Brave new world or toil and trouble? The long view of new towns

Carenza LewisProfessor for the Public Understanding of Research

York in AD 780: Alcuin's poem....My heart is set to praise my homeAnd briefly tell the ancient cradlingOf York's famed city through the charms of verse.It was a Roman army built it first ,High-walled and towered, and made the native tribesOf Britain allied partners in the task –For then a prosperous Britain rightly boreThe rule of Rome whose sceptre ruled the world –To be a merchant-town of land and sea,A mighty stonghold for their governors,An Empire's pride and terror to its foes,A haven for the ships from distant portsAcross the ocean, where the sailor hastesTo cast his rope ashore and stay to rest.The city is watered by the fish-rich OuseWhich flows past flowery plains on every side;And hills and forests beautify the earthAnd make a lovely dwelling-place, whose healthAnd richness soon will fill it full of men.The best of realms and people round came thereIn hope of gain, to seek in that rich earthFor riches, there to make both home and gain.

Alcuin of York c. 735 – 804)

Early ninth century sceat of Edwine, minted at York

We are the music makers,And we are the dreamers of dreams,Wandering by lone sea-breakersAnd sitting by desolate streams;—World-losers and world-forsakers,On whom the pale moon gleams:Yet we are the movers and shakersOf the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties,we build up the world's great cities.And out of a fabulous story,we fashion an empire's glory.One man, with a dream, at pleasureshall go forth and conquer a crown.And three, with a new song's measurecan trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying,in the buried past of the Earth,built Nineveh with our sighingand Babel itself with our mirth.And o'erthrew them with prophesyingto the old of the New World's worth.For each age is a dream that is dying,or one that is coming to birth

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy 

1844 -1881

Nineveh

Milton Keynes

What is a town?Archaeological definition (V Gordon Childe)

1. Large size in area and population2. Presence of full-time specialists, eg craftsmen3. Redistributive centre for taxation of food producers to

support specialists4. Monumental public buildings5. Ruling groups of religious, civil and military character6. Systems of recording7. Elaboration of sciences such as maths and astronomy8. Sophisticated art styles9. Long-distance trade10. Organised groups of craft workers

• To be defined a town a settlement must have:– Larger and denser concentrations of population

than surrounding areas– High proportion of population not engaged in

agriculture.– Redistributive/commercial role for surrounding

rural region • Many medieval towns also have:

– Public buildings – churches, guildhalls– Formal market place– Regularly laid-out street plan– Town walls– Suburbs

What does a town look like?

New towns – A British historyAll towns were once new towns

towns0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

RomanAnglo-Saxon11th century12th century13th century14th century15th century16th century

Multi-period towns Single-period towns

New towns – A British history

Gosbecks/Camulodunum/ColchesterKelheim (Bavaria, Germany)

Maiden Castle (Dorset)

BT – before Towns…

(Pitts, M 2010. Rethinking Southern British Oppida)

BT – before Towns…

Chysauster Romano-British village

What have the Romans ever done for us?...

Silchester (Berkshire)

What have the Romans ever done for us?...

Wroxeter

What have the Romans ever done for us?...

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Disturbed levels

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Undisturbed levels

Pirton 2007-10

Test pits containing pottery dating to 1st

– mid 5th

century AD

N

After the empire - dark earth…

…

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Disturbed levels

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Undisturbed levels

Pirton 2007-10

Test pits containing pottery dating to mid 5th

– mid 9th

century

AD

N

Roman pottery (50 – 400AD) in Wimpole Early/mid Anglo-Saxon pottery (450-850 AD

Wimpole (Cambs)

Light at the end of the dark earth

tunnel?…Hamwic (Hants)

c. 700 – mid C9th

100 acres

Pop 2-3,000

Planned plots

Gravelled streets

Craft production – metal, textiles, glass

18% imported pottery

Later C9th Alfredian burhs in Wessex

Mercian burhs founded by Ethelred & Aethelflaed

Five boroughs of the Danelaw (Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stamford)

Late Anglo-Saxon – burghs

New towns – A British history

Lydford

Late Anglo-Saxon – burghs

New towns – A British history

Wallingford

More than 30 burghs across Alfredian Wessex

No settlement should be more than 20 miles from a burgh,

Burghs connected by a network of army road (herepaths)

Secondary role as safe economic centres in which trade and production

could take place

The local fyrd were responsible for the construction and defence of their

burh.

Wallingford, Oxfordshire

Medieval towns

towns0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

RomanAnglo-Saxon11th century12th century13th century14th century15th century16th century

Medieval town definition

(After Maurice Beresford)

Any place with one or more of: • a borough charter; • named as a burgus in assize rolls; • burgage plots; • separate taxation as borough;

• Market?

Features of medieval towns

• Market places• Dense habitation• Planned layouts• Waterfronts• Defences• Specialised institutions

Town plans - linear

St Ives, Cambs

C13th Church Close, Hartlepool

Town plans – Gridded/

chequerboard

4. Town plans – circular - ?

• Bristol

• Canterbury

• Chester

Market places

Haslemere, Surrey

Norwich,

Norfolk

Royston,

Herts

Components of towns- Waterfronts

Saxon and Medieval waterfront

reclamation, London

Defences

Malmesbury

Luttrell Psalter

Defences

Alnwick

Beverly Gate,

Hull,

York

Defences

Salisbury

Saffron Walden

Specialised institutions

• Castles – secondary and primary New Buckenham

Norwich

Specialised institutions

• Monastic institutions as primary foundations

Specialised institutions

Norwich mid C14th

Specialised institutions

Guildhalls and craft specialists

Specialised institutions

Guildhalls and craft specialists

St Georges Guildhall,

Kings Lynn

Life in towns

Poultry Cross, London, Norman period

Life in towns Aberdeen

• Standards of living – urban v rural

• Predominance of excavated/salvaged ‘exotic’ objects from towns long used to suggest higher living

standards in towns, this now questioned by evidence from metal detecting.

• Excavations show town dwellers consumed more meat than rural populations (Albarella)

• More younger animal bone found in towns than on rural settlements – shows urban pops had better

meat, with rural pops eating older animals (Dyer Standards 196-7)

• Spitalfields C14th cemetery - low levels of diseases caused by dietary deficiencies such as rickets or

scurvy, suggesting urban diet better than had previously been thought.

• Rising urban populations led to overcrowding and declining sanitary conditions (plague in C14th, Typhus from late C15th)

• Poorer urban housing lacked water supply or lavatories – Perth – single-roomed wattle houses with shared

lavatories; – Ely – back yards densely packed with production

areas• Human parasites in cess deposits• From late C14th urban waste disposal

changes from single-use pits and back-yard refuse tips to reusable stone-lined pits and communal extra-mural tips

Pits, Milk Lane,

London

Life in towns Dragon Hall, Norwich

Life in towns

Salisbury

Winchester, Lower Brook St fuller’s

house with chalk-lined water

channel

Life in towns

Road surfaces, Norwich

Life in towns

Deeply sutured skull

characteristic of rickets, York

Differential of sinusitis (a possible side-effect of atmospheric pollution) observed between rural Wharram Percy (50%) and urban St Helen on the Walls, York (72%).

Tales of medieval new towns

• Ashwell (f. by 1086)• Dunwich (f. by 1086)• Saffron Walden (f. 1141)• Salisbury (f.1232)• Nayland (f. 12th/13th century)• Winchelsea (f. 1292)• Templeton (

N

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Disturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Undisturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Ashwell 2011-12

Test pits containing pottery dating to mid

5th – 8th century

N

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Disturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Undisturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Ashwell 2011-12

Test pits containing pottery dating to mid

9th – 11th century

N

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Disturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Undisturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Ashwell 2011-12

Test pits containing pottery dating to mid

11th – end 14th century

N

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Disturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Undisturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Ashwell 2011-12

Test pits containing pottery dating to 15th –

mid 16th century

N

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Disturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Undisturbed levelsTest Pit with 1 sherd

4g or less

Test Pit with 1 sherd

5g or more

Test Pit with 2-4

sherds

Test Pit with 5

sherds or more

Ashwell 2011-12

Test pits containing pottery dating to mid

16th – end 18th century

Dunwich (Suffolk)

Saffron Walden (Essex)

Salisbury (f. 1232)

Nayland (Suffolk)

N

8

76

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Disturbed levels

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Undisturbed levels

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Nayland 2012 & 2014

Test pits containing pottery dating to 1st

– 5th

century AD

N

8

76

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Disturbed levels

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Undisturbed levels

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Nayland 2012 & 2014

Test pits containing pottery dating to mid 9th

– mid 11th

century

N

8

76

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Disturbed levels

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Undisturbed levels

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Nayland 2012 & 2014

Test pits containing pottery dating to mid 11th

– end 14th

century

N

8

76

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Disturbed levels

1 sherd 4g or less

1 sherd 5g or more

2-4 sherds

5 sherds or more

Undisturbed levels

Test Pit with no

pottery of this date

Nayland 2012 & 2014

Test pits containing pottery dating to 15th

– mid 16th

century

Queens University Belfast, 2005 project

"Mapping medieval townscapes".

Old Winchelsea engulfed by

sea in 13th

century

New Winchelsea founded late

13th

century on new site

14th

and 15th

centuries

Winchelsea attacked by French

and river silted up

Last merchant had left the

town by 1500

Templeton (Pembrokeshire)

1276-82 - Edward I v. Llewellyn Ap Gruffudd

Burgesses in Templeton by

1283

Resilience…

The impact of the Black Death!!!

no. dug mkts no. 2+ pits preBD av no. mkts no. 2+ pits post-BD av no. drop %drop

441 155 35 103 23 52 34

non mkts no. preBD non mkts no. post-BD

994 444 45 225 23 219 49

n 2+ pits HM n 2+ pits LM n. drop % drop

LSf. 278 175 103 37HMf. 110 59 51 46

Markets /

towns

Medieval

‘new’

settlements

N

Gaywood

Hindringham

Binham

Wisbech St Mary

Thorney

Ufford

Ramsey

Castor

Houghton

Sharnbrook

Pirton

Ashwell

WillinghamCottenham

Girton

Gt Shelford

IslehamGarboldisham

Carleton Rode

Acle

Chediston

Coddenham

Long Melford

Clare

West Mersea

Thorrington

Writtle

Little Hallingbury

Manuden

Hessett

Bramford

Paston

Potton

Peakirk

Clavering Nayland

Swaffham Bulbeck

Stapleford

Walberswick

Wiveton

Terrington St Clement

Daws Heath

Amwell

ShillingtonMeldreth

West Wickham

High medieval

Early C12th

–mid C14th

)

0

1-9%

10-19%

20-29%

30-39%

40-49%

50-60%

61%+

Toft

N

Gaywood

Hindringham

Binham

Wisbech St Mary

Thorney

Ufford

Ramsey

Castor

Houghton

Sharnbrook

Pirton

Ashwell

WillinghamCottenham

Girton

Gt Shelford

IslehamGarboldisham

Carleton Rode

Acle

Chediston

Coddenham

Long Melford

Clare

West Mersea

Thorrington

Writtle

Little Hallingbury

Manuden

Hessett

Bramford

Paston

Potton

Peakirk

Clavering Nayland

Swaffham Bulbeck

Stapleford

Walberswick

Wiveton

Terrington St Clement

Daws Heath

Amwell

ShillingtonMeldreth

West Wickham

Late medieval

(late C14th

– mid C16th

)

0

1-9%

10-19%

20-29%

30-39%

40-49%

50-60%

61%+

Toft

We, in the ages lying,in the buried past of the Earth,built Nineveh with our sighingand Babel itself with our mirth.

And o'erthrew them with prophesyingto the old of the New World's worth.

For each age is a dream that is dying,or one that is coming to birth

Contemporary planning seen through the lens of earlier attempts to create new urban settlements.

• New towns are as old as towns themselves • New towns are typically carefully planned (ideologically and/or spatially) to

fulfil a specific purpose• New towns which develop spontaneously can be very successful, but often

less secure.• New towns can materialise the zeitgeist – defence, nation building,

feudalism, capitalism.• Deathless ditties or dying dreams?

– Opportunism, pragmatism, functionalism, – Ideology, habitus– Utopianism v spatial agency– The city of the future

Brave new world or toil and trouble?

Thank you

• Seeing contemporary urban planning in the context of earlier attempts to create new settlements.

• Taking the long view of new towns in history.• What is a town?• History of new towns in Britain

– Prehistory – no towns– Roman period – All towns = new towns – Early AS – no towns– Mid AS – new towns = wics– Late AS – new towns = burghs– Norman – new towns as Castle towns / Cathedral towns– High Med - many new towns as civic towns– Late med – Towns more resilient– Post-med – new towns in industrialising areas

• Deathless ditties or dying dreams? - ideals and ideology v down-to-earth reality

Key question