The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 276 • Ian Whyte
TOWNSCAPES
Urban archaeology has made great advances in the last 30 years, but much of the effort has gone
into the search for the Roman origins and medieval development of towns rather than their post
medieval features (Crossley 1990). Few excavations have been directed specifically at post medieval
sites and problems. The predominance of rescue excavations in urban archaeology has made it
difficult to devise proper research strategies. Excavation has often been piecemeal, involving part
of a building plot or even merely part of a building. Nineteenth-century cellars have sometimes
destroyed all levels above the medieval ones. Excavation has tended to focus on the tails of
burgage plots rather than on street frontages, and many finds have come from pits rather than
from structures, their origins not easily attributed. In towns like Norwich, a change in the way in
which rubbish was disposed from the mid-seventeenth century, with disposal in the suburbs, has
led to a paucity of artefacts in later levels (Ayres 1991).
As with the countryside, new sources become available from the sixteenth century for studying
the evolution of townscapes. Bird’s eye views start to provide valuable information on townscapes
from the later sixteenth century, while increasingly accurate and detailed town maps and plans
were produced from the seventeenth century.
In 1500, towns throughout Britain were still suffering from the long period of decline and
decay that had affected them throughout late medieval times. They remained small, within their
medieval boundaries, often with ruined buildings and reduced populations testifying to their lack
of trade and industry. In England, the sixteenth century saw the start of a massive phase of
urbanization that was to transform towns and, on a wider scale, the entire countryside. In 1550,
only 3.5 per cent of the population of England and Wales lived in towns of over 10,000 inhabitants.
By 1600, this figure had risen to 5.8 per cent, by 1700 to 13–3 per cent and by 1800 to over 20 per
cent. In Scotland, urban growth started from a lower baseline but had reached almost the same
level as England by the early nineteenth century, although the growth of large towns represents
only the tip of the iceberg. Population growth in the later sixteenth century also affected many
medium-sized towns and smaller market centres. However, there was considerable variation when
particular towns began to expand and change. Infilling of the existing built up area was often
gradual. York still retained a considerable amount of open space within its medieval walls into
the nineteenth century.
The growth of urban population in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did not necessarily
involve physical expansion. The bird’s eye views of English county towns drawn by John Speed
c. 1610 show that there was plenty of space within the existing medieval limits to be infilled. Most
of London’s huge population increase in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was
accommodated by intensified construction within the existing built up area (Thompson et al.
1984). Urban growth occurred by the expansion of suburbs, by the colonization of streets and
market areas and by the intensification of development on existing building plots. The increasingly
tight packing of working-class housing into the tails of burgage plots behind street frontages led
to severe overcrowding with problems of water supply and waste disposal, eventually producing
some of the worst slum housing—court dwellings and back to backs—of the Industrial Revolution,
bad enough in small towns, awful in larger ones like Manchester.
The Reformation often produced major townscape changes. In Gloucester, c.16 per cent of
the medieval town was occupied by friaries and the abbey. Following the Dissolution, their buildings
were converted to residential and industrial uses, although Anglican cathedral closes developed
as distinct enclaves in many towns. Almshouses, hospitals and other charitable foundations replaced
the charity formerly provided by the Church, while increasing civic pride led to the construction
or rebuilding of guild halls, town halls and market halls. The discovery and excavation of the