ABSTRACT
From 1400 to 1700 the English countryside was very thinly populated. As the great majority of people throughout these years lived and worked in the countryside, the volume and density of settlements and buildings were both relatively light. More substantial buildings dispersed through the countryside included country houses, monastic settlements, and castles. Monastic lands were purchased by country gentlemen who in the process substantially increased their power and wealth. By 1539, the King was making it clear that all the monastic buildings were to be destroyed and, as a result, once a monastery was surrendered, the lead was to be stripped off the roof and the walls were to be razed to the ground. Like the monastic settlements, castles were most numerous in the early Middle Ages, reaching their zenith about 1150. Moated homesteads were another form of defensive residence commonly found in the English countryside.
