire and the arrival of the Normans. The emphasis is placed on the interplay between the early settlers and the natural environment. During this period man came a long way from the time when his ancestors sheltered in caves at Creswell. The Ice Ages came and went; farming was introduced; the gritstone uplands were deforested, settled and abandoned; and Angles conquered the heavy clay soils of southern Derbyshire but were not able to overcome the Scandinavians. The author gained his M.A. degree for research forming the basis of this book, which is a companion volume to *Early Pennine Settlement* and *Early Settlement in the Lake Counties*.