The English Department’s Professor Helen Fulton has won funding to create the first cultural history of the medieval March of Wales.  This borderland area, between Wales and England, was occupied by a diverse population of Welsh, English and French speakers in the period between 1282 and 1550. 

The project aims to uncover and analyse the manuscripts and literary texts that were produced and being circulated in the medieval March.  It will make a series of digital maps of Marcher lordships during the period, and further digital resources including a visualisation of major gentry houses and abbeys. There will also be a series of workshops for scholars specialising in other border communities in medieval Europe to open up comparative research and analysis.

The project team includes heritage and mapping specialists from the Royal Commission of Ancient and Historic Monuments in Wales and digital humanities specialists from Research IT at the University of Bristol. Two full-time postdoctoral research assistants and an administrator will be employed on the project, which will also support a PhD studentship.   

Helen is a specialist in medieval Welsh literature and has published widely on comparative medieval literatures in Welsh, English, and French. Her recent publications include the co-edited volume The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature (2019) and the map, Bristol in 1480, published by the Historic Towns Trust (2020). She currently holds a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship to produce an edition of medieval Welsh political poetry. 

For more details, see the University’s press release.