Towns in Anglo-Saxon England

230 Pages·2015·1.02 MB·English

From Dark Earth to Domesday: Towns in
Anglo-Saxon England
Author: David Crane
Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104070
This work is posted on eScholarship@BC,
Boston College University Libraries.
Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2014
Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
Boston College
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Department of History

FROM DARK EARTH TO DOMESDAY: TOWNS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
a dissertation

by
David D. Crane

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

May, 2014
© copyright by DAVID DANIEL CRANE
2014
Dissertation Abstract
From Dark Earth to Domesday: Towns in Anglo-Saxon England
David D. Crane
Robin Fleming, Advisor
2014

The towns that the Norman invaders found in England in 1066 had far
longer and far more complex histories than have often been conveyed in the
historiography of the Anglo-Saxon period. This lack of depth is not surprising,
however, as the study of the towns of Anglo-Saxon England has long been
complicated by a dearth of textual sources and by the work of influential
historians who have measured the urban status of Anglo-Saxon settlements
using the attributes of late medieval towns as their gage. These factors have
led to a schism amongst historian regarding when the first towns developed in
Anglo-Saxon England and about which historical development marks the
beginning of the continuous history of the English towns. This dissertation
endeavors to apply new evidence and new methodologies to questions related
to the development, status, and nature of Anglo-Saxon urban communities in
order to provide a greater insight into their origins and their evolutionary
trajectories.
It is the argument of this work that the emporia of the sixth through
nine centuries were indeed towns and that the burhs founded by Alfred the
Great and his heirs were intended from their inception to be towns and were
quickly recognized as such by contemporaries. Two distinct methodologies are
used to support these arguments: The first uses recent archeological and
numismatic data related to the settlements in question to determine if the size
and occupational make-up of their populations, the complexity and diversity of
their economies, and their integration into regional and cross-Channel
exchange networks sufficiently differentiated them from contemporary rural
sites and places them in a distinct, urban category. The second methodology
employs contemporary texts including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The Old
English Orosius, and The Old English Martyrology to reveal the terms actually
used by the Anglo-Saxons to describe their settlements and then compares
those terms to the words used to describe places that the Anglo-Saxons would
have definitively recognized as a town or a city, such as Rome or Jerusalem.
Regarding the continuity of Anglo-Saxon towns, recent archaeological
data is used to prove that the periods of time which have often been cited as
breaks in occupation were actually moments of transition from one type of
town to another. At London, for example, we can now see that there was no
substantive gap between the end of the extramural emporium of Lundenwic
and earliest evidence for secular settlement within the walls of the former
Roman town during the ninth century when it was refortified as a burh. This
indicates that we should trace the continuous history of many towns, like
London, back beyond Alfred and his burhs, to the emporia and other
settlements that preceded them.
Another major theme that threads its way through this work is that the
Anglo-Saxon towns were negotiated spaces defined by the interplay of different
groups of people and different ideas. Kings and bishops certainly exerted a
great deal of influence over the development of the Anglo-Saxon towns, but,
by no means were they the only forces at work. The common craftsmen and
traders who lived and worked in the towns and the lesser elites and royal
officials who lorded over them shaped the physical and social environments of
the towns, their regional and cross-Channel connections, and how their
economies functioned. Different groups of foreigners also influenced the
Anglo-Saxon towns through trade, evangelism, and, at times, violence.
Moreover, in so much as any of these groups or individuals may have exerted a
greater influence over the development of the Anglo-Saxon towns at one time
or another, no single group—be it kings, bishops, elites, traders, craftsmen, or
assorted foreigners—can ever be said to have been acting totally independently
of the others. In short, this dissertation illustrates that the towns of Anglo-
Saxon England were the products of complex networks that moved people,
things, wealth, and ideas throughout regions and across seas.
For Jodi and Ronan
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ii
List of Tables iv
1. Defining the Town in Anglo-Saxon England 1
2. The New Towns and the New Economy 12
3. The West Saxon Burhs and the Development of Towns 51
4. Town Reeves and Royal Administration of Towns and Trade 74
5. Rebuilding Rome: Churches and Religious Houses in
the Anglo-Saxon Town 100

6. Reconnected: Craft Production, Trade, and
Towns in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 132

7. Vikings and Normans 161
Appendix A 183
Appendix B 185
Appendix C 188
Appendix D 195
Bibliography 196

i
Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to the Department of History and the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Boston College for providing me with
the opportunity to pursue my doctorate. I am also indebted to the faculty and
staff of the Department of History for their assistance and support during my
time in the department.

This work would not have been possible without the helpful staff of the O’Neill
library. Particular thanks go to the Interlibrary Loan department for bringing
the world’s libraries within my reach.

I wish to acknowledge the support of my colleagues and the administration at
Salem State University. I would like to specifically thank Professor Emerson
“Tad” Baker for providing me with a solid foundation in archaeology and
material culture and for generously serving on my comprehensive exam board.
To Arlene Greenstein and Cyndi Allison, thank you so much for your kindness,
your encouragement, and for being the greatest boss and the most amazing
coworker anyone could ever ask for.

ii
I would like to thank all of Robin Fleming’s graduate students past and present
for their contributions to this work, both formally in the forge of Robin’s
seminar and informally in so many great conversations. I am proud to be a part
of such an amazing family of scholars. To Sally Shockro, Kylie Dodson, and
Tracey-Anne Cooper, thank you for your friendship and for making me laugh.

Many thanks to Prasannan Parthasarathi and Robert Stanton, not only for
reading this dissertation but for helping me acquire the skills to get it done.

I am eternally grateful to Robin Fleming. Thank you for all of the time and
energy you have so generously given me over the years. Thank you for reading
all of the drafts I sent you—especially the bad ones. Thank you for pushing me
to be a better writer, a better thinker, and a real historian. Thank you for the
privilege of being your student, you exemplify what a scholar, a teacher, and a
mentor should be.

I have to thank Ronan for making his dad really happy.

Finally, Jodi, thank you for your support, your patience, and your love. Thank
you for managing all of the details of life that I have had to put aside to work
on this dissertation. Most of all, thank you for just being you. I could not have
done this without you.

iii