Mapping the urbanization of Medieval England

Regional and chronological patterning in the establishment of towns across Medieval England is investigated in relation to the rural settlement provinces defined by Wrathmell and Roberts. It is proposed that this approach is advantageous to considering urbanization relative to arbitrary county divisions, as settlement provinces allow analysis of the relationship between town and country and between urbanization and physical geography. Following a review of historical and archaeological approaches to understanding urbanization, an analysis of urbanization in each province is presented, considering the chronology of urbanization, the relationship between boroughs, market towns and non-urban markets and variability in strategies employed by landowners to develop commercial places on their manors and estates. We identify marked regional patterning in the pace, intensity and character of urbanization at multiple scales and conclude that it is as a form of nucleation that urbanization can be best understood as a catalyst of commercialization in the Middle Ages.