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A Country Merchant, 1495-1520 : Trading and Farming at the End of the Middle Ages

John Heritage, wool merchant and sheep farmer, is uniquely well documented. No accounts have survived for any other Cotswold woolman, in spite of the fame of the trade 1250-1540. The book exploits this unique survival, and the plentiful evidence for the places and people connected to the merchant, allowing a whole society to be anatomised. The approach is interdisciplinary, setting Heritage and his suppliers into a landscape context illuminated by archaeology and architectural history. The book sets out to throw light on a murky period in English economic and social history, when late medieval stagnation was turning into new growth.