The park - a feature of the landscape we always associate with the hunting of deer - played an important role in the psyche of Britain's medieval aristocracy. This well-illustrated book offers a reappraisal of the park by a new generation of landscape researchers, who use a diversity of approaches to assess its economy, ecology and social role. They show how parks actually had many functions other than deer management and hunting; they were integrated into the wider rural economy, and also provided a means by which seigneurial control of the landscape might be demonstrated. They varied considerably across Britain, and are of considerable conservation significance today.