ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the history and development of southern England over the past ten centuries. It describes the history of the communities which have lived within the region from the time of the Norman Conquest to the twentieth century. To show how the environment and landscape have been modified and developed by human activity, by economic pressures, religious movements, political changes and military requirements, and above all by long centuries of toil by many generations of farmers. The name 'Wessex', which is used as a convenient description of the central and western parts of southern England, originally denoted the old kingdom of the West Saxons. The central, dominating feature of the Wessex region, which gives it a unity it would otherwise lack, is the large expanse of chalk downland at its heart.
