IMC 2006: Sessions
Session 724: Early English Shire Towns
Tuesday 11 July 2006, 14.15-15.45
| Sponsor: | Victoria County History |
|---|---|
| Organiser: | Richard Sharpe, Faculty of History, University of Oxford |
| Moderator/Chair: | Chris Lewis, Victoria County History (Sussex), Institute of Historical Research, University of London |
| Paper 724-a | Northumberland and Newcastle (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Geography and Settlement Studies, Local History, Social History |
| Paper 724-b | East Anglia and its Shire Towns (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Geography and Settlement Studies, Local History, Social History |
| Paper 724-c | The Emergence of Shire Towns: The Wider Picture and Future Research (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Geography and Settlement Studies, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Social History |
| Abstract | Between the early 10th and the late 12th century in most shires, an individual town acquired a political and social status above other towns and became the urban focus of a rural 'county society'. Shire towns emerged from the fusion of several factors. First, the Midland shires centred on defensive boroughs set a new example. Second, there was a trend, increased after the Conquest, for shire courts to meet in towns rather than at traditional sites in the country. Third, the Norman transformation of the role of sheriffs and their new manner of working, centred on a castle in the shire town, brought major physical and social changes. The town was affected not only by the intrusion of a great new fortification but by the enduring need of the great men of the shire to maintain a residence near the shire court's meeting-place and the sheriff's office. |