Town/Village Development in the UK in the Medieval Ages Leicester Development in the Medieval Ages

Leicester provides an excellent example of fort-settlement-town-city development through the Medieval Ages. Controlled at different stages by the Romans, Anglo Saxons, Danish and, of course, Great Britain, Leicester shows the combined contributions, primarily of the Romans, Anglo Saxons and British in its development. Realizing the importance of these contributions, the University of Leicester has undertaken various archaeological projects to continually learn about the city's Medieval development and the Leicester City Council has undertaken a considerable preservation project, particularly of the marketplace area. Both the University and the City Council intend to uncover and preserve Leicester's rich history.

Backdrop: British to Roman to Anglo Saxon to Danish to British

Leicester is a city located at 52°38"06"N 1°08"06"W in modern-day East Midlands, Great Britain (Google, Inc., 2006). However, it did not become an organized settlement until it was captured by the invading Romans circa 47 AD. Initially a Roman outpost settled along the Soar River and called Ratae Corieltauvorum, the fort was fully established before 210 AD (Heritage Key, 2011). The Romans allowed suburbs to grow outside the fort walls circa 250 AD, forming a town, and continued to reside in the settlement until abandoning it on or about 407 AD (Lambert, A timeline of Leicester, 2011). The town continued with few inhabitants until the invading Anglo Saxons captured the town, revived it and effectively made it a city by making it a bishopric circa 680 AD. The city continued to flourish until 877, when the invading Danes captured the city and made it a borough of Danelaw. The city remained a borough of Danelaw until 918 AD, when the British recaptured the city. It was in the Domesday Book -- a survey of large sections of Great Britain and Wales published in 1086 -- that Leicester was listed as 'Ledecestre' and had a population of approximately 1,500 people. Since its recapture in 918, the city has remained under British rule (Lambert, A timeline of Leicester, 2011). The Medieval Period is divided into Early Medieval Period, from the 5th Century to the 12th Century (Warner, The Oxford companion to Irish history: Early Medieval period, 2007) and Late Medieval Period, from the late 12th Century to the early 16th Century (Warner, The Oxford companion to Irish history: Late medieval period, 2007). Consequently, Leicester's Medieval development occurred under Roman, Anglo Saxon, Danish and British rule.

3. Boundaries from Roman Occupation throughout Medieval Period

Only 0.01% of original Roman architecture remains (Heritage Key, 2011). However, in preparing a proposal for conserving the current marketplace, the Leicester City Council issued the following map of Ratae Corieltauvorum (Leicester City Council, 2007, p. 9).

According to the Leicester City Council, the form of Ratae Corieltauvorum can be reconstructed from plans. An important portion of the plans involves the town's defenses, forming its boundaries:

"the southern and eastern boundaries of the conservation area, through the centre of the block of shops between Market Place, Gallowtree Gate and Horsefair Street, follow roughly the line of the ramparts and ditches that marked the edges of the town (Gallowtree Gate itself runs just to the east of the original ditch). These later became the walls and ditch of the medieval town until they fell out of use in the 17th century" (Leicester City Council, 2007, p. 9).

4. Marketplace

a. Roman

As "Map 3" shows, during Roman occupation, the marketplace was located in the southeast corner of the settlement. The lack of remaining Roman architecture has forced the City Council to obtain information from other sources:

"A Roman tessellated pavement (part of a domestic mosaic floor) from a site near Malcolm Arcade is known from records made in the 18th and 19th centuries and Silver Street follows roughly the line of the main Roman east-west street that led from the town's West Gate (the important Roman road we know as the Fosse Way). Deposits of materials from the Roman period were recorded during building works at 16-20 Silver Street and an excavation in 1968 revealed part of a Roman building adjacent to 42 Silver Street. Finds of Roman pottery have also been made frequently in the area. However, much Roman material has probably been lost, at least immediately behind the street frontages, as the many new buildings constructed during the

However, there could be up to 4 m (13ft) of archaeology below current ground levels, although, as yet, there has been little opportunity for detailed investigations" (Leicester City Council, 2007, p. 10).
In addition, in 2001, an Archeological Investigations Project was undertaken, assessing the following areas for archaeological possibilities: St. Nicholas Circle, Abbey Ward; Cank Street; Abbey Parks Campus; Alexandra House, Rutland Street; Beaumont Leys Lane, Beaumont Leys; Cross Corners, Thurcaston Road, Belgrave; Freeman's Park Campus, Southfields; land at Stoneham House Farm, Barkby Thorpe Road; Land off Castle Street and Southgates; land off Mill Lane; land off Raw Dykes Road; Leicester Royal Infirmary, Alystone Road; proposed De Montfort University Leicester City Campus Developments; the former Powergen Site, Raw Dykes Road/Aylestone Road, Castle Ward; Vaughan Way and High Cross Street; Westbridge Wharf, Bath Lane; Wimbledon Mills, Wimbledon Street (University of Leicester Archaeological Services, 2001).

b. Anglo Saxon, Danish, British

The City Councils believes that this same market area was probably used as a market for centuries after the Roman occupation and continuing through the Medieval period, due to its examination of word origins in Anglo Saxon, Danish and Old English. The market is known as the "Cheapside Area" and the name "Cheapside" is from the Saxon word ceapan, which means "buy." In addition, the Danish word for "sell" is chepe and the area's Old English name was "Chepe" (Leicester City Council, 2007, p. 10). Under British rule, authority for the markets was given by the Earls of Leicester in the early 1200's and the market was then often called "The Earl's Market" (Leicester City Council, 2007, p. 10). The market was eventually known as "Saturday Market" because the market was allowed to operate on Saturdays.

The City Council assembled the following "Map 4": the map of Medieval Leicester and its market (with Map Key on following page)(Leicester City Council, 2007, p. 10):

The Key to the Map of Medieval Leicester is:

(Leicester City Council, n.d.)

5. Social Structure

Medieval society in general was divided into three "estates": the nobility, who were relatively few and whose mission was to rule and defend "the body politic"; the Church, which tended to society's spiritual needs; the Commoners who worked to fulfill society's physical needs (Chaucer, 2007). Within Medieval Leicester: nobility was embodied in the Earl; the Church was embodied in the Austin and Grey Friars; Commoners were everybody else. The Earl used a steward to run day-to-day business but ultimately ruled the town. By law, the Earl cornered the market on grain and bread: he owned all the mills and the bread-baking ovens; all grain was legally required to be ground in his mills; all bakeries had to bake their bread in his ovens; he could fine bakeries for cooking underweight loaves; he charged tolls for all the markets' stalls (Lambert, A history of Leicester, 2011).

6. Roman and Medieval Gates

The wall lines of Ratae Corieltauvorum were later followed in building the Medieval Leicester walls and North, West, East and South Gates, which are indicated as 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the Map Key. Those Medieval wall lines eventually formed modern-day Soar Lane, Sanvey Gate, Church Gate, Gallowtree Gate, Horsefair Street to the Soar River and running along the river. The Medieval gates were the town entrances and were like fortresses, with "portcullises" - iron gratings that could be raised and lowered over the entrances (Merriam-Webster, 2012). The gates were open from sunrise to sunset and constantly guarded, having guardrooms and dungeons above the gates. The gates were so narrow and low that produce carts could not pass through; consequently, goods were sold outside the East Gate and the primary inns were built outside Leicester's walls. In 1774, the gates were torn down and sold for building materials (Leicester City Council, n.d.).

7. Bridges

According to the Map Key: North Bridge (5) and Frogmire Bridge (6) crossed the Soar River north of the Medieval town and leading to the North Gate. In addition, Bow Bridge (7), West Bridge (8), Braunston Bridge (9) and Little Bow Bridge (56) crossed the Soar River on the west, leading to the West Gate. Finally, Cow Bridge (10) crossed the Soar River to the south of the town, leading to Cow Lane and eventually to South Gate.

8. Churches

The importance of the Church can be easily deduced from the sheer number of Churches in this single Medieval town. Though Medieval Leicester was merely 100 acres and had a population of only 1,500 in 1086, the town contained eleven churches: All Saints (11) was on the far north end of High Street; St. Michael's (12) was located between St. John's Lane and St. Peter's Lane, slightly north of the town's midpoint; St. Peter's (13) was located…