Peter Fleming (historian)

Peter Fleming (1958 – 21 April 2025) was a professor of medieval history at the University of the West of England. He specialised in the history of migration, urban history and the development of Bristol during the Middle Ages.

Life and career

Fleming was born in 1958 to a working class family. He studied at University College Swansea, before being appointed to Bristol Polytechnic (now UWE) in 1987, to develop the History Department's research on teaching on medieval and early modern history. He made his name as a historian of fifteenth century England, with a particular interest in Bristol history.

Fleming died in April 2025 following a prolonged illness. His wife, Ann Rippin, died in 2023. Ill health had limited his scholarship during his last ten years, but his final book, Late Medieval Bristol, was published in 2024.

Selected works

Fleming's books include:

• Regionalism and Revision: The Crown and Its Provinces in England, 1250–1650 (edited with Anthony Gross and J. R. Lander, Hambledon, 1999)
• Family and Household in Medieval England (Palgrave, 2001)
• Gloucestershire's Forgotten Battle: Nibley Green, 1470 (with Michael Wood, Tempus, 2003)
• Bristol: Ethnic Minorities and the City, 1000–2001 (with Madge Dresser, Phillimore, 2007)
• , editor (Bristol Record Society, Vol. 67, 2015)

He is also the author of:

• Fleming, Peter (2012). in A. Compton Reeves (ed.), Personalities and Perspectives of Fifteenth-Century England (ACMRS, Tempe, Arizona)