Shaping Rural Settlements: The Early Medieval Legacy to the English Village

Abstract

Some researchers seeking to establish the origins of the medieval village in England see a beginning in the seventh or eighth centuries as part of a Middle Saxon ‘Great Re-Planning’, but most currently argue that villages were founded as part of a process beginning in the tenth century. The organisers of England's most extensive test-pitting scheme inside currently-occupied rural settlements have suggested that there is little evidence for roots before the tenth century. This paper demonstrates, however, that test pits are not an appropriate way to detect ephemeral Middle Saxon remains, that the ability of such methods to accurately reconstruct early medieval settlement sequences has been overemphasised and that occupation pre-dating the ninth century is only likely to be located through more extensive excavation. It is further suggested in the paper that medieval villages often emerged through a two-stage process, as from the tenth century existing Middle Saxon centres were shifted short distances and restructured into their more lasting historic forms. The seventh, eighth and ninth centuries can therefore be seen as having left an important legacy in the landscape of England.