Towns

The 15 towns in this book include 12 from England, three from Ireland and just Stirling from Scotland. Despite their geographical spread, it is striking when writing their stories how similar they are. A number date back to the Romans; in Chester and Chichester we have two of the most important settlements in Roman Britain and in Stirling we have one of their most northerly outposts. By the early Middle Ages most of the towns had been established, Westport and Falmouth being the exceptions. This was a time of war and our towns were mostly defensive places fortified by the Saxons as places of refuge from invaders (usually Vikings). Then in 1066 the Norman Conquest swept across the country and changed everything. Many of the towns have castles that were built by the Normans, not to defend the town but to subdue it. Their influence reached as far as Galway, where the whole town was fortified to subdue the surrounding lands. The Normans also built the great cathedrals and monasteries that can still be found in many of these towns and, while the Norman lords may initially have been resented, with the help of their castles they ushered in an era of peace in which many of our towns thrived. Then in 1536 Henry VIII set in motion the Dissolution of the Monasteries which had a catastrophic effect on many English towns. Some, like Chester and Shrewsbury, were given the chance to convert their monastery into a cathedral (an offer that Shrewsbury politely declined). Others, like Bury St Edmunds, gained their freedom from the rule of the abbot but also lost their economic role and never quite recovered.