Modelling Urban Renewal and Growth in Britain and North-West Europe, AD 800-1300: The Wallingford Burh to Borough Project

位于牛津郡南部的沃林福德是一个历史悠久的防御城镇，它保留了保存完好的中世纪城镇规划，这是一个非凡的例子。沃林福德位于泰晤士河的一个主要渡口旁，紧凑的核心被银行和沟渠包围，可能可以追溯到撒克逊晚期作为burh（或防御中心）建立的时候。在环路的东北角，有大量与诺曼皇家城堡有关的土方工程，而网格状的街道网络也以中世纪教堂、（已丢失的）本笃会修道院和许多其他中世纪建筑为特色。因此，沃林福德一直被视为英国中世纪考古学的“经典”遗址，经常被引用为撒克逊晚期规划城镇形成和诺曼城堡强加的典范。然而，尽管如此，沃林福德真正的研究潜力仍有待开发；事实上，如果没有详细的新研究，就无法在理解沃林福德对中世纪城市起源和演变的更广泛图景的贡献方面取得任何进展。一些基本问题仍未得到解答。例如，虽然沃林福德通常被认为是一个撒克逊晚期的种植园，但“零散”的考古文物和未发表的挖掘（包括铁器时代的硬币、罗马人的发现和早期撒克逊人的墓葬）表明，它的起源要复杂得多。撒克逊城镇的完整布局仍然不确定，而诺曼城堡和修道院对城镇的影响需要仔细研究。我们的项目旨在解读这一非凡的历史城镇景观，并开发一个具有国际意义的案例研究，阐明c.800-1300年间中世纪城市转型的本质。关于中世纪早期城市更新的辩论在欧洲大陆已经很活跃，但英国落后了，这个项目将使人们更充分地参与到前现代城市主义的关键学术问题上。重要的是，中世纪晚期和近代早期的经济停滞意味着沃林福德的各个区域都处于开放状态：布洛克罗夫特、克内克罗夫特和城堡草地总共占据了防御区内三分之一以上的区域；城镇的城墙保存完好（虽然被严重忽视）；河滨的开发也是有限的。与大多数历史城镇形成鲜明对比的是，这些开放区域可以使用非侵入性的考古调查来绘制计划的“埋藏”特征。文献记录也十分丰富，具有揭示沃林福德地形和经济发展的潜力。此外，之前的挖掘工作已经突出了地下考古沉积物的良好保存：特别是20世纪60年代和70年代对城堡的cob建筑，撒克逊街正面，北门和城墙的广泛工作，揭示了优秀的结构和人工数据。此外，从20世纪90年代开始，许多由开发商资助的小规模发掘工作已经开始，为沃林福德的中世纪历史提供了诱人的一瞥。然而，这些先前的工作都没有完全发表，本项目的一个组成部分是将这些挖掘工作写下来，并将结果与从综合城市考古调查中获得的新数据结合起来，并辅以有针对性的挖掘。沃林福德研究项目是由莱斯特大学、埃克塞特大学和牛津大学的一个跨机构团队构想的，作为一个综合考古、地形和文献数据源的研究项目。2002- 2005年的试点研究允许对城镇的开放空间进行初步的地球物理测绘，并确定了规划中令人着迷的新组成部分。现在需要大量的资金来将这个项目推进到下一个阶段，在三年的计划中，对城镇景观及其腹地进行全面的考古审查，对沃林福德及其规划进行精确的测绘和分析，并实现这个历史中心丰富的研究潜力。

Wallingford in south Oxfordshire is justly renowned as a remarkable example of an historic defended town that retains an especially well-preserved medieval town plan. Located alongside a major crossing of the River Thames, Wallingford's compact core is encircled by banks and ditches likely to date from the time of its establishment as a burh (or defended centre) in the late Saxon period. In the circuit's north-east corner are extensive earthworks relating to a Norman royal castle, while the gridded street network also features medieval churches, a (lost) Benedictine priory and numerous other medieval buildings. Consequently, Wallingford has been viewed as a 'classic' site in British medieval archaeology, frequently cited as an exemplar of both late Saxon planned town formation and Norman castle imposition. Yet despite this status, the true research potential of Wallingford remains to be exploited; indeed, without detailed new research, no advances can be made on understanding Wallingford's contribution to a broader picture of medieval urban origins and evolution. Fundamental questions remain unanswered. For example, while Wallingford is commonly held to be a late Saxon plantation, 'stray' archaeological artefacts and unpublished excavations (including Iron Age coins, Roman finds and early Saxon burials) suggest more complex origins. The full layout of the Saxon town remains uncertain, while the impact of the Norman castle and priory on the town requires close scrutiny. Our project aims to decipher this remarkable historic townscape and to develop a case-study of international significance that elucidates the nature of medieval urban transformation in the period c.800-1300. Debates on early medieval urban renewal are already active on the Continent, but Britain lags behind and this project will enable fuller engagement on key academic issues on pre-modern urbanism.Importantly, economic stagnation in the late medieval and early modern periods means that various zones of Wallingford lie open: the areas of the Bullcroft, Kinecroft and Castle Meadows together occupy over one third of the area within the defences; the town ramparts are well preserved (if badly neglected); and riverside development is limited. In sharp contrast to most historic towns, where occupation has been continuous, these open zones enable use of non-invasive archaeological survey to map 'buried' features of the plan. The documentary record is also rich, holding potential to illuminate the development of Wallingford's topography and economy. Moreover, previous excavations have highlighted the excellent preservation of below-ground archaeological deposits: in particular, extensive work in the 1960s and 70s on cob buildings at the castle, on a Saxon street frontage, and on the north gate and ramparts revealed excellent structural and artefactual data. In addition, from the 1990s, many small-scale developer-funded excavations have taken place, providing tantalising glimpses of Wallingford's medieval past. None of these previous works have been fully published, however, and an integral part of this project is to write up these excavations and to integrate the results with new data derived from a comprehensive urban archaeological survey supplemented by targeted excavation. The Wallingford Research Project has been conceived by a cross-institutional team at Leicester, Exeter and Oxford Universities as a research programme integrating archaeological, topographical and documentary data sources. Pilot studies in 2002-5 allowed preliminary geophysical mapping of the town's open spaces and identified fascinating new components to the plan. Major funding is now required to take this project to the next, intensive level with the three year programme, targeted at full archaeological scrutiny of the townscape and its hinterland, enabling precision mapping and analysis of Wallingford and its plan, and realising the rich research potential of this historic centre.