This book presents a new interpretation of the development of early medieval landscapes. It stresses the importance of political and religious ideology in both the 'Celtic' west (especially Cornwall) and the 'Anglo-Saxon' east (especially the Wessex counties of Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire). Using innovative new research methods, and making expert use of archaeology, placename evidence, historical sources and land-use patterns, it challenges previous work on the subject by suggesting that the two regions have much in common. Its central argument is that Christian ideology played a key role in the formation of the early medieval landscape in south-west Britain and western Europe generally. This took the form of a reorientation away from a dispersed pattern of ritual sites in favour of important religious centres in lowland locations, which became the principal focuses of a range of economic and social as well as religious activities.