Centre for Medieval Studies
John Margham
The Isle of Wight c. 650 to c. 1150: a study of localisation in a landscape
My thesis is an examination of the landscape history of the Isle of Wight from the ‘conversion period’ through to the establishment of local churches. The main themes are the definition of early medieval landscape regions, the development of local church provision, estate fragmentation and the development of manors, and settlement in the landscape. This will include assessments of the relevance of the minster hypothesis and the multiple estate model to the Isle of Wight as well as an examination of continuity and colonization. This multidisciplinary research builds on my previous research and that of others, aiming at a coherent account of the development of the landscape (as far as the
evidence allows!).
Biography
John became very interested in medieval archaeology and landscape history whilst studying for a geography degree at Lampeter. He worked for a few years as an archaeologist which included taking the Oxford field archaeology diploma. A career in special needs teaching followed, in Norfolk and then Yorkshire. He has been researching the early medieval landscape history and place-names of the Isle of Wight for over 30 years, and much of this is published in Wight Studies. John was the county recorder for The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland and for the UCL Landscapes of Governance project. He has two papers published in Landscape History and is the co-author of a
forthcoming paper in The Antiquaries Journal. His interests include church archaeology and early medieval sculpture.
