Mapping the medieval urban landscape: Edward I's 'new towns' of England and Wales

Project start date: 2003-05

Project end date: 2005-05

This project employed modern spatial technologies to explore how towns were formed in the middle ages. Its focus was on a group of 'new towns' established in England and Wales in the later thirteenth century during the reign of King Edward I. The aims of the project were twofold: first, to examine the processes that formed these towns, using their physical layouts as proxy evidence for their design and planning; and second, to establish transferable methodologies for the mapping and analysis of medieval urban landscapes using Geographical Information Systems, and using this as a means of disseminating temporal and spatial data via the internet in an online digital atlas of the study towns. The research has advanced our understanding of the decision-making that shaped urban landscapes in the middle ages, contributing to ongoing scholarship in medieval archaeology and urban history on the processes of urbanisation that were at work in Europe during this time and which have left a rich legacy of historic built environments. The research has also benefitted ongoing archaeological management of these built environments, as well as their interpretation. The resulting online digital atlas of the towns covered by the project is the first of its kind, and as such will prove to be of benefit to those likewise seeking to use spatial technologies to analyse and distribute cartographic, archaeological and historical data.