Maurice Beresford

Maurice Warwick Beresford
Born	(1920-02-06)6 February 1920 Sutton Coldfield
Died	15 December 2005(2005-12-15) (aged 85) Leeds
Nationality	British
Education	Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
Alma mater	Jesus College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)	historian, archaeologist

Maurice Warwick Beresford, FBA (6 February 1920 – 15 December 2005) was an English economic historian and archaeologist specialising in the medieval period. He was Professor of Economic History at the University of Leeds.

Early life and education

Beresford was born on 6 February 1920 in Sutton Coldfield, then in Warwickshire. He was the only child of Harry Bertram Beresford and Nora Elizabeth Beresford (née Jefferies). His father died in 1934, aged 46, and Maurice's mother continued to live with him until her death in 1966, aged 79.

From 1930 to 1938, Beresford was educated at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, a state grammar school in Sutton Coldfield. While there, he was enthused by two teachers, one a history master and the other from geography. He was successful at school, becoming a prefect, school librarian and editor of the school newspaper.

In 1937, Beresford sat a joint entrance exam in history for six of the University of Cambridge's colleges and was awarded an exhibition at his fifth choice, Jesus College. He matriculated in 1938. He studied for the history tripos under Bernard Manning and Charles Wilson, and took a First in part I. After doing so well, he was awarded a minor scholarship for the rest of his degree. He specialised in the medieval period for Part II, and took part in an economic history seminar run by John Saltmarsh. He passed part II and his degree with first class honours. He graduated from Cambridge with a BA in 1941, later promoted to an MA.

As an undergraduate, Beresford wrote a paper on parkland in Sutton Coldfield, the beginning of his interest in the interaction between the physical landscape and documents such as maps: this interest led to his 1957 publication, History on the Ground.

In September 1939, with the start of the Second World War, Beresford registered as a conscientious objector. He was exempted from military service in April 1940 on the condition that he continued his studies. After completing his degree, he undertook social work in London and Birmingham.

Academic career

Beresford began his academic career not at a university but in adult education. He was Sub-Warden (1942–1943) and then Warden (1943–1948) of Percival Guildhouse, an adult education centre and charity in Rugby, Warwickshire. He continued his research, including studying the local area through RAF aerial photography and old maps to rebuild the medieval landscape. His main interests were in medieval field systems and the history of settlement. In 1945 he identified the deserted medieval village of Bittesby in Leicestershire. He expanded his interests from history and historical geography into archaeology and was involved in excavations at Steeton and East Lilling in Yorkshire in 1948 and 1949.

Beresford was appointed a Lecturer at the University of Leeds in 1948. He was promoted to Reader in 1955 and to Professor of Economic History in 1959, a post he was to hold until his retirement as Emeritus Professor in 1985.

Together with John Hurst he conducted archaeological excavations at the deserted village of Wharram Percy near Malton in North Yorkshire. This work became an important impetus for medieval archaeology in Britain and Europe.

Honours

Beresford was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1985.

Death

Beresford died in Leeds on 15 December 2005 at the age of 85.

Bibliography

• Beresford, M. W. (1947). The Minute Book of a Leicestershire Enclosure. Leicester: Thornley Offprint.
• Beresford, M. W. (1951). "The Lost Villages of Yorkshire, Parts I to IV". Yorkshire Archaeological Journal. 23. Leeds: Yorkshire Archaeological Society.
• Beresford, M. W. (1951). The Lost Villages of Yorkshire, Parts I to IV Offprint from Yorkshire Archaeological Journal. Leeds: Yorkshire Archaeological Society.
• Beresford, M. W. (1951). The Lost Villages of Medieval England. London: Royal Geographical Society.
• Beresford, M. W. (1951). The Leeds Chamber of Commerce. With an Epilogue by S.J. Batchelder. Leeds: Leeds Chamber of Commerce.
• Beresford, M. W. (1954). The Lost Villages of England. London: Lutterworth Press.
• Beresford, M. W. (1961). Time and Place. Leeds: Leeds University Press.
• Beresford, M. W. (1957). "The Common Informer, the Penal Statutes and Economic Regulation". Economic History Review. second. 10 (2). Glasgow: Economic History Society: 222–238. doi:10.2307/2590859. JSTOR 2590859.
• Beresford, M. W. (1957). The Common Informer, the Penal Statutes and Economic Regulation (offprint from Economic History Review). Glasgow: Economic History Society.
• Beresford, M.W. (1963). Lay Subsidies and Poll Taxes. Chichester: Phillimore.
• Beresford, M. W. (1967). Leeds and its Region. Leeds: Leeds local executive committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Beresford, M. W. (1967). New Towns of the Middle Ages: Town Plantation in England, Wales and Gascony. London: Lutterworth Press. ISBN 0-7188-0601-8.
• Beresford, M. W.; Hurst, J. G., eds. (1971). Deserted Medieval Villages: Studies. Woking: Lutterworth Press. ISBN 0-7188-1373-1.
• Beresford, M. W. (1971). History on the Ground: Six Studies in Maps and Landscapes. London: Methuen & Co. ISBN 0-416-15130-2.
• Beresford, M. W.; Finberg, H. P. R. (1973). English Medieval Boroughs: A Hand-List. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5997-5.
• Beresford, M. W. (1979). Medieval England: An Aerial Survey. Cambridge Air Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-21961-2.
• Beresford, M. W. (1979). West Riding County Council 1889–1974 Historical Studies. The King's England Press. ISBN 0-86181-000-7.
• Beresford, Maurice (1980). Walks Round Red Brick. Leeds University Press. ISBN 0-85316-124-0.
• Beresford, M. W. (1988). East End, West End: Face of Leeds During Urbanisation, 1684–1842. Publications of the Thoresby Society. Leeds: Thoresby Society. ISBN 0-900741-23-6.
• Beresford, M. W.; Hurst, J. G. (1990). Wharram Percy: Deserted Medieval Village. London: B.T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-6114-4.
• Beresford, Maurice (1998). The Lost Villages of England (revised ed.). Sutton.
• Beresford, M. W. (2008). Leeds in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Miscellany). Leeds: Thoresby Society. ISBN 978-0-900741-66-1.

Sources

• Cox, Harold (2007). "Maurice Beresford, 1920–2005". Rural History. 18: 135–136. doi:10.1017/s0956793306002056.
• Dyer, Christopher (22 December 2005). "Maurice Beresford, A historian on the trail of England's lost villages". The Guardian.
• Glasscock, Robin (14 January 2006). "Professor Maurice Beresford, Economic historian and author of 'The Lost Villages of England' who pioneered 'landscape history'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 April 2011.
• "Professor Maurice Beresford, Historian whose painstaking work on deserted medieval communities led to his celebrated book the Lost Villages of England". The Times. 2 January 2006.

External links

• "Archival material relating to Maurice Beresford". UK National Archives.