ABSTRACT
By the end of the early modern period, there were more than 10700 parishes, chapelries, and extra-parochial areas in England.1 Of these, only just over 6 per cent were urban in the sense of being part of a borough and not including more than one additional rural settlement. Of the rural parishes, less than 8 per cent were both rural, and coastal, and under 1 per cent had more than half their area taken up with fenland. A more significant group of over 18 per cent can be defined as highland, having more than half their area made up of land over 400 feet above sea level. Although some of the remaining 7144 parishes contained some woodland, this leaves almost exactly two-thirds of all parishes which were predominately based on mixed arable and pastoral farming, and mainly made up of three or less townships. However, there were considerable contrasts between the dominance of different parishes in different parts of the country. Fenland was naturally most significant, although never predominant, in the eastern counties close to the Wash. Similarly, those counties with a below average proportion of parishes which were rural and lowland were north and west of a jagged line stretching from the Severn to the Humber, with the addition of Cornwall and Devon: the traditional demarcation between the highland and lowland zones of England. Only in one county, Westmorland, were highland parishes in a majority, but in a number north of the ‘highland/lowland’ line, including Cumberland, Derbyshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, they formed more than 40 per cent of all parishes.
