Climatic Fluctuations and Settlement in Medieval Norfolk, c. 500 – 1500 CE

Woodruff, Tom (2025) Climatic Fluctuations and Settlement in Medieval Norfolk, c. 500 – 1500 CE. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis utilises archaeological, geological, and palaeoclimatic data to determine whether changes in climate had an impact upon the macro-spatial development of settlement in Norfolk between c. 500 and c. 1500 CE. The study focuses on four of Norfolk’s most distinct, climatically-sensitive environments: the south-central claylands, Breckland, and the west Norfolk Marshland and Peat Fen. Settlement in these marginal environments have the highest likelihood of exhibiting responses at a macro-spatial scale to changes in climatic inputs. Spatial analyses performed within GIS are the principal modes of investigation, with the distribution of potsherds mapped against surface geological and hydrological data to build an image of historic settlement and environment over the course of ten centuries in targeted study areas within each of the marginal environments. These analyses are subsequently compared against a climatic narrative built from an extensive review of modern palaeoclimatic reconstructions to ascertain the degree to which climatic fluctuations have influenced the development of settlement. The results of these analyses reveal that whilst climatic fluctuations may have had some limited impact upon a handful of individual sites, static environmental and anthropogenic factors such as surface geology, topography, advances in agricultural technology, and changes in modes of exploitation were far more significant drivers of settlement change at the macro-spatial level.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	10 Feb 2026 09:28
Last Modified:	10 Feb 2026 09:28
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/101881
DOI:

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