Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6: THE ORIGINS OF URBANISM AND TRADE
INTRODUCTION

The history of towns in the East Midlands truly begins in the ninth century (compare Rahtz, 1977, 114-119; Carver, 1987, 50-56). Roman society had been based on towns but during the last stages of Roman Britain they declined as urban centres (Reece, 1980, 78-79). Early Anglo-Saxon England was a rural society but that does not mean that there was no trade or industrial activity. It is during the ninth century that these activities resume on a scale that shows urban revival. The revival of town life is based on the changing pattern of trade and economic development. The inclusion of the towns during the ninth to eleventh centuries in this thesis is because the information from the later centuries may give us some indication of where the early Anglo-Saxon settlements were placed and what their economy was like.

ROMAN TOWNS IN THE EAST MIDLANDS

There had been many Roman towns in the East Midlands such as Lincoln, Leicester, Ancaster, Horncastle and Towcester. They were already in decline before the end of Roman Britain and the end of their administrative functions, the decline of trade and industry, the increasing importance of rural estates and centres changed town life and new patterns of exchange replaced those located there. It is possible but doubtful that anything resembling town life continued at these places from Roman Britain into the Anglo-Saxon period: this conforms with the pattern found in West Mercia (Rahtz, 1977, 109-110). The Anglo-Saxons recognized the Roman ruins and they distinguished old Roman centres and English fortifications by calling them different names. An example of this is the calling of a Roman town like Leicester, a civitas or chester (Campbell, 1979, 34-42). There is some evidence for continued use and occupation of urban sites during the fifth and sixth centuries such as the Christian church of St. Paul-in-the-Bail, Lincoln as a cemetery. In the seventh century, Leicester and Lincoln were both ecclesiastical centres and a royal official was in control of Lincoln.

Roman centres may still have been occupied during the Anglo-Saxon settlement but this does not mean that they were towns. The history of continuous settlement of a site does not imply that it remained an urban community (Hill, 1977, 293-302). Blaecca, who controlled seventh century Lincoln, and others like him may illustrate a recognition of the defensive potential of Roman buildings in troubled times. At Lincoln, the archaeology suggests a possible break between Roman and late Saxon development. By the time the pottery kilns of Leicester were constructed in the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Roman street there was covered with soil and the surface of the street was cut into during the kiln's construction (Hebditch, 1967-8, 4-9). The surviving walls of Roman Lincoln defined the shape of the tenth century town because they were an obstacle to building and communication. But the detailed layout of tenth century properties shows that the Roman property divisions and street lines were irrelevant (Coppack, 1974, 74-75; Colyer and Jones, 1977, 75-76). Towns like Nottingham and Derby were prosperous in the late Anglo-Saxon period while the nearby Roman towns were in ruins. Nottingham had shifted towards the River Trent and Derby was established at a river ford (Hall, 1976, 16-23).

TOWNS IN THE EAST MIDLANDS

A town in modern times is a community where labour is specialized with traders, craftsmen and administrators. This is not like rural settlements where the needs of subsistence agriculture impose a common routine. The Anglo-Saxon town is difficult to distinguish because all settlements, including towns, had agricultural aspects. An example is the citizens of Nottingham at the time of Domesday who owned meadow land and ploughs (Parker and Wood, 1977, Books 1-20). But concentrations of population and trading activity were marks of urban life. It is these special characteristics which are absent from the East Midlands between the sixth and ninth centuries. Exchange of goods occurred since we find glass palm cups in seventh century graves in Derbyshire or Lincolnshire, Frankish material at Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire and many early grave goods were imported from the Continent (See Gazetteer, 74-75; Watkin, 1980, 88-89). It is the nature of their distribution which is significant since the mechanics of exchange in the early Anglo-Saxon period was warfare and limited trade distributed by kings and churchmen. The exchange of rare goods was by gift rather than trade. The abbess of Repton sent a "Peak District lead" coffin to house the body of the hermit Guthlac in the early eighth century. Early Anglo-Saxon society was socially unequal with access to high value goods and objects like weapons restricted and the access to the goods was politically determined (Arnold, 1980, 81-142). Weapons and luxury goods were given by kings and overlords whose power rested on them and whose courts were centres for their distribution (Hodges, 1978, 439-453). As centres of exchange, the courts attracted merchants and traders and the existence of a gift economy does not mean that there was not a money economy. But we do not have the permanent population, the buying and selling, the activity of merchants and industry in fixed centres which are the bases for town growth.

ECONOMY IN THE EAST MIDLANDS

The early history of the coinage confirms this picture. The import of Roman coin into Britain ceased in the early fifth century and a few Roman coins are found in early Anglo-Saxon graves at Stapenhill, Derbyshire and Sleaford, Lincolnshire but they are the last remnants of circulation (Kent, 1961, 7-8 and 20). The Anglo-Saxon coinage began at the end of the seventh century with gold coins which was followed by silver sceattas. These are found in the East Midlands but not in the quantities that have been found to the north and the south. Their centres of production and use appear to have been south-east England where the trade revival was already established. At least one group of sceattas may have been minted in the East Midlands near Stamford but most of the sceattas along the Wash suggest that trade, which was reviving at this date, was still around the edges of the East Midlands. The sequence of gold coins followed by silver sceattas is presumably significant since gold equals taxes and large payments (not trade) while silver equals wholesale not retail trade.

At a different level, the collection of food rents and dues at royal and ecclesiastical centres was establishing a distribution network during these centuries. The payment of dues and the provisioning of a court or monastery forced some exchange. The place-name wic survives in the name of the Lincoln suburb Wigford (known in the twelfth century as Wikeford) and seventh century Lincoln was a centre of royal administration (Perring, 1981, 44). It is at these centres that many towns are found. An example of this is at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire at an old minster church where ecclesiastical dues were gathered (Everitt, 1975, 266-267). These places had urban features by the time the Domesday Book was written. Melton Mowbray, for example, already had a market worth 20s. a year. All the evidence for urban activity comes from the tenth and eleventh centuries. Their positions on old roads or as centres for royal and ecclesiastical payments helped them with their growth when economic development did occur (Reynolds, 1977, 27-34). It is doubtful though, how much town growth had taken place before the ninth century and so the development of medieval towns is a theme later than the scope of this thesis.

INDUSTRY IN THE EAST MIDLANDS

Industry on any scale disappeared at the end of Roman Britain but specialized craft production survived and can be seen in the weapons and jewellery of the early and mid-Anglo-Saxon period. But this craftsmanship was confined to the courts of kings or to the entourages of high ecclesiastics. Its products were highly prized status goods and were given as gifts rather than bought and sold in the market place. It was not until the late ninth century that industrial production revived.

The grave goods of cemeteries give us little evidence for the details of industrial production. It is possible that jewellery like the saucer-shaped brooches or pendants were still being produced on a large scale during the fifth century but the production centres was outside eastern England (Lethbridge, 1956, 120-122). Even funerary urns do not seem to have been mass-produced. Their linear and stamped decoration may argue for specialized craftsmen but no centre of production has been identified in the East Midlands. With the decline of the economic and urban structures of Roman Britain went the Nene valley potteries. Two levels of industry replaced it. At the local level, most needs were met with hand-made, largely village-made goods. Textiles were produced in most homes and most excavations have turned up a sets of loom weights. Pottery was also hand-made since the art of throwing on a fast wheel and large-scale kiln production was lost during the fifth century. Most domestic pottery between the fifth and ninth centuries was like that found at Maxey, Northamptonshire. They were built up, for example, by coiling clay, which was occasionally tempered with grass, on a flat base and were fired in single-clamp kilns (Hurst, 1976, 283). Iron objects were rare and valuable at Anglo-Saxon settlement sites and the objects which have been found were locally produced.

While village and domestic production met most normal needs, skilled craftsmen at the court of kings or in religious houses turned out goods which are as close to art as they are to industry. They produced objects like the seventh century necklace of gold and garnet found at Desborough, Northamptonshire or the helmet worn by the lord buried at Benty Grange, Derbyshire. The craftsmen were so valuable that a king like Alfred ranked them among his key workers at his court and made provisions for them in his will (Stevenson, 1959, 87).

MINING IN THE EAST MIDLANDS

Large scale mineral extraction may have remained in royal hands. Lead was mined in the Peak district during the Roman period and was still mined during the early eighth century when the abbess of Repton sent her gift of a lead coffin to St. Guthlac and in 835, the abbess Cynewaru made arrangements for an annual payment of lead from Wirksworth to Canterbury. There were lead mines at Matlock Bridge, Bakewell, Ashford and Crich, and three at Wirksworth (Darby, 1977, 268). Before 1066, Hope, Ashford and Bakewell made annual payments to the king which included five wagon loads of 50 lead slabs. Silver production has been suggested by the Domesday Book entry for the royal manors of Matlock Bridge, Ashbourne, Parwich, Wirksworth and Darley, which were paying Ł40 of "pure silver" in 1086 (Darby, 1977, 268). The mineral wealth of the Peak may explain why so much of this area remained in royal hands during the late eleventh century. Kings would not have parted with these important assets.

CONCLUSION

As was stated in the previous chapter, early Anglo-Saxon England was a rural society but towns survived throughout this period as seen with the economic surge and urban population explosion during the ninth century. The Anglo-Saxons recognized the Roman towns as centres of political and economic control and therefore settled near or within the ruins of them. This does not mean that "town life" continued but there was continued trading and exchange occurring near these centres. Also, industry within the towns diminished so that there were no longer large pottery or metalwork production centres. These types of industry moved to the household level or were taken over by skilled craftsmen from the courts or from regions outside the East Midlands. One of the few surviving industries was mining since lead and silver mining continued throughout the period as can be seen in Bede and the Domesday Book. The towns of the East Midlands may not have been flourishing during the Anglo-Saxon period as they had in the Roman period but they did survive in some form to provide political and economic centres for the various groups of people in this region.

To Go Back to Chapter 5 press

To Continue to Chapter 7 press