The Development of Rural Settlement Around Lincoln

The study of rural settlement occupies a significant place in geographical literature and the relationship between settlement patterns on the one hand and physical, economic and social conditions on the other has long been recognised. In eastern England the pattern of rural settlement is composed basically of nucleated villages established in pre-Conquest times and of dispersed settlement made at a much later date, mainly in the last two hundred years. While the pattern of this settlement is generally well-known, the conditions under which it came into being are not so well appreciated. This study has therefore been prepared as an attempt to assess and elucidate these conditions as they applied to an area of approximately fifteen miles radius around the City of Lincoln.1