Dear All

The death of Prof Maurice Beresford has been recently reported. He was a 
British economic historian who did much work of interest to 
archaeologists. He was a pioneer of landscape history and especially the 
study of deserted villages after WWII- an area in which he co-operated 
closely with archaeologists. He will be remembered by those Americans (I 
know several of you are on the list) who dug at the deserted Yorkshire 
village of Wharram Percy which he ran for many decades with the late 
John Hurst. More of you will have visited the site with myself and Kate 
Giles in last January at SHA York His academic work will perhaps be 
better known to us Europeans on this list. Classic books included The 
Lost Villages of England, Deserted Village Studies (with Hurst), 
medieval England from the Air (with St Joseph), New Towns of the Middle 
Ages, and History on the Ground. His work though primarily medieval to 
16th century also ranged as far as 19th century housing in Leeds.


paul courtney
Leicester
UK