Stephen Mileson's book considers the development of the English medieval park from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Rather than focusing entirely on traditional historiographical arguments concerning parks, most notably the arguments for and against an economic as opposed to a recreational rationale, he attempts a more detailed study of the motivational drivers for park making, and moves beyond the usual consideration of royal parks to encompass the hitherto rarely considered aristocratic equivalent. He notes gaps in the historiography, particularly the link between aristocratic status and parks, and the consideration of the effects that parks had on the lower orders of medieval society. The book is arranged in two sections: the first focuses on the function and social meaning of parks, while part two assesses how parks affected society as a whole. Mileson selects the Black Death as a useful marker for considering change, and each chapter appraises stability and development on either side of this chronological divide.

In considering the function of the medieval park, the main polemic argument that has recently exercised historians concerning the role of the park focuses on the park as either a vital part of the seigneurial economy or mere lordly luxury. Mileson offers a framework for determining likely aristocratic motivation, considering issues such as how intensively managed parks were, whether a focus on profit could be detected, and how the resources in question might have been otherwise managed. He finds no clear economic impetus, and this conclusion is skilfully strengthened as he moves on to consider the idea that the park may have been an important element in landscaping the seigneurial environment, and the ensuing association with personal status. But these conclusions are never overstated. Mileson notes, for instance, that status was not necessarily at the forefront of the aristocratic rationale for imparkment, and that this was far more likely to have been a motivating force for the lower echelons of the medieval elite.

In the second part of the book, Mileson considers the impact that parks made on hunting practices, the seigneurial landscape, and enclosure and assesses in turn the repercussions on each sector of society. Considering again the link between parks and status he notes the hostility with which new parks were frequently viewed, particularly those of the lower nobility, and suggests that in creating parks, they incurred the ire of more established and higher ranking lords. One of the most satisfying elements of this book is a recognition that historians have only cursorily considered the effects of parks on the peasantry. And yet Mileson does not go as far as he might in this regard. He considers a number of aspects, including peasant displacement due to imparkment, the effective closing of access to longstanding paths and tracks, and the enclosure of once common woodland, denying peasant access to a range of woodland resources including small game. But perhaps more might have been made of the lower orders’ contravention of seigneurial rules vis a vis parks, which would have been further revealing of peasant mentalities concerning territory that was notionally forbidden to them. Within manorial court rolls, only briefly assessed here, there are countless references to peasant trespass and poaching. This suggests that they did not confine themselves to seigneurially sanctioned spaces and routes, and were not always respectful of places, like parks, that were deemed off limits to them and therefore, did not unequivocally accept aristocratically conceived ideas concerning their local environment. But, overall, this is a very minor quibble in an otherwise excellent treatment of the medieval park.