ABSTRACT
The model of settlement development in the 1940s and 1950s was a simple one. It saw villages as being founded with the influx of Anglo-Saxon colonists in the centuries following the collapse of Roman administration. Medieval churches were thought to be the 'anchors' marking the original foci of Anglo-Saxon settlements. In medieval settlement studies was being discussed around the time that the Shapwick Project was being developed. Over a period, three main aims of the Shapwick Project developed. First, to study the development of the settlement pattern and field system in the parish set against the general model for English settlement that had been developed over the previous 40 years. Second, to provide a base for teaching a variety of students the techniques of archaeology, history, topography and other disciplines, particularly to involve local people in the research being pursued in their own area. Third, to investigate the application of new techniques and concepts of landscape archaeology.
