1
Introduction
This book gives a short account of some of the physical evidence for urban development from the end of the Roman period until about AD 1140. The question of the development of town life, though, is a matter for wider debate, embracing evidence from hisorical and numismatic sources, but also increasingly (as it is hoped to show in the following pages) evidence from archaeological and topographical sources. Life in towns is, however, lived within the fabric of the townscape, and each determines in complex ways the quality or form of the other. An account therefore of some of the topographical and archaelolgical evidence relating to the development of the townscape is desirable insofar as it contributes evidence and hypotheses to this broader enquiry.