Medieval British Towns

This course is complementary to the course 'The "Middle" Ages: A New Perspective.' It will allow students to undertake in-depth investigations, based on primary documentary and archaeological materials, into aspects of British economic and social life in the period before- and during that phase of real economic growth from which emerged a distinctive "medieval" society (850-1340 AD). The course is divided into two term-length components. There will be three such term-length components on:

two of which will be taught each year on a rotational basis

The course is designed to train students to undertake empirical investigations into the evolution of the mediæval economy and society. It will involve a direct study of historical data; primary sources, including not only textual materials (in translation) but also archaeological data and iconographic images, and interpretation by scholars, employing the tools of the social scientist. Students will thus learn methods of contextual analysis and interrogation, and gain insights into how to conceptualize and analyse such materials, utilizing historical, political science and economics methodology

Put simply the first question that requires investigation is - what was a medieval town and what distinquished it from organizations, to which a similar nomenclature has been applied, in earlier and later periods ? This requires a conceptualisation of the structure of the community at the point of its inception - the eleventh and twelfth century - when, in terms of its topographical, jurisdictional and functional identity, its emergent form can be compared with pre-existing forms and its enduring characteristics can be established.

LECTURES-SEMINARS

1. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE MEDIEVAL URBAN COMMUNITY

The Physical Geography

The years ca. 1040-1340 witnessed a fundamental process of structural change as the pre-existing estate-orientated forms of villa and burh were displaced and distinctly new forms of "urban" organisation began to emerge. On the pre-existing order see:

G R J Jones, "Multiple Estates and Early Settlement" in P H Sawyer (ed.),English Medieval Settlement (1979)

C Taylor, Village and Farmstead: A History of Rural Settlement in England (1983)

R A Hall, " The Five Boroughs of Danelaw: A Review of Present Knowledge", Anglo-Saxon England, XVIII (1989)

Particularly useful for examining this process of change in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries are studies of PETERBOROUGH:

*E King, "The Town of Peterborough in the Early Middle Ages", Northamptonshire Past and Present, VI (1980/1)
*C Hart, "The Peterborough Region in the Tenth Century: A Topographical Survey", Northamptonshire Past and Present, VII (1981/2)

These may be supplemented by reference to the studies of NORTHAMPTON, [J H Williams, 1982a and 1984] in the appendix.

In the Midlands and the North-East, the same process may be discerned in the latter part of the twelfth century where it is described in the following studies:

*W MacKay, "The Development of Medieval Ripon", Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, LIV (1982)
*R H Hilton, " The Small Town and Urbanization: Evesham in the Middle Ages", Midland History, VII (1982).
*E M Carus-Wilson, " The First Half-Century of the Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon", Economic History Review, Second Series, XVIII (1965)

These may be supplemented by reference to WORCESTER in the appendix [M Carver, 1980]

Finally after ca. 1240 the new forms began to emerge in the southern, western and northern counties as is revealed in the following studies listed in the appendix: SOUTHAMPTON [P V Addyman and D H Hill, 1968 and 1969; P Holdesworth, R Coleman-Smith & C Platt, 1975; J Walker, 1979], WINCHESTER [ F Barlow & M Biddle, 1976; D Keene, 1985] and SALISBURY [ A. Borthwick & J Chandler, 1984 and Stroud, 1986] - HEREFORD [R Shoesmith, 1983, 1984, 1985] and GLOUCESTER [H R Hurst and L F Pitts, 1985]

Most of these studies are concerned with the topographical structure of the built-up area and totally neglect the important aspect of the town fields and their role in urban provisioning, upon which some light is thrown by the map in *J H Williams 1982c relating to NORTHAMPTON in the appendix.

Material Fabric.

The Defences

*H L Turner, Town Defences in England and Wales (1971)
*M W Barley, "Towns' defences in England and Wales after 1066" in M W Barley (ed.), Plans and Topography of Medieval Towns in England and Wales (Council of British Archaeology, Research Report No.14. 1976)

(a) Walls of Roman origin.

BATH: T J O'Leary, "Excavations at Upper Borough Walls", Medieval Archaeology, XXV (1981)
CANTERBURY: P Bennet et al., Excavations at Canterbury Castle and Excavations of the Roman and Medieval Defences (Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2 vols., 1983) as well as the following studies listed in the appendix of this handout on WINCHESTER [M Biddle, 1964/1975, M Biddle and R N Quirk,1962] and LINCOLN [C Colyer, 1975 and M J Jones, 1979 & 1981]

(b) Walls of Later Provenence.

NORTHAMPTON [J H Williams, 1982b] and SOUTHAMPTON [C Platt & R Coleman-Smith, 1975]

Housing

On changes in the construction and layout of private housing in the twelfth century and the forms assumed in the period of evolution see the archaeological reports listed in sections 1-2 above with particular reference to NORTHAMPTON, SOUTHAMPTON and WINCHESTER which also reveal something of subsequent patterns of conjunctural variation within the framework of the medieval structure. For reference purposes the following works might be found helpful:

*W A Pantin, "Medieval English Town House Plans", Medieval Archaeology, VI-VII (1962-3)
*P A Faulkner, "Medieval Undercrofts and Town Houses", Archaeological Journal, CXXIII (1967 as well as the studies of K J Barton in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, LXXIX (1960) and D Turdy & R Ratcliff in Oxoniensis,XXVI-XXVIII (1961-2)

2. THE JURISDICTIONAL IDENTITY OF THE MEDIEVAL URBAN COMMUNITY

Parochial structure

On the organisational changes in parochial structure in the twelfth century and the associated phase of "urban" church building see:

J Blair (ed.), Minsters and Parish Churches. The Local Church in Transition 950-1200 (OUCA Monograph 17, 1988) an excellent series of essays on the general transition from "minster parishes" to "local parishes".
*A Rogers, "Parish Boundaries and Urban History: Two Case Studies", Journal of the British Archaeological Association, third series, XXV(1972)
*J H Williams, "Northampton's Medieval Parishes", Northampton Archaeology, XVII (1982c)

Charters and Civil Jurisdiction

*F W Maitland, Township and Borough (1898)
*J Tait, The Medieval British Borough (1936)

*A Ballard (ed.), British Borough Charters, 1042-1216 (1923)
*A Ballard and J Tait (eds.), British Borough Charters, 1216-1307 (1923)
M Bateson (ed.), "Borough Customs", Selden Society, XVIII (1934)
M de W Hemmeon, Burgage Tenure in Medieval England (1914)
*G Gross, The Gild Merchant, 2 vols (1890)

M Beresford, New Towns of the Middle Ages (1967)
M Beresford and H P R Finberg, English Medieval Boroughs: A Handlist (1975)
I Soulsby, The Towns of Medieval Wales (1983)

*J H Williams, "The forty men of Northampton's first customal and the development of borough government in late twelfth century Northampton", Northampton Past and Present, VII, 4 (1987)
*S H Rigby, "Boston and Grimsby in the Middle Ages: An Administrative Contrast", Journal of Medieval History, X (1984)
*A G Rosser, "The Essence of Medieval Urban Communities: The Vill of Westminster, 1200-1500", Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th Series, XXXIV (1984)

3. THE FUNCTIONAL IDENTITY OF THE MEDIEVAL URBAN COMMUNITY

Industrial Activity. Guilds and Manufactory

As has already been considered the new urban communities of the period ca. 1040-1270, thanks to the monopolistic privileges granted them by the crown (No.5 supra), were characterised by major concentrations of industrial activity (No.1 supra). A myriad of craftmen thronged these centres and much can be learnt about the products manufactured and conditions of work by reference to the archaeological evidence detailed for specific towns in the appendix to this handout. One industry, however, has been particularly well-documented - textiles - which underwent major technological and organisational changes in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

*F Pritchard, "Late Saxon Textiles from the City of London", Medieval Archaeology XXVIII (1985)
M C Higham, "Some evidence for 12th- and 13th-century linen and woollen textile processing", Medieval Archaeology, XXXIII (1989)
*E M Carus-Wilson, " The English Cloth Industry in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries",Economic History Review, XIV (1944) reprinted in Medieval Merchant Venturers. Collected Studies (1954)
*E Miller, "The fortunes of the English textile industry in the thirteenth century", Economic History Review, second series, XVIII, 1 (1965)

Commercial Activity

Markets and Internal Trade.

Of primary importance in understanding the changes in maketing systems and the proliferation in the numbers of markets during the years from ca. 1040-1340 are:

*R Britnall, "English Markets and Royal Administration before 1200", Economic History Review, second series, XXXI (1978), parts I-III.
* ----------, "The Proliferation of Markets in England, 1200-1349", Economic History Review, second series, XXXIII (1981)
*D Postles,"Customary Carrying Services", Journal of Transport History, V,2 (1985)

These works of Dr Britnell, together with numerous others by him (many of which are referred to below) are the constituent elements of a general study The Commercialisation of English Society, 1000-1500 (Cambridge, 1993). Additional data on the proliferation of markets will be found in a number of studies:

R Britnall, "Essex Markets before 1350", Essex Archaeology and History, XIII (1981)
B Coates, "The Origin and Distribution of Markets and Fairs in Medieval Derbyshire",Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, LXXXV (1965)
D Postles, " Markets for Rural Produce in Oxfordshire, 1086-1350", Midland History, XII (1987)
D M Palliser & A C Pinnock, "The Markets of Medieval Staffordshire",The North Staffordshire Journal of Field Studies, XI (1971)
A Kondo, "The Rise of Market Economy in Rural Wiltshire, 1086-1461", Studies in Market History, V (1988)

Investigations into market organization and regulations have also been undertaken by Dr Britnell and others:

*L F Salzman, "The Legal Status of Markets", Cambridge Historical Journal, II (1928)
*R Britnell,"King John's Early Grants of Markets and Fairs", English Historical Review, XCIV (1979)
-----------,"Forstall, Forstalling and the Statute of Forestalling", English Historical Review, CII (1987)
-----------, "Advantagium Mercatoris: A Custom in Medieval English Trade", Nottingham Medieval Studies, XXIV (1980)
*S N Mastoris, " Regulating the Nottingham markets: new evidence from a mid-thirteenth-century manuscript", Transactions of the Thoronton Society, XC (1987)

Fairs, Ports and International Trade

In relation to this particular aspect of commercial activity the best analysis of pre-existing long-distance trading systems and the portus is the work already referred to by,

*R Britnall, "English Markets and Royal Administration before 1200", Economic History Review, second series, XXXI (1978), part IV

During the years ca. 1040-1270 this system was totally displaced by a new network as the supply systems for international trade became integrated with those servicing the requirements of domestic commerce giving birth to a network of international fairs which complemented the markets for local trade (discussed above). On the rise and subsequent decline of the fairs see:

*E W Moore, The Fairs of Medieval England: An Introductory Study (Toronto: PIMS Studies and Texts, No.72.1985) and the same author's Medieval English Fairs: Evidence from Winchester and St Ives" in J A Raftis (ed.), Pathways to Medieval Peasants (Toronto: PIMS Papers in Medieval Studies, No.2.1981)
J A Raftis, "Rent and Capital at St Ives", Medieval Studies, XX (1958)
J Z Titow, "The decline of the fair of St Giles, Winchester, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries" Nottingham Medieval Studies, XXXI (1987).
C Gross (ed.), Select Cases Concerning the Law Merchant. Vol.1 Selden Society, XXIII (1928)
G Rosser, Medieval Westminster (1989), chapter 2.

Even as this new system evolved, however, it underwent important changes as a result of a fundamental transformation in the forms of maritime transport, which made it increasingly difficult for sea-going ships to make use of national riverine systems and confined activity to river-mouth ports which in this period began to develop water-front facilities:

*G Milne and B Hobley (eds.), Waterfront Archaeology in Britain and Northern Europe (CBA Research Report 41. 1981)
G & C Milne, Medieval Waterfront Development at Trig Lane, London (London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, Special Paper, No.5.1983)
C O'Brien et al. The Origins of the Newcastle Quayside (Society Antiquaries Newcastle, Monograph 3, 1988)

In relation to this new situation the Crown was forced, accordingly, to transform its regulatory system over overseas trade. The portus- system of Dark Age Britain was gradually replaced by a new administrative order as a national custom system, centred on the river-mouth ports gradually evolved assuming its final form in 1275:

*N S B Gras, The Early English Customs System (1918)

Individual supervision will replace lectures and tutorials during weeks 4-10 when you will have the opportunity to undertake an investigation into the history of specific towns of your choice in the period 1040-1340, which will provide the basis for a examinable PROJECT PAPER that you will submit at the end of the tenth week of the spring term.

(a) General Introductory Studies.

T Tatton-Brown, "The Topography of Anglo-Saxon London", Antiquity, LX (1986)
A Vince, Saxon London (1990)
J Clerk, Saxon and Norman London (HMSO for Museum of London, 1989)
C Brooke and G Keir, London 800-1216: The Shaping of a City (1975)
M D Lobel (ed.), The City of London (OUP/ Historic Towns Trust, 1989)
D Keene, "A New Study of London Before the Great Fire", Urban History Year Book, 1984 and "Medieval London and its Region", The London Journal, XIV (1989) which review the current investigations, undertaken under the auspices of the Centre for Metropolitan History, into the history of the medieval and early modern city.
G Rosser, Medieval Westminster 1200-1540 (1989), chapter 1
K McDonnell, Medieval London Suburbs (1978)

(b) Social and Political Structure.

F M Stenton, Norman London (1934) with a translation of William fitz Stephen's description by H E Butler and a map of London by M B Honeybourne, revised edition in G Barraclough (ed.), Social Life in Early England (1960)
G A Williams, Medieval London from Commune to Capital (1963)
W de G Birch (ed.), Historical Charters and Constitutional Documents of the City of London (1887)
M Bateson, "A London Municiple Collection of the Reign of John", English Historical Review, XVII (1912)

(c) Aspects of Urban Archaeology

J Schofield, A Dyson et aliis (eds.), Archaeology of the City of London. Recent Discoveries by the Department of Urban Archaeology, Museum of London (City of London Archaeological Trust, 1980)
V Horsman, C & G Milne, Aspects of Saxo-Norman London. I, Building and Street Development (London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 11-2, 1989-90)

G & C Milne, Medieval Waterfront Development at Trig Lane, London (London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, Special Paper, No.5. 1983)

Prior to the draining of the Fens during the century ca. 1140-1240 - a subject thoroughly dealt with by H E Hallam, Settlement and Society. A Study of the Early Agrarian History of South Lincolnshire (1965) - the emergence of new "urban" institutions was largely restricted to the triangular area bounded by Stamford, Peterborough and Northampton. PETERBOROUGH is the subject of two studies :

*E King, "The Town of Peterborough in the Early Middle Ages", Northamptonshire Past and Present, VI (1980/1)
*C Hart, "The Peterborough Region in the Tenth Century: A Topographical Survey", Northamptonshire Past and Present, VII (1981/2)

In the case of NORTHAMPTON the literature is much more extensive:

J H Williams,"From 'Palace' to 'Town': Northampton and Urban Origins", Anglo-Saxon England, XIII (1984); "The Early Development of the Town of Northampton" in C Dornier (ed.), Mercian Studies (1977) and *Saxon and Medieval Northampton (1982a)
C A Markham (ed.), The Records of the Borough of Northampton, I (1898)
J C Cox (ed.), The Records of the Borough of Northampton, II (1898)
J H Williams,St Peter's Street, Northampton. Excavations 1973-1976 (1979); "Northampton", Current Archaeology, LXXIX (1981); "Four Small Excavations on Northampton's Medieval Defences and Elsewhere", Northamptonshire Archaeology, XVII (1982b) and"Northampton's Medieval Parishes", ibidem, XVII (1982c)
F Williams, "Excavations at Marefair, Northampton", ibidem, XIV (1979)

Subsequently, as new grazings were created out of the old wetlands with the corresponding transformation of the adjacent agricultural regimes, however, a new "urban" order was born. Overseas trading activity was displaced down-river to the east as new centres were created at Boston and KING'S LYNN.

V Parker, The Making of King's Lynn (1971)
D Owen (ed.), The Making of King's Lynn (BARSEH, New Series, IX 1984)
E M Carus-Wilson, "The Medieval Trade of the Ports of the Wash", Medieval Archaeology, VI-VII (1962-3) and W A Pantin, "The Merchants' Houses and Warehouses of King's Lynn", ibidem.
*H Clarke and A Carter, Excavations in King's Lynn, 1963-1970 (London: Society of Medieval Archaeology, Monograph Series No.7. 1977)

The progress of the excavations should be followed in the reports in Medieval Archaeology, VIII (1964), p.266; IX (1965), p.196; X (1966), p.199; XI (1967), p.294; XII (1968), p.184; XIII (1969), p.266 and XIV (1970), p.183.

Old established centres at Lincoln and Norwich were transformed. On NORWICH see the results of recent excavations reported in:

"Excavations in Norwich 1971-8", East Anglian Archaeology, XV (1982)
"A Waterfront Excavation at White Friars Street Carpark", East Anglian Archaeology, XVII (1983)
"Excavations at St Martin-at-Palace Plain, Norwich 1981" by B Ayres, East Anglian Archaeology, XXVII (1988)
"Eighteen Centuries of Pottery in Norwich", East Anglian Archaeology, XIII (1981).

Similar materials also exist in relation to LINCOLN where a major series of excavations were undertaken in 1972-7 which added new dimensions to Hill's classic study based on documentary sources:

J W F Hill, Medieval Lincoln (1948)
C Colyer, "Excavations at Lincoln: First Interim Report. The Western Defences of the Lower Town. 1970-2", Antiquaries Journal, LV (1975)
M J Jones & C Colyer, "Excavations at Lincoln: Second Interim. Excavations in the Lower Town. 1972-8.", Antiquaries Journal, LIX (1979)
M J Jones, " Excavations at Lincoln: Third Interim Report. Sites Outside of the Walled City, 1972-1977", Antiquaries Journal, LXI (1981)
D Pering, "Early Medieval Occupation at Flaxengate" and R H Jones, "Medieval Stone Houses at Flaxengate" in The Archaeology of Lincoln, IX/1 (1981)

W Urry, Canterbury under the Angevin Kings (1967)
T Tatton-Brown, "Canterbury's urban topography: some recent work" in P Riden (ed.),The Medieval Town in Britain: Gregynog Seminars in Local History (1980)
S S Frere, S Stow & P Benett, Excavations of the Roman and Medieval Defences of Canterbury (Canterbury Archaeological Trust: The Archaeology of Canterbury, vol.2. 1983)
S.S Frere & S Stow, Excavations in the St George Street and Burgate Street Area (Canterbury Archaeological Trust: The Archaeology of Canterbury, vol.7. 1983)

There is a singular lack of archaeological evidence concerning the evolution in the period ca 1140-1240 of the new "urban" centres in the East Midlands and Yorkshire (Region B2) though representative of changes here is:

W MacKay, "The Development of Medieval Ripon", Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, LIV (1982)

This study may be supplemented by reference to

R Hall, The Viking Dig: Excavations at Coppergate, York (1984) and by the same author Viking Age York and the North (Council of British Archeology, Report 27. 1978); A P Smith, Scandanavian York (1975)

Much more information is available concerning the developments taking place in the West Midlands (Region B1):

R H Hilton, " The Small Town and Urbanization: Evesham in the Middle Ages", Midland History, VII (1982).
E M Carus-Wilson, "The First Half-Century of the Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon", Economic History Review, Second Series, XVIII (1965)

These may be supplemented by reference to WORCESTER where recent excavations have begun to reveal something of the towns's development at this time.

M Carver (ed.), Medieval Worcester (Worcester Archaeological Society, 7.1980)

Finally after ca. 1240 the new forms began to emerge in the southern, western and northern counties, a considerable body of both archaeological and documentary evidence illustrating the process of change in the four main regions.

The Essex-Suffolk Enclave (Region C)

Colchester

P Crummy, Aspects of Anglo-Saxon and Norman Colchester (CBA Research Report, No.1-Colchester Archaeological Report No.1. 1983)
R H Britnall, Growth and Decline in Colchester, 1300-1525 (1986), chapter 1, pp. 9-12/
P Crummy, Excavations at Lion Walk, Balkerne Lane and Middlebourgh in Colchester (Colchester Archaeological Report No.2. 1983)

The Itchin-Avon Basin (Region C1)

Winchester.

The work of the Winchester Survey which will ultimately be published in ten volumes will provide the most complehensive study of an English medieval town available. To date only two volumes have appeared WS1 and WS2/i-ii which are concerned with the topography of the city as revealed in documentary sources.

WS1. F Barlow, M Biddle et al., Winchester in the Early Middle Ages. An Edition an Discussion of the Winton Domesday (Oxford, 1976)
WS2/1-2. D Keene, Survey of Medieval Winchester (Oxford, 1985)

The definitive reports on the excavations in the city will have to await the publication of WS3-10 but in the meantime reference should be made to the interim reports.

M Biddle, Interim Reports on the Winchester Excavations, 1961-1971 in Arch.Journ. and Antiquaries Journ. as follows:

I Interim (1961 season), Arch. Journ., 119 (1962).
II-X Interim (1962 & 3-1971), Ant. Journ., 45-50,
52, 55 (1964-70, 1972, 1975)

To set these studies in historical perspective reference should also be made to,

M. Biddle, "The development of the Anglo-Saxon town" in Topografia Urbana e Vita Cittadina Sull'atto Medioeva in Occidente (Spoleto, 1973).
--------,"Winchester: the development of an early capital" in H H Jahnkuhn et al., (eds.),Vor- und Frühformen der europaischen Stadt in Mittelalter (Gottingen, 1972)

J Z Titow, "The decline of the fair of St Giles, Winchester, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries" Nottingham Medieval Studies, XXXI (1987)

Southampton

C Platt, Medieval Southampton: The Port and Trading Community, AD. 1000-1600 (1973)
P V Addyman & D H Hill, "Saxon Southampton: A Review of the Evidence", Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, XXV-XXVI (1968-9)
P Holdsworth, Excavations at Melbourne Street, Southampton 1971-6 (Council of British Archaeology, Research Report No.33. 1981)
C Platt & R Coleman-Smith, Excavations in Medieval Southampton, 2 vols (1975)
J Walker, " Excavations in Medieval Tenements on the Quilter's Vault Site in Southampton", Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, XXXV (1979)
J Bourdillion, "Town Life and Animal Husbandry in the Southampton Area", Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, XXXVI (1980)

Salisbury
A. Borthwick and J Chandler, Our Chequered Past: The Archaeology of Salisbury (County Museum Service, 1984)
D. Stroud, "The site of the borough at Old Sarum 1066-1226: an examination of some documentary evidence", Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, LXXX (1986)

The Severn-Avon Basin and the Welsh Marches (Region C2)

Gloucester

H R Hurst and L F Pitts, Gloucester: The Roman and Later Defences (Gloucester Archaeological Reports 2. 1985)

Hereford

R. Shoesmith, Excavations at Castle Green (CBA Research Reports 36 - Hereford City Excavations 1. 1983); Excavations on and close to the defences (CBA Research Reports 46 - Hereford City Excavations 2. 1984) and The Finds (CBA Research Reports 56 - Hereford City Excavations 2. 1985)

Welsh Marches
I Soulsby, The Towns of Medieval Wales (1983)

The Northern English Counties and Scotland (Region C3)

The pre-medieval order prevailing in the borders was transformed during the years ca.1133-1157 and 1157-1215 as a series of major mining booms, which raised the region to the forefront of European silver production, wrought a radical change in both the political and economic life of the area. During the first mining boom the whole area was unified under the control of the Scottish crown as David I created a vast "English Empire", encompassing under his direct control and that of his son Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmoreland and creating "client-states" in Durham and Lancashire. Within the bounds of this "empire", extending from Lothian to the English lands beyond, moreover, economic life was transformed as in response to the mining boom new supply networks were formed and economic activity intensified:

I Blanchard, "Lothian and beyond: the economy of the 'English empire' of David I" in J Hatcher and R Britnell (eds.), Progress and Problems in Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Edward Miller (Cambridge, 1995)

With the subsequent re-annexation of these territories by Henry II in 1157, however, this whole system collapsed as the second mining boom was played out during the years to 1215 in a purely English context whilst in Scotland the pattern of intensive development of the early twelfth century gave way to extensive colonization on the frontier in conditions of endemic monetary debasement, establishing a pattern of east coast urban development:

M Lynch, M Spearman and G Stell (eds.), The Scottish Medieval Town (1988)
I H Adams, The Making of Urban Scotland (1978), chapters 1-2.
N P Brooks, "Urban Archaeology in Scotland" in M W Barley (ed.), European Towns. Their Archaeology and Early History (1977)
J W R Whitehand and K Alauddin, "The town plans of Scotland: some preliminary considerations", Scottish Geographical Magazine, LXXXV (1969)
W M MacKenzie, The Scottish Burghs (1949)
C McWilliam, Scottish Townscape (1975)
R J Naysmith, The Story of Scotland's Towns (1991)

East Coast Towns

Aberdeen

J C Murray (ed.), Excavations in the Medieval Burgh of Aberdeen 1973-81 (Society of Antiquities of Scotland, Monograph 2, 1982)
J S Smith (ed.), New Light on Medieval Aberdeen (1985)
E P D Torrie, "The early urban site of New Aberdeen: a reappraisal of the evidence", Northern Scotland (1992)
----- Historic Aberdeen: the Archaeological Implications of Development (Scottish Burgh Survey, 1994)

Perth

P Holdsworth (ed.), Excavations in the Medieval Burgh of Perth 1979-1981 (Society of Antiquities of Scotland, Monograph 5, 1988)
A A M Duncan, "Perth the first century of the burgh". Transactions Perthshire Society of the Natural Sciences, II (1974)

Dundee

S J Stevenson and E P D Torrie, Historic Dundee: the Archaeological Implications of Development (Scottish Burgh Survey, 1988), parts i-ii.
E P D Torrie, Medieval Dundee: a Town and its People (Abertay Historical Society, 1990)

St Andrews

N P Brooks and G Whittington, "Planning and growth in a medieval Scottish burgh: the example of St Andrews", Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, II (1977)
R G Cant, "The development of the burgh of St Andrews in the Middle Ages" in St Andrews Preservation Trust Annual Report (1970)

West Coast Towns.
Ayr

W Dodd, "Ayr: a Study of Urban Growth", Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Collections, X (1972)

Glasgow

A Gibb, Glasgow: the Making of a City (1983)
J R Kellet, "Glasgow" in I Lobel (ed.), Historic Towns (1969)
S J Stevenson and E P D Torrie, Historic Glasgow the Archaeological Implications of Development (Scottish Burgh Survey, 1990), parts i-ii.

During the years 1133-1215 as a result of successive mining booms a new urban order had emerged in the North which subsequently underwent a further process of change as agricultural forms introduced into Durham and Northumberland in the late twelfth century were extended to the Borders after ca. 1240 with the resultant transformation of urban life in the region. Unfortunately but little is known of this process but some insights can be gained from a study of Carlisle and the Cumbrian economy:

A J L Winchester, Landscape and Society in Medieval Cumbria (Edinburgh, 1987)
H Summerson, "The Place of Carlisle in the Commerce of Northern England in the Thirteenth Century", in P R Coss & S D Lloyd (eds.), Thirteenth Century England, I (1986)

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