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About the Book

David Hey (1938–2016) was one of the leading local and regional historians of our age and the author of a number of highly regarded books on the practice of local history. His work on surnames was pioneering and he was amongst the first to identify the potential of DNA in historical studies.

In this collection of essays in David’s memory, friends and colleagues celebrate his commitment to the landscape, economy and society of south Yorkshire — especially Sheffield — and Derbyshire, which together make up ‘Hey country’, the area in which he grew up and to which he returned to work.

This lively volume will be of interest to anyone who shares David Hey’s curiosity for the people, economies and landscapes of the part of England he made his focus. At the same time the essays will prove to be of interest to all those concerned with the workings of English local society and economy. Covering a wide range of subjects and periods, they include accounts of the early English steel industry, Sheffield cutlers, Lord William Cavendish’s canny use of his stepson’s wardship, the lost woodlands of the Peak District, First World War food production in Derbyshire, south Yorkshire deer parks and a brief history of Little Londons. Fresh research into family and placename history contributes fascinating detail to the mix.

The contributors are some of the key researchers in academic local history: Melvyn Jones, Richard Hoyle, Peter Edwards, Dorian Gerhold, Ian D. Rotherham, John Beckett, Alan Crosby, Nicola Verdon, John Broad and George Redmonds. A tribute to David Hey by Charles Phythian-Adams opens the volume.

Richard Hoyle is Visiting Professor of Economic History at Reading, having previously been Professor of History at the University of Central Lancashire (1998–2000), Professor of Rural History at the University of Reading (2000–2014), and Professor of Local and Regional History at the University of London (2014–16). He served as editor of the Agricultural History Review for twenty-one years, to 2019.

“No British regional history scholar has deserved a commemorative tribute for both research and publications more than Professor David Hey. Richard Hoyle has fittingly gathered together in this well-presented and illustrated book an eclectic collection of academic material.” Stephen Caunce, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal

ISBN 978-1-912260-39-3, Mar 2021, 218pp, Hardback

Reviews

“This volume serves both as a warm tribute and an illustration of the all-round strengths of local history as practised by David Hey.” Kate Tiller, Landscape History

“David Hey was deeply appreciative of the richness of landscape and history in the Sheffield region. ‘Where else in Britain’, he wrote, ‘can you pass from heather moors through wooded hills and vales to the “champion country” of the magnesian limestone belt and on to the Dutch-style landscape of Hatfield Chase within a journey of only thirty miles?’ This meaty volume succeeds in using the varied territory of his home patch to interrogate wider themes and in doing so to illuminate a broad range of topics. David would have enjoyed it thoroughly.” Angus Winchester, Agricultural History Review