University of Hertfordshire Press

01/11/2025

"The book overall is a model of a local study set within a national context and should serve as an example for others. It is beautifully produced with high quality illustrations and a striking cover. It also serves to remind us of how much our County Record Offices do to support research activity and public engagement. We owe them many thanks."
Anne Curry, The English Historical Review

The wars of the fourteenth-century English kings with France and Scotland resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of men involved in warfare on land and sea. This book draws upon new research to identify and analyse these soldiers at all social levels in the specific context of the county of E...

31/10/2025

“Praying men, fighting men, and working men”—King Alfred’s words remind us that medieval England was built on the labour of its peasants. But who were these ‘working men,’ and how did they organise their world?
This upcoming volume brings together essays that build on Rosamond Faith’s influential work, tracing the evolution of rural life before and after the Norman Conquest.

Dr Rosamond Faith is a leading historian of the English peasantry in the early and central Middle Ages. In a series of influential studies, she has uncovered the basic structures of rural society, revealing how economic organisation, physical environment, and ideology shaped the lives of ordinary pe...

27/10/2025

"The book is attractively produced, well illustrated, and reasonably priced. Focusing on several key aspects of Joan Thirsk's wide ranging interests, this book deserves the attention of economic and social historians of the late medieval as well as the early modern periods."
John S. Lee, The Ricardian

“This attractive, well-produced volume came out of a conference to celebrate the life of Joan Thirsk (1922–2013). It features contributions by those who knew Professor Thirsk well, together with papers by newer students of some of the subjects she held most dear... The book... will be of great i...

26/10/2025

"The volume is written in a lively style and illustrated with numerous photographs and plans that are well integrated with the text. His valuable study provides a stimulating reappraisal of the castles of the princes of Gwynedd that in turn should engender further interest in, and research on, a major, if also in many respects an elusive, aspect of political power in thirteenth-century Wales."
Huw Pryce, Journal of the Merioneth Historical Society

“Dr Craig Owen Jones’s book is… a major advance, and extremely welcome. Anyone interested in native Welsh castles would benefit from reading it. The book has many strengths. It goes a long way towards integrating historical, architectural, and archaeological knowledge and also employs a relati...

22/10/2025

"Gorman's research is deep and his knowledge detailed, not only because of his extraordinary access to local-history archivists, but also no doubt because so many small-scale, local nineteenth-century newspapers have now been digitized. The resulting book is intricately argued and its research both broad and penetrating. If it is also somewhat overwhelming for the reader who seeks an overview of nineteenth-century enclosures, its complexity instantiates its authority." Dianne F. Sadoff, Victorian Studieshttps://www.herts.ac.uk/uhpress/books-content/saving-the-peoples-forest

20/10/2025

We are thrilled to learn that "Broadland" by Tom Williamson and Alison Yardy has been shortlisted for the East Anglian Books Awards (History & Tradition section).

It was such a pleasure to publish this comprehensive and authoritative landscape study.

"This is an important and authoritative book, not just for the history of the Norfolk Broads, but also as an exemplar of how interdisciplinary study of landscape should be conducted.” Rob Liddiard, UEA

https://www.herts.ac.uk/uhpress/books-content/broadland

16/10/2025

"The editors are to be congratulated on successfully bringing together a range of disparate authors, subjects and historiographical approaches into a single coherent volume... The illustrations are plentiful and there is a helpful map for those of us unfamiliar with the detailed geography of Kent and Essex. As with the best local history this volume has an interest that extends beyond its ostensible geographical constraints. The accounts of Dr Thomas Plume and his library illuminate aspects of late Stuart churchmanship, scholarly practice and intellectual life, while those concerning the implementation of his charitable bequests will be of interest to anyone researching the origin and development of a local charity."
Jan Broadway, The Local Historian

“This is a model biography which illuminates its subject by examining his life as a student, a cleric in testing times, an acquirer of property, a book lover and a writer of a complex will benefitting a wide range of charities. He was a modest, almost self-effacing, philanthropist, deeply concerne...

15/10/2025

The overwhelming majority of people in medieval England were peasants. As King Alfred himself recognised when he divided society into 'praying men, fighting men, and working men', agricultural producers in a pre-industrial society sustained not only themselves but the rest of the population. How did peasants work the land, and how did those whom their labour sustained classify and organise them? Before about 1200, and before the Conquest in particular, answers are hard to come by. In a series of influential studies, Rosamond Faith has dispelled the mists shrouding early medieval peasantry, and traced the development of the more familiar manorialism of the High Middle Ages. This volume presents essays in which her friends and collaborators seek to take up and build upon her work. Ranging chronologically from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries, and geographically from Devon to Staffordshire, they examine agricultural production, social stratification, and organisational frames. The assembled studies will be of interest to anyone thinking about the early social history of England.

Dr Rosamond Faith is a leading historian of the English peasantry in the early and central Middle Ages. In a series of influential studies, she has uncovered the basic structures of rural society, revealing how economic organisation, physical environment, and ideology shaped the lives of ordinary pe...

10/10/2025

The brilliant Deborah Spring discussing her biography of Lady Anne Bacon.

Did last month’s article on famous women in history catch your eye? After seeing the story, local resident Deborah Spring contacted Radlett News to

09/10/2025

The Amendment Act of 1880 was passed following pressure by reformers such as Ellice Hopkins, seen here, who was committed to the reform of prostitutes and the prevention of young girls from falling into prostitution. This legislation made it a criminal offence for children under the age of 16 to reside in houses or lodging houses that operated as brothels. The police were given powers to remove children from such premises and place them in certified industrial schools alongside vagrant, destitute or disorderly children.

For more, visit:https://www.herts.ac.uk/uhpress/books-content/the-industrious-child-worker

08/10/2025

"An informative, academic book on a subject rarely studied."
The Music Box

“Though focussing on one small geographical area, it is no mere case study, for its comprehensive approach means that the author can draw conclusions that are valid for England as a whole. It should be a standard text on later 18th and earlier 19th century music making for many years to come. In t...

07/10/2025

"Excellently illustrated throughout from the Settlement Archive, newspapers and other key resources, each chapter is enhanced by illustrations and endnotes. A valuable addition to the bookshelves and of interest to historians and educationalists."
Jane Tunesi, Hertfordshire People

“This book is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the history of lifelong learning, often just seen as a modern phenomenon. It shows the value of keeping archives and the minutiae which can be found in them. It also illustrates what can be achieved when individuals share their knowledge. F...