ABSTRACT
One of the interesting features of many early foundations was that French boroughs or colonies of French traders were often established alongside English settlements; sometimes these were already entrenched urban settlements, such as Stamford, Nottingham and Hereford. At Hereford French settlers were introduced by William fitz Osbern who granted them the fee customs of Breteuil Sur Iton, while the English community maintained their ancient burghal customs. One of William’s earliest tasks after the Conquest was to provide a secure political and military base in England. The manor of Clun as a political unit displayed a similar vastness of scale: at the Norman Conquest it was given to Picot de Say, one of Earl Roger of Montgomery’s chief vassals, and was the greatest of Picot de Say’s many estates. Kidwelly, Caernarvon and Cardiff are further post-Conquest military towns which developed extra-mural market places.
