ABSTRACT
A consensus has emerged in modern standard works that the continuous history of Anglo-Saxon and medieval towns began with Alfred, who founded a majority of the Anglo-Saxon urban sites, and that these were usually laid out in rectilinear street patterns to reflect their functions of defence, trade and refuge. This ‘burghal system’ was backed by military reforms and included the early warning of the beacons.1 Nowhere was this to be seen more clearly than in the ‘type site’ of Winchester.2 As a result of a series of brilliant excavations by Martin Biddle we were convinced in the 1970s that all herepaths lead to Winchester. This has generally been accepted, and voices against this view are rare, though David Sturdy has questioned the Alfredian origin of the rectilinear plan.3
