Living with a trespasser: Riparian names and medieval settlement on the River Trent floodplain

The Trent is England's third longest river. Its propensity to flood has long been recognised. Indeed it is this distinguishing trait that appears to have given the river its name. In this paper, we examine how this mercurial and potentially dangerous river was understood and how its floodplain was settled in the Middle Ages. Drawing on toponomastic and palaeoecological evidence we examine the relationship between archaeologically attested medieval riparian settlements and the river. These themes are examined against the twin backgrounds of climate and anthropogenic landscape change which ensured that England's floodplains were some of the most dynamic, and thus complex, spaces in which medieval people chose to live.