Selected projects
4.19.16 Essex historic towns
The Essex Historic Towns Extensive Urban Survey is being undertaken by the Archaeology Section, Essex County Council. The project builds on the work of a previous survey undertaken in the late 1970s and published as Supplementary Planning Guidance. The project has assessed the archaeology and history of 32 towns and is in the process of formulating planning policies to safeguard and manage this important resource. Colchester will be the subject of a separate Urban Archaeological Database.
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The survey is looking at Roman, Saxon, medieval, and post-medieval towns (founded before AD 1700). The Roman towns fall into two groups, those founded on sites previously occupied in the Late Iron Age and those that appear to have been 'greenfield' sites. They are nearly all at important points on the communications network, and often take the form of ribbon development along a routeway with little planned internal layout. Some were associated with forts, some had their own defences, and at least two appear to have had a primarily religious focus. The Saxon towns fall into two groups, those that were founded as burhs by Edward the Elder at the beginning of the tenth century as at Maldon, and those that were monastic foundations, as at Waltham Abbey. The Domesday Book shows that many of the medieval towns were thriving villages by the end of the Saxon period, although not necessarily urban in character. The medieval towns of Essex are mainly small market towns, but within that group there are variations on this theme. There are castle towns such as Castle Hedingham and Pleshey, towns associated with large monastic institutions such as St Osyth, towns that were founded as a commercial venture (usually by the ecclesiastical authorities) as at Epping and Brentwood, and several port towns, including the international port of Harwich, as well as smaller fishing ports. A number of the medieval towns failed to develop in the later medieval and early post-medieval periods, and are now no more than villages, while others prospered and grew. The survey has also examined the post-medieval and industrial heritage within the towns, the latter ranging from the traditional industries, such as malting, to the electronic and defence industry dominant in Chelmsford.
Essex is fortunate in the quality of its historic towns, particularly with regard to the built environment. Many still retain a definite 'historic' identity and show clearly the stages of their development through the centuries. The survey has highlighted a number of key themes in the development of urbanism in Essex, much of which is applicable to towns elsewhere in the country, including the transition from Late Iron Age settlement to Roman towns, the deliberate founding of towns as commercial ventures in the Saxon and medieval periods, the mechanics and physical manifestation of patronage, the relationship with the rural hinterland, the processes of economic decline, and the role of the agricultural and fishing-based industries (including the cloth trade, malting, saffron-growing, and boat-building).