DEFINING THE DATASET AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

We take a maximalist approach to defining small towns as places with a borough charter or recognised by Everitt as market towns in c 1600,Footnote ¹² which are ranked outside of the top fifty towns based on population estimates derived from the fourteenth-century poll tax.Footnote ¹³ Although the relative position of towns in league tables of population changes across the period, as represented for example by Domesday records and those of the 1524–5 lay subsidies,Footnote ¹⁴ the later fourteenth-century rankings are most representative for our core period of interest.Footnote ¹⁵

The volume of archaeological work undertaken in small towns, largely led by development, has increased substantially over the last thirty years.Footnote ¹⁶ Archaeological data are derived from a survey of published and unpublished excavation reports from 854 small towns in England, which identified 478 sites from 193 towns with evidence for production in the form of excavated features or material culture.Footnote ¹⁷ Even so, the dataset remains patchy. A lack of large-scale excavation limits understanding; for example, at Marlborough (Wiltshire) there were at least twenty-four individuals involved in the leather industry in 1377, including tanners, but archaeological investigations, limited to small-scale interventions, have not provided any evidence for this.Footnote ¹⁸ Fig 1 illustrates the distribution of evidence for craft activity relative to the intensity of archaeological excavation. This shows that generally the most diverse and abundant evidence for industry corresponds with areas of the most intensive excavation, with concentrations in Worcestershire, Somerset, southern-western Yorkshire and the London region. There are several regions with little or no evidence for industry. In the north-west and south-west, low quantities of work have limited the potential for evidence to be recovered, yet in the two most intensively excavated towns in the north-west, Kendal and Carlisle (both Cumbria), evidence for a diverse range of industries has been recovered. Evidence is also lacking in much of East Anglia and northern Essex, as well as in the Weald and areas of mid-Devon. In these areas, towns are, and remain today, generally very small. This has two implications: firstly, that it is probable that the economies of these places were less diverse than those of larger places and, secondly, that they are not subject to extensive development-led excavation. Additionally, cloth production, which leaves little archaeological trace, provided the economic basis of many of these regions. Furthermore, regional variation in practices of artefact reporting potentially affect our ability to infer industrial activities from archaeological reports.Footnote ¹⁹ For these evidential reasons it is not possible to present a regional analysis of archaeological evidence; instead, we focus on contextualising evidence within specific towns (see fig 3 for location of places referred to in the text).

Fig 1.

Map showing the diversity of industrial evidence from towns relative to the quantity of excavation undertaken. The size of the points refers to the number of industries represented and the colour indicates the quantity of excavation (blues being low quantities and pinks being high quantities). The underlying heat map indicates the quantity of excavation at the regional scale. Image: authors.

Fig 1. Long description

The map displays the geographic region of England, highlighting the diversity of industrial evidence from towns relative to the quantity of excavation undertaken. The size of the points indicates the number of industries represented, with larger points signifying more industries. The color of the points ranges from blue to pink, where blue indicates low quantities of excavation and pink indicates high quantities. The underlying heat map shows the quantity of excavation at the regional scale, with darker yellow areas indicating higher excavation density. Key locations are marked with different sizes and colors of points, and the map includes a legend explaining the symbols and colors used.

Fig 2.

Map showing the distribution of Escheators’ lists. The size of the dot relates to the number of lists. The colouration relates to the number of lists from which no evidence of craft, one identified craft (green) and multiple identified crafts (black) were present. Places referred to in the text are labelled. Image: authors.

Fig 3.

Map showing places referred to in the text. Image: authors.

Evidence for industry ranges from single finds of tools through to dumps of waste material and in situ structures. Here we primarily focus on those examples where evidence can be most confidently attributed to production on site or in the immediate vicinity. Materials such as kiln waste or slag could be re-purposed as hardcore, and single finds may be residual or intrusive within archaeological contexts. We primarily infer sites associated with industries such as ceramic production and iron working through the quantity of waste as well as the presence of kiln or furnace structures, and tanning through the presence of tanning pits, sometimes identified as such through their occurrence with faunal material characteristic of hide processing. Other activities, such as spinning, leave more ephemeral evidence in the form of single artefacts and, in discussing these, we place greatest weight on those recovered from primary contexts, such as floor surfaces, rather than secondary or tertiary deposits, such as pits or middens.

Even in well investigated towns, the character of excavation can limit the recovery of industrial evidence. At Guildford (Surrey), for example, no clear evidence of industrial production has been observed beyond the excavation of quarries, a deposit of horn cores and slag fragments. Two reasons can be proposed for this: firstly, that cloth production, likely Guildford’s dominant industry, leaves no clear archaeological trace and, secondly, that several excavations have focused on the street frontage, away from the areas that industrial structures might typically be located. A similar situation is evident at Maldon (Essex), where multiple excavations along High Street have provided excellent structural sequences but little evidence for industrial activity.Footnote ²⁰

To further discussions of household-scale production, we introduce new historical evidence: later fourteenth–fifteenth-century lists of goods seized by the Crown from felons, which occur in the official records of the Escheator.Footnote ²¹ These documents are valuable because they pre-date the widespread production of wills and probate inventories, offering a unique insight into the possessions of lower status and middling households. The entirety of the Escheators’ files of inquests (E153) were examined for lists from small towns, yielding inventories for 725 different felons. Of these, 113 include items associated with a non-agricultural craft and 151 refer to an individual using a non-agricultural occupational descriptor. Overall, the non-agricultural occupation, or occupations, of a household could be deduced for 218 examples (tab 1), with sixteen having evidence for engagement in multiple occupations. Of these, seven illustrate the combination of a named craft and objects suggestive of engagement in multiple occupations, highlighting the issue of assessing occupational diversity purely based on singular occupational descriptors. Tab 2 summarises those referred to in the text. As with the archaeological evidence, regional comparison using these documents is challenging; the majority of lists are from the east midlands and the south, likely reflecting patterns in the right to cease the goods of felons that are not well understood (fig 2).Footnote ²² Furthermore, due to these lists omitting a range of low-value goods and the fact that some objects could be used for multiple processes, occupational diversity is understated.Footnote ²³

Table 1.

List of occupations stated within the Escheators’ records and the number of individuals with evidence for involvement in agriculture (ie. ownership of animals, crops or agricultural equipment).

Table 1. Long description

A table summarizing occupations stated within the Escheators’ records and the number of individuals with evidence for involvement in agriculture. The table has 2 columns and 66 rows. Column headers are Descriptor and Occurrences. Row labels include No descriptor, Husbandman, Yeoman, Butcher, Chapman, Gentleman, Labourer, Clerk, Tailor, Chaplain, Dyer, Weaver, Servant, Parson, Rector, Esquire, Baker, Merchant, Smith, Draper, Fishmonger, Goldsmith, Vicar, Hosteler, Clothmaker, Cooper, Fuller, Glover, Hosier, Maltman, Mason, Skinner, Spicer, Vestment maker, Woolman, Chapman; husbandman, Clergy, Farrier, Herdsman, Horner, Ironmonger, Knight, Piper, Prior, Shoemaker, Squire, Tanner, Archer, Bailiff, Bowyer, Brazier, Carpenter, Cerier, Friar, Holy water clerk, Mariner, Mercer, Miller, Minstrel, Painter, Pardoner, Salt worker, Scrivener, Shipman, Tucker, Wine seller. Each row lists the descriptor, occurrences, and number with evidence of agriculture.

Table 2.

Summary of evidence for households engaged in occupations beyond their stated occupational identifier among the Escheators’ records.

Table 2. Long description

A table detailing households engaged in occupations beyond their stated occupational identifier among the Escheators’ records. The table has 13 rows and 11 columns. Column headers are Inventory and TNA reference, Locality, Year, Brewing, Construction, Leatherworking, Metalworking, Milling, Textiles, Woodworking, Misc craft. Row 1: J Brounflete, Burton upon Stather, 1407-08, Cobblers tools. Row 2: T Carswell (Archer), Towcester, 1410-11, lead in the furnace, mash vat, gyle vat, iron. Row 3: W Croyster (Butcher), Hitchin, 1411-12, mash vat gyle, vat kimlin, tub x 2, tub x 3, lead. Row 4: R Ranlyn, Coggeshall, 1411-12, loom x 2, reed, slay, stave, shuttle, weaving equipment. Row 5: J Tyrell (Glover), Cirencester, 1422, skin (dried; not woolly) x 60, wool x 1.5 sacks, fleece x 180. Row 6: T Sibsay (Husbandman), Holbeach, 1426-27, horsemill, grindstone x 2, lead in the furnace. Row 7: R Cokeman, Warminster, 1430, woad x 1 bale, oil x 0.25 pipe, loom x 1, alum x 20 lbs, wool (blue) x 1 tod, wool (white) x 20 lbs, thread (woollen) x 8 lbs, weaving equipment. Row 8: W Whyston (Dyer), Lewes, 1430-31, lead furnace x 2, woad x 20 bushels, madder x 200 lbs, ash x 2 barrels, wool (blue) x 2 nails, wool (white), shears x 3, thread (woollen; blue), weld, greenweed, iron. Row 9: J Cosyn, Amersham, 1438, lath x 800, wood x 2 cartloads, cow hide, calfskin, anvil, bellows, iron, sledgehammer x 2, tongs x 4, millstone, flax comb, thread (linen) x 8 lbs, hemp x 6 lbs, cloth (linen) x 3 lbs, auger x 2, chisel x 3, hammer. Row 10: J Listler (Dyer), Masham, 1440, lead x 2. Row 11: J Defford (Chapman), Stourbridge, 1447-48, tanning, vat x 12. Row 12: R Swalwa (Goldsmith), Great Torrington, 1422, goldsmithing tools.

WORKING AT HOME

The interconnectedness of ‘domestic’ and ‘industrial’ spaces in towns is well attested. Discussing York, Goldberg considers spaces such as workshops and brewhouses as integral parts of the home.Footnote ²⁴ However, not all townhouses had spaces for specialised artisanal activities and not everyone worked and lived in the same space.Footnote ²⁵ Analyses of the economic role of women has particularly emphasised the home as a place of work.Footnote ²⁶ Archaeological evidence such as spindle whorls and needles for textile production and working, the dominant industry in later medieval England, is extremely rare (tab 3); however, evidence is more abundant in the Escheators’ records. Spinning wheels are a relatively common occurrence, as are cards used for separating fibres (tab 2). While spinning could be undertaken to meet a domestic need, in many cases carding and spinning were likely undertaken to serve the cloth trade. By the sixteenth century, spinning was undertaken as waged work.Footnote ²⁷ Textile working tools have been recovered from two possible inn sites: a spindle whorl from Swinegate, Louth (Lincolnshire),Footnote ²⁸ and a needlework set from the Greyhound, Fordingbridge (Hampshire), a documented sixteenth-century inn.Footnote ²⁹ There is a particular association between spindle whorls and coastal and riverine sites associated with fishing, suggesting that they were used to manufacture and repair nets.

Table 3.

Summary of textile working equipment from archaeological excavations in small towns (see supplementary materials for expanded version).

Table 3. Long description

The table lists textile working equipment found in various towns, detailing the types of equipment such as spindle whorls, needles, thimbles, carding teeth, and other items. It includes columns for town, site name, and the types of equipment found. The table has 48 rows and 6 columns. Each row provides specific details about the location and type of textile working equipment discovered. Notable towns include Abingdon, Aylesbury, Bath, Bedlington, and Bervick upon Tweed, among others. The equipment materials vary, including stone, bone, copper alloy, lead, ceramic, iron, and other unspecified materials.

Seventeen stone spindle whorls were excavated from a complex sequence of forty-one twelfth–fourteenth-century houses at Townwall Street, Dover (Kent), primarily from house floors.Footnote ³⁰ Further evidence for fibre processing here includes two probable heckle comb teeth, a pair of shears, a ‘pin-beater’, perhaps for use in the manufacture of sacking, two bone ‘lucets’ (used for braiding) and a large copper alloy needle.Footnote ³¹ A large quantity of fishing equipment and fish processing waste show that fishing was the primary occupation here. Several other crafts are represented, including the small-scale working of antler, whale bone, iron and amber.Footnote ³² Grain processing is evidenced by quern fragments, mostly from a single building that also contained ovens likely used for baking and malting, suggestive of some household specialisation, the depositional context suggesting a clear link between these activities and domestic spaces.

Comparable evidence comes from two adjacent plots at Cartergate, Grimsby (Lincolnshire), where several industries are represented in twelfth–fourteenth-century deposits.Footnote ³³ The northernmost plot yielded abundant evidence for fish processing, associated with a small structure containing two hearths. Environmental evidence indicates the stalling of animals and small-scale cultivation. A spindle whorl was recovered from a dump of domestic waste and several pits contained cobbling and leather working waste, implying a diverse household economy, perhaps due to the seasonality of the fishing industry, although it should be noted these activities may not be contemporary. The adjacent plot is characterised by a background spread of iron smithing waste, with a trough or tank perhaps used for quenching. A whetstone with heavy wear from sharpening blades was also recovered, a fragment of millstone grit perhaps functioned as a grinding stone and a deposit of fired clay may derive from an oven or furnace.

The Escheators’ records provide more conclusive evidence for diverse household economies, as they capture a single moment in time. Generally, lists suggest that those involved in specialised craft processes such as weaving or smithing did not possess large numbers of animals or engage in extensive arable husbandry (tab 1). In 1422, the goldsmith Richard Swalwa of Great Torrington (Devon) had a cow, calf and heifer as well as a ploughshare.Footnote ³⁴ Most striking is John Cosyn of Amersham (Buckinghamshire) in 1438, who had an anvil and bellows for iron working, a cow hide, quantities of oats and barley, a flax comb and several woodworking tools (possibly products of his workshop) as well as eight piglets.Footnote ³⁵ In 1447/8 John Defford, a chapman (trader) of Stourbridge (Worcestershire) had twelve tanning vats, suggesting he tanned hides alongside his commercial interests.Footnote ³⁶

Despite the limited agricultural interests of specialist artisans, agriculture was an important part of small-town life. We analyse the evidence for agrarian activities elsewhere, concluding that, as a minimum, twenty-five per cent of households within the sample were involved in some form of agricultural production, with a further thirteen per cent owning small numbers of animals, numbers that undoubtedly understate the importance of agrarian production. This picture is corroborated by archaeological evidence such as cultivation soils and barn structures in towns such as Cockermouth (Cumbria) and Olney (Buckinghamshire) and remains of juvenile animals in towns such as Grimsby and Carlisle.Footnote ³⁷

Agriculture’s importance is emphasised by the occurrence of ovens, used for crop drying, baking and malting, as the most common structural evidence for industry within plots.Footnote ³⁸ At Chequer Street, St Albans (Hertfordshire), a series of fifteenth–sixteenth-century malting ovens were present.Footnote ³⁹ Earlier evidence comes from Reigate (Surrey), where a twelfth-century kiln, dating to the earliest phase of the town, was present at 24–6 Bell Street within a three-sided structure, possibly a barn.Footnote ⁴⁰ A similar, later thirteenth-century, structure was present at 16 Bell Street and a further possible kiln was identified at 43 High Street.Footnote ⁴¹ Brewing equipment occurs frequently in the Escheators’ lists, primarily in the form of ‘leads’ – large vessels used for boiling. Such equipment occurs in a range of households; for example, those of the dyer John Litster of Masham (Yorkshire),Footnote ⁴² the butcher William Croyster of Hitchin (Hertfordshire) and the archer Thomas Carswell of Towcester (Northamptonshire).Footnote ⁴³ In some towns, such as Warwick (Warwickshire), drying ovens occur both within plots, as at Brook Street (possibly dating to the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries) and Swan Street,Footnote ⁴⁴ as well as in more peripheral areas at the New Priory Medical Centre and Bread and Meat Close.Footnote ⁴⁵ Evidence for drying and malting also occurs among archaeobotanical assemblages. For example, at Linton (Cambridgeshire) a chaff-rich assemblage of charred oat grains indicates that a thirteenth–fourteenth-century outbuilding was likely used for crop processing,Footnote ⁴⁶ and a substantial assemblage of probable malting waste was recovered at the Castle Garage, Tutbury (Staffordshire).Footnote ⁴⁷

Probable bread ovens have been identified at Park Lane, Towcester (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries),Footnote ⁴⁸ 25 High Street Pershore (Worcestershire; thirteenth–fourteenth centuries),Footnote ⁴⁹ and Joy Street, Barnstaple (Devon; probably fourteenth–fifteenth century).Footnote ⁵⁰ If such ovens functioned commercially, they reflect the ability of households to operate as small-scale commercial enterprises, with burgesses free from obligations to use manorial bakehouses.Footnote ⁵¹ These backplot ovens contrast the scant archaeological evidence for larger commercial or manorial bakehouses, such as that at Waltham Abbey (Essex), where a sequence of five bread ovens of thirteenth–sixteenth-century date have been excavated.Footnote ⁵² Escheators’ inventories commonly list grains, indicating these were stored within the home. Processing is indicated by examples such as William Ceris of Bourne (Lincolnshire), who had a bolting hutch (a barrel into which flour was sifted) in 1401/2.Footnote ⁵³ Eleven lists include handmills or horsemills. Archaeologically recovered querns are difficult to interpret, particularly in eastern England where imported lava querns dominate, with similar materials being used from the Roman to medieval periods. Their occurrence in medieval deposits, along with these documented examples, suggest some freedom from, or circumvention of, an obligation to use the manorial mill.Footnote ⁵⁴ That this convention, known as ‘suit of mill’, was a feature of some urban communities, particularly those under monastic lordship, is evident in disputes at St Albans and Cirencester.Footnote ⁵⁵

Most ovens within plots are of fourteenth–fifteenth-century date, a period that sees them occasionally added to existing buildings. At The Elms, Brackley (Northamptonshire), a malting oven was inserted into a thirteenth-century kitchen or bakehouse prior to its demolition in the mid–late fourteenth century,Footnote ⁵⁶ and at 20 High Street, Uxbridge (Middlesex), a fifteenth-century oven was rammed up against an existing structure.Footnote ⁵⁷ Similarly, an oven was added to the front of a cottage fronting Salisbury Street, Fordingbridge (Hampshire), and an oven was inserted into a building at 18 High Street, Rotherham (South Yorkshire).Footnote ⁵⁸ Perhaps this corresponds with communal ovens falling out of use as they ceased to be maintained through the crises of the fourteenth century, or perhaps it indicates households moving to control the means of production, demonstrating an increasingly capitalistic tendency or reflecting a growing concern with food security.Footnote ⁵⁹

Leather and bone working commonly took place within domestic plots (tab 4). At 8–9 Market Place, Ripon (North Yorkshire), a later fourteenth-century pit contained horn cores, suggestive of horn working, and partial cat skeletons, implying pelt processing.Footnote ⁶⁰ At New Street, Oswestry (Shropshire), the occurrence of leather, lace tags and an awl from a thirteenth–fourteenth-century well suggests domestic-scale leather working.Footnote ⁶¹ Leather working is also attested in the Escheators’ records. In 1407/8 John Brounflete of Burton upon Stather (Lincolnshire) had cobbler’s tools, and in 1423/4 the glover John Tyrell of Cirencester (Gloucestershire) had sixty dried skins, as well as 180 fleeces, suggesting relatively intense production.Footnote ⁶² At 45–52 High Street, Ramsey (Cambridgeshire), cattle, sheep and goat horn cores, all exhibiting evidence of sawing, were associated with two lined pits, possibly used for soaking horn.Footnote ⁶³ These industries are likely under-represented archaeologically, due to the poor survival of leather and the dumping of waste elsewhere.

Table 4.

Examples of evidence for bone and leather working from archaeological excavations in small towns (see supplementary materials for expanded version).

Table 4. Long description

The table has 10 columns and 45 rows, including headers. The columns are Town, Site, Bone working (Horn cores, Bone/Anler offcuts and blanks, Cattle/sheep extremities), Skinning (Skinned cat/dog, Feather exploitation), Leather working (Primary offcuts, Secondary offcuts/ cobbling waste), and Offcuts (no detail), Dump of shoes. The table lists various towns and specific sites within those towns, indicating the types of activities related to bone working, skinning, and leather working that took place at each site. Each row provides details on the specific activities observed at the listed sites.

These evidential challenges are illustrated by the complex sequence of activity, comprising house structures and occupation layers interleaved with flood deposits, dating between c 1250–1600 at Market Mews, Wisbech (Cambridgeshire).Footnote ⁶⁴ Despite excellent waterlogged preservation of successive occupation layers, including the deliberate build-up of floor surfaces, there is very little evidence for household activities, suggesting that remains were removed through routine domestic waste disposal. The earliest such evidence is a bone needle, recovered from a floor surface. Between c 1350 to 1450 the house was subject to repeated flooding episodes. From this period, two stone spindle whorls were recovered from floor surfaces. A substantial change occurs in the fifteenth century, when a second structure was erected. Its floor incorporated waste from the melting and reworking of copper alloy and iron, the distribution of which indicates a clear delineation between industrial and domestic space.

This association between domestic space and metalworking is replicated elsewhere. That slag could easily be moved around the townscape is well illustrated at Yarm (North Yorkshire). At 101 High Street, there is evidence for both iron smelting and smithing being undertaken in the fourteenth century, with slag being associated with an area of burning likely indicating the presence of a furnace, suggesting metal production or working on site. In contrast, smithing slag from thirteenth-century make-up layers at 11 High Street is more likely re-deposited.Footnote ⁶⁵ Smithing slag is commonly recovered but can only be confidently associated with iron working sites where it occurs in high quantities or in association with hearths or workshop structures. For example, at Leominster (Herefordshire) a substantial dump of smithing waste at Buttercross suggests the presence of a smithy close to the marketplace.Footnote ⁶⁶ In some cases, iron smithing was undertaken alongside non-ferrous metalworking. At The Angel of Corbridge, Corbridge (Northumberland), workshops that incorporated hearths or furnaces were erected adjacent to existing, presumably domestic, structures in the twelfth–thirteenth centuries, and at County Sports, Staines (Surrey), a fourteenth–fifteenth-century workshop is evidenced by furnace or hearth bases and metallurgical waste.Footnote ⁶⁷ A similar mix of metallurgical processes occurred in the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries at Church Street, Bawtry (South Yorkshire).Footnote ⁶⁸

Later evidence for bronze casting within a domestic plot comes from 35 West Street, Crediton (Devon), where a sixteenth-century forge producing bronze bells and vessels was excavated.Footnote ⁶⁹ Contemporary and similar evidence comes from 2 Rose Street, Wokingham (Berkshire).Footnote ⁷⁰ In Winchelsea (East Sussex) a hearth, associated with pewter drips, appears situated within an ancillary structure at 1 Stand Plat, and at Mill Road there was slight evidence of later medieval bronze working.Footnote ⁷¹ Metalworking also took place in peripheral locations, perhaps situated to capitalise on passing trade. At the Victoria Works, Dursley (Gloucestershire), several thirteenth-century smithing hearths were banked up against structural walls on Long Street.Footnote ⁷² At the similarly peripheral 35 West Street, Wilton (Wiltshire), there is evidence for thirteenth-century iron smithing and copper alloy working in the form of a smithing hearth base and crucible fragments. At Romeland Hill, St Albans, excavations identified a house with associated store building and smithy, with a bronze working crucible being recovered from nearby thirteenth–fourteenth-century make-up layers.Footnote ⁷³

Some hearths may relate to the cloth industry, as at Church Street, Romsey (Hampshire), a town specialising in dyeing, where multiple tile hearths were excavated.Footnote ⁷⁴ A furnace situated within an ancillary building at Chipping Sodbury (Gloucestershire), adjacent to the River Frome, may have had a similar function.Footnote ⁷⁵ Postholes indicating drying racks have been identified at Winchester Street, Andover (Hampshire), Station Hill, Chudleigh (Devon), South Gate Street, Bath (Somerset), and Brandon Road, Thetford (Norfolk).Footnote ⁷⁶ In the Escheators’ records, explicit evidence for cloth production can be seen in the occurrence of looms, including in the lists of weavers and of the dyer William Whyston of Lewes (East Sussex),Footnote ⁷⁷ who also had various dyestuffs. At Coggeshall (Essex), Richard Ranlyn had a loom as well as a several tools used for separating threads.Footnote ⁷⁸ Looms also occur in the homes of those not identified as textile workers, such as the husbandman Thomas Sibsaye of Holbeach (Lincolnshire), who had six worn (debil) looms, as well as baking and brewing equipment.Footnote ⁷⁹ The best archaeological evidence comes from the Swan Hotel, Lavenham (Suffolk), where multiple furnaces associated with a later fifteenth-century dyehouse were excavated.Footnote ⁸⁰ Lavenham’s economy was dominated by the cloth industry and it falls within a group of towns with highly specialised economies.

LANDSCAPES OF INDUSTRIAL SPECIALISATION

Some towns, by virtue of their proximity to raw materials or marketing networks, specialised in specific, or associated, industries.Footnote ⁸¹ These offer a means to explore how industry works across scales from the household to the townscape. We focus on three groups of towns: those specialising in iron production, those with extensive salt production and specialising in the production of ceramics, as well as the town of Thaxted (Essex), which specialised in cutlery manufacture.

Much of England’s iron was imported and domestic iron smelting is typically associated with isolated rural areas,Footnote ⁸² represented archaeologically by smelting waste such as tap slag and fired clay furnace bases. Although iron occurs across England, the best and most extensively exploited deposits are those in the Weald of Kent and Sussex, the Forest of Dean and along the Jurassic Ridge.Footnote ⁸³ It is from these areas that urban evidence for smelting is concentrated. In the Weald, evidence comes from Crawley (West Sussex) and Horsham (West Sussex).Footnote ⁸⁴ Smelting occurred at Weldon to the east of Rockingham Forest (Northamptonshire), an area of intensive iron and charcoal production.Footnote ⁸⁵ In the Forest of Dean, smelting is evident at Coleford (Gloucestershire) and Lydney (Gloucestershire), where sixteenth-century remains are associated with a blast furnace.Footnote ⁸⁶

Crawley and Weldon provide extensive but contrasting evidence for the organisation of iron production. The urban status of both is contested; Crawley acquired a market in 1202 but was not a borough and declined considerably following the introduction of the blast furnace in the sixteenth century. Weldon does not have a chartered medieval market, but is recognised as a market town around 1600.Footnote ⁸⁷ At London Road, Crawley, situated at the northern end of the town, a large fourteenth–fifteenth-century keyhole-shaped bloomery furnace operated alongside a smithy, represented by multiple floor surfaces incorporating hearths and large quantities of hammerscale, with limited evidence for ore roasting (fig 4).Footnote ⁸⁸ The undertaking of smelting and smithing in close proximity mirrors the arrangement at other sites such as High Street, Yarm, and Godmanchester (Cambridgeshire).Footnote ⁸⁹ At the southern end of Crawley there is similar, but less compelling, evidence for both processes taking place at the ASDA site, with smelting evidence also occurring to the rear of plots along High Street.Footnote ⁹⁰ Slag is abundant as hardcore, used in the filling of cut features and the making up of ground levels. Other industries took place within the town, occurring on sites with clear evidence for iron production. These include tanning (on the basis of zooarchaeological remains) at Crawley Market and flax processing at Pegler Way (in the form of a wooden scutching knife recovered from a waterlogged pit) and the ASDA site (in the form of archaeobotanical evidence from dump deposits within a well).Footnote ⁹¹

Fig 4.

Map showing distribution of iron production and working evidence in Crawley. Image: authors.

Direct evidence for smelting is scarcer at Weldon, but there are two striking contrasts with Crawley. The first is the general absence of smithing waste and the second is the apparent association between furnaces and domestic structures. At Deene End, excavated slag runs are associated with the latest phase of activity around a stone-built tenement complex that includes a kitchen or bakehouse.Footnote ⁹² A fourteenth-century pit behind a building at Hardwick’s Field contained abundant slag, while slag and associated environmental evidence for fuel at Dash Farm Close support smelting on site.Footnote ⁹³ Further evidence for smelting is provided by two stone furnace bases from Church Walk.Footnote ⁹⁴

The association between intensive and specialised industrial production is evident in the organisation of Thaxted’s cutlery industry. At Weaverhead Lane, intensive bone handle manufacture, represented by 320 offcuts, may be associated with a slight structure that was out of use by the sixteenth century.Footnote ⁹⁵ At Town Street, faunal assemblages comprise a mix of domestic and industrial waste, implying production took place in or around ‘domestic’ space.Footnote ⁹⁶ At 34 Town Street, excavated materials include iron slag, probably from smithing, an iron punch and copper alloy fragments, suggesting rivet production. The close link between bone and metalworking is suggested by a smith being resident on Weaverhead Lane in 1393.Footnote ⁹⁷ The presence of eleven smiths and seventy-nine cutlers in the 1381 poll tax returns speaks to the specialist nature of Thaxted’s economy and the scale of its cutlery industry.Footnote ⁹⁸ Thaxted therefore demonstrates the inter-relations between industries necessary for specialised commodity production.

Other industries, such as salt production, were undertaken in specialist areas, as is the case at Droitwich (Worcestershire) and Nantwich (Cheshire), where it took place away from the settlement core. At Droitwich, it is focused on Upwich, north of the River Salwarpe, an area exploited since the Iron Age. The location of salt wells is determined by (known) brine springs, with the town developing on higher, dryer, land to the south. Excavations at Upwich identified the thirteenth–fourteenth-century brine well and associated buildings. From 1215 the brine well was held by Droitwich’s burgesses for an annual fee of £100 and production was heavily supervised by borough officials to maintain prices.Footnote ⁹⁹ At Nantwich, evidence for salt production comes from the west of the River Weaver, where salt houses were in operation from the twelfth century, with there being around 400 in operation in 1530. Those excavated at Second Wood Street were established in the thirteenth century, following a period of dumping, perhaps to consolidate damp ground, and were periodically rebuilt through to the sixteenth century.Footnote ¹⁰⁰ As at Droitwich, the industrial area is distinct from the urban core, which is primarily situated to the east of the river, although there may have been suburban growth to the west of the industrial area.Footnote ¹⁰¹

Industries interface with domestic space and the wider landscape in specific ways; salt production was organised around the needs of extraction, iron and cutlery production were activities which could be undertaken in and around domestic space. The ceramic industry offers a further perspective, with most small-town evidence coming from suburban or peripheral areas (tab 5). At Hitchin, tile production was focused at the southern end of the town, around Tilehouse Lane, close to the priory (likely the industry’s main customer), with pottery production occurring here and at the northern end of the town at Bancroft, where an excavated pottery kiln does not appear associated with domestic activity.Footnote ¹⁰² There is some evidence for pottery production within towns. At Doncaster (South Yorkshire), an eleventh–twelfth-century kiln was excavated at Market Place, with production shifting to the more peripheral Hallgate in the twelfth–thirteenth centuries.Footnote ¹⁰³ Fourteenth-century intermural production is evident at Scotch Street, Carlisle,Footnote ¹⁰⁴ and at Farnham (Surrey) thirteenth–fourteenth-century pottery kilns occupied some plot tails.Footnote ¹⁰⁵ At Barnstaple, a thirteenth-century kiln was identified in the north-west of the town, close to the castle ditch, with suburban production established at Litchden Street in the sixteenth century.Footnote ¹⁰⁶

Table 5.

Archaeological evidence for pottery and tile production in small towns (see supplementary materials for expanded version).

Table 5. Long description

Panel A: Table with columns for Town, Site name, Date range, Evidence, Pottery type, and Location. Each row lists specific details for various towns and sites. Panel B: Detailed descriptions of archaeological evidence for pottery and tile production in small towns, including specific locations and historical contexts.

There is not a straightforward relationship between pottery production and suburban or peripheral areas, with the location of production sometimes changing over time. At Brill (Buckinghamshire), a major pottery production centre between the thirteenth–sixteenth centuries, the opposite pattern – of production moving into the town – is evident (fig 5). The earliest kilns, at Temple Farm, are within open ground north of the town.Footnote ¹⁰⁷ Fourteenth-century pottery and tile kilns were excavated adjacent to the former magistrate’s court on Temple Street, opposite postulated building plots and adjacent to a site that appears vacant at this time.Footnote ¹⁰⁸ In the fifteenth–sixteenth centuries, production occurs within plots fronting the western side of Temple Street, indicating a movement of production closer to the settlement core.Footnote ¹⁰⁹ An absence of contemporary domestic evidence suggests abandoned plots were re-purposed for industrial use. The movement of the industry relates to Brill’s economic and demographic development. Brill’s growth was stimulated by the presence of a royal hunting lodge, but was stunted by the passing of the manor out of the Crown’s hands in 1324. This perhaps accounts for the first movement, evident at on the eastern side of Temple Street, with a falling population from the fourteenth century creating vacant plots on the western side that could be taken over by potters’ workshops.

Fig 5.

Map showing the locations of pottery production in Brill. Image: authors.

In contrast, pottery production at Bourne was situated in the suburban Eastgate, with an apparently close relationship between production and domestic space. Multiple excavations have identified fourteenth–sixteenth-century kilns, waste, quarry pits and working surfaces. This area was vulnerable to flooding, evidenced in several archaeological sequences. Clear evidence of an association between domestic and production activity comprises a stone house excavated adjacent to clay pits and a possible pot drying area, and the two medieval kilns identified along with early post-medieval domestic and workshop structures at Cherry Holt Lane.Footnote ¹¹⁰

There is no single topography of urban industrial specialisation. Thaxted shows how specialisation could emerge within domestic space. The spatial relationships between domestic and industrial activities vary according both to the needs of the industry, as seen with salt production, but also in relation to specific local patterns of urban growth and development, as seen in relation to pottery and iron production.

INDUSTRIES, INSTITUTIONS AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Industries such as quarrying and metal production played an important role in urban development and expansion. Quarry pits occur both within plots, probably representing occasional need for sand or gravel, and in apparently undeveloped areas. At Cider Mill Lane, situated at the northern periphery of Chipping Campden (Gloucestershire), several quarry pits followed the veins of bedrock and were filled with material including twelfth–thirteenth-century pottery, likely relating to the growth of the town around 1180. An associated hearth, which had at least two episodes of use, and postholes suggest the presence of a shelter used by quarry workers.Footnote ¹¹¹ At Brick Kiln Street, Evesham (Worcestershire), and Moulsham Street, Chelmsford (Essex), quarry pits appear related to sixteenth-century suburban development.Footnote ¹¹²

Features relating to specific building projects may include lime kilns at Olive Street, Hartlepool (Teeside),Footnote ¹¹³ probably associated with works to the town wall, and at Chesterfield (Derbyshire) where they relate to church works.Footnote ¹¹⁴ At Fairford (Gloucestershire), a building adjacent to the church functioned as a glaziers workshop, with evidence of lead and glass working being found.Footnote ¹¹⁵ Similar evidence came from 56 The Spittal, Castle Donington (Leicestershire), associated with the construction of the hospital of St John.Footnote ¹¹⁶

Evidence for metal production and working can also be associated with specific demand. At Tonbridge (Kent), excavations at the cattle market recovered substantial quantities of smelting and smithing waste.Footnote ¹¹⁷ While falling within the pattern of Wealden iron production, the site’s location adjacent to the marketplace and just beyond the extent of the castle, may relate to a forge documented in an inventory of Tonbridge Castle in 1325. A similar association can be proposed at Battle (East Sussex), where a smelting furnace base was identified at 85–6 High Street, opposite the gates of the abbey, and at Friars Walk, Lewes, situated close to Lewes Friary.Footnote ¹¹⁸ Although detailed analysis of evidence from urban religious houses falls outside the scope of this paper, it is worth noting that industry, most commonly tile production, did occur within their precincts. The high-quality tiles produced at Chertsey (Surrey) and Coggleshall are the work of skilled artisans.Footnote ¹¹⁹ More functional products were produced at Dunstable (Bedfordshire), where a kiln producing roof tiles was excavated at the edge of the Friary precinct.Footnote ¹²⁰ Whereas kilns were probably associated with works to the institutions themselves, Ramsey Abbey, where multiple tile kilns have been excavated, sold tiles from the fourteenth century and bricks from the mid-fifteenth century. Here there is also evidence for ferrous and non-ferrous metal working, primarily dating to the twelfth century.Footnote ¹²¹ Larger scale metalworking is evident at Waltham Abbey, where excavations identified the monastic forge.Footnote ¹²²

The relationship between institutional demand and urban production can be further investigated through the case of Glastonbury (Somerset) (fig 6). Tile and iron production were directly associated with Glastonbury Abbey. At the suburban 1 Bove Town, tiles that chemically match examples from the abbey were produced in the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries.Footnote ¹²³ No kiln was excavated, but the concentration of waste material suggests that it lay to the north of the excavated area. Additional evidence of tile production comes from waste material at George Street,Footnote ¹²⁴ another peripheral site, and at Silver Street, where a dump of floor tiles were found adjacent to the abbey precinct.Footnote ¹²⁵ At Bove Town there is also evidence for a later thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century pottery industry producing highly decorated jugs that, in contrast to the tiles, were not abundant at the abbey, implying an attempt to develop a market-facing industry. At Heritage Court, opposite the abbey’s west gate, considerable quantities of slag, dated by associated pottery to the twelfth–fourteenth centuries, likely indicate the location of the documented abbey forge.Footnote ¹²⁶ From the fourteenth century, this area, located south of High Street, developed an industrial character. At Abbey School, tanning pits were situated behind plots fronting Magdalene Street, within an area that appears to have become increasingly damp.Footnote ¹²⁷ Further evidence of, primarily fifteenth-century, tawing was found further west at Fairfield Gardens.Footnote ¹²⁸

Fig 6.

The distribution of industries in Glastonbury. Image: authors.

The tanning industry met the needs of both the abbey and the market. At 1 Bove Town there is also evidence of non-ferrous metal working, an industry that also took place at Silver Street, where hearths of a possible foundry were recorded, and is suggested by crucible fragments recovered from a late thirteenth–fifteenth-century ditch on High Street.Footnote ¹²⁹ Other evidence of craft production includes two spindle whorl fragments from the same ditch at 82 High Street and three find spots of worked antler, including a knife handle rough out.Footnote ¹³⁰ At Glastonbury we can therefore perceive of the presence of the abbey as well as the physical topography influencing the range and scale of production and the location of industries within the townscape.

INDUSTRIES AND URBAN LANDSCAPES

Glastonbury reflects a general picture whereby industries such as leather and horn working and, to some extent, metal smithing have a close relationship with domestic space, while others, such as tanning and tile production, often took place away from urban plots. This patterning can be further explored with reference to other towns with particularly good evidence.

Glastonbury is paralleled at Reading (Berkshire), another monastic town, and at Doncaster (figs 7 and 8). At Reading, kilns producing tiles used at Reading Abbey operated between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries along Silver Street at the southern periphery of the town.Footnote ¹³¹ Along London Street, a main route into Reading, there are dumps of mid–late thirteenth–fourteenth-century bronze casting waste (amounting to more than 3kg of slag recovered from a pit that also included hearth debris and mould fragments) and fifteenth-century glass working waste, implying these industries took place within an area of later medieval expansion.Footnote ¹³² Bronze casting evidence, in the form of mould fragments, also comes from a deposit of mid-thirteenth–fourteenth century date within a domestic plot on Friar Street. A bell-founding pit pre-dates the main phase of domestic occupation at Broad Street.Footnote ¹³³ At both sites, domestic-scale production is evident: skinning, broadly dating from c 1250–1500, at Broad Street and spinning at Friar Street (see tab 3). A fourteenth–fifteenth-century dump of cobbling waste also comes from Friar Street.Footnote ¹³⁴ At Doncaster, the pottery kiln at Hallgate mirrors the peripheral location of tile and pottery production at Reading and Glastonbury.Footnote ¹³⁵ There is also evidence for a range of activities within plots, including crop drying and malting. The best evidence comes from Low Fisher Gate, where crop drying, spinning, lead working, iron smithing and boat building or breaking all took place during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.Footnote ¹³⁶

Fig 7.

The distribution of industries in Reading. Image: authors.

Fig 7. Long description

A map of Reading, Berkshire, illustrating the distribution of different industries during the medieval period. The map includes labels for specific streets such as Friar Street, Broad Street, Castle Street, and London Street. Key locations include Reading Abbey and Reading Greyfriars. Various symbols represent different industries: Bronze Casting, Skinning, Spinning, Glass Working, Cobbling, Iron Smithing, Retting, Dyeing, Tanning, Cookhouse, Tanning, Tile Production & Iron Smithing, Tile Production, and Medieval Activity. Symbols include diamonds, hexagons, stars, triangles, and circles, each with specific colors and shapes indicating different industries and time periods. The map also shows areas with no medieval evidence.

Fig 8.

The distribution of industries in Doncaster. Image: authors.

In both towns, as at Glastonbury, there is substantial evidence for tanning. In Doncaster, this is focused adjacent to the River Don, occurring alongside crop drying (represented by a drying oven) between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries at Church Walk.Footnote ¹³⁷ At Reading, tanning took place on the Kennet floodplain, away from areas of domestic occupation. At the Oracle, a tannery and later dyehouse, represented by a group of lined pits, in operation from the fourteenth century, were excavated.Footnote ¹³⁸ Further evidence for tanning, in the form of dumps of horn cores, as well as archaeobotanical evidence suggesting dyeing and retting (the soaking of flax), has been identified at other sites along the Kennet waterfront.Footnote ¹³⁹

Tanning, retting and dyeing are all industries requiring supplies of water, which undoubtedly accounts for their situation in peripheral, often damp, areas of townscapes. At Birmingham, both natural and manmade water courses were utilised (fig 9). At 170 High Street, Deritend, alluvial deposits related to a former river channel yielded flax seeds, suggestive of retting. Archaeobotanical evidence from Moor Street and Park Street suggests that drainage ditches and the manor moat were used for this industry.Footnote ¹⁴⁰ Bundles of waterlogged fibres, a by-product of textile production, were recovered at the Hartwell Smithfield Garage site.Footnote ¹⁴¹ Palynological evidence further supports this industrial focus at Birmingham’s periphery, with evidence for the processing or growing of hemp and flax in the vicinity of The Row and Beorma Quarter sites respectively.Footnote ¹⁴²

Fig 9.

The distribution of industries in Birmingham. Image: authors.

In Birmingham, tanning is evidenced to the rear of the Digbeth frontage and south of Edgbaston Street. Both are relatively peripheral areas situated to the south of the market place.Footnote ¹⁴³ A close association between tanning and retting can also be seen at Brewood (Staffordshire), where excavations revealed wooden platforms associated with these industries, in a damp area adjacent to a stream (into which there is documentary evidence for the dumping of industrial waste) at the town’s periphery.Footnote ¹⁴⁴ Similar evidence for riverside tanning and associated wooden platforms comes from the Drill Hall, Waltham Abbey, at the western periphery of Tickhill (South Yorkshire) and on the waterfront at Eton (Berkshire).Footnote ¹⁴⁵ Tidal salt production also took place adjacent to rivers, best evidenced at Millfields Caravan Park, Bramber (West Sussex).Footnote ¹⁴⁶

These damp areas, unsuitable for domestic habitation, also attracted industries that were not reliant on a water supply. At Badow Road, Chelmsford, a possible bakehouse was erected on reclaimed land in the later thirteenth–fourteenth centuries.Footnote ¹⁴⁷ Similarly, at St Mary’s Street, St Neots (Cambridgeshire), there was a malting or drying kiln and at Rocester (Staffordshire) several thirteenth–fourteenth-century malting kilns, as well as iron smithing debris and deposits of horn cores, perhaps suggesting tanning or hide processing, were excavated adjacent to the River Dove at Church Lane and Dove Lane.Footnote ¹⁴⁸ Within ports, damp areas close to waterfronts are a further distinctive zone, often characterised by a mix of maritime industries such as boat repair and fish processing, as well as evidence for pottery production at New Romney (Kent) and grain processing at Ropetackle, Shoreham (West Sussex).Footnote ¹⁴⁹ The presence of ovens and kilns supports the interpretation of these peripheral areas as sites of industry rather than waste dumps.

Whilst following these general trends, the location of industries was shaped by the specific circumstances of urbanisation. Thetford had its heyday in the early medieval period. Here, there is considerable evidence for chalk quarrying, both within the urban core and in outlying areas south of the river, and there is also substantial evidence for crop drying and malting (fig 10). At Croxton Road, at Thetford’s northern periphery, an oven was associated with quarry pits, and at Mill Lane, situated south of the river, an oven forms part of a domestic site from which spindle whorls and (possibly residual) iron smithing slag have been recovered from twelfth–fourteenth-century deposits.Footnote ¹⁵⁰ This area was intensively occupied in the pre-conquest period but was marginalised as the medieval town developed around the castle. At Brandon Road, another area of intensive pre-conquest activity at Thetford’s western edge, there are multiple phases of crop-drying ovens and posthole settings interpreted as tentering racks.Footnote ¹⁵¹ Also relatively peripheral is the Anchor Hotel site, where a workshop, probably a smithy, was in use in the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries at a site vulnerable to flooding.Footnote ¹⁵² Evidence of domestic production within the town is limited. At St Nicholas Street the presence of several awls, as well as possible punches, implies leather working, and at Guildhall Street there is evidence of silver working.Footnote ¹⁵³

Fig 10.

The distribution of industries in Thetford. Image: authors.

At Thetford, contraction resulted in previously intensively occupied areas becoming open ground, creating spaces that could be given over to industrial use but with some industries, such as silver working, retaining their situation within the commercial core. This is a reversal of the trend seen in many towns, where open ground was used for industry prior to development. At Manor Street, Berkhamsted (Hertfordshire), industrial activities including crop processing (evidenced by two ovens), iron smithing and smelting (possibly associated with the castle) and fibre processing (represented by hemp and flax remains in environmental samples) took place before the development of plots around 1350.Footnote ¹⁵⁴ Similar evidence comes from Chipping Ongar (Essex), where a series of late twelfth–thirteenth-century ovens occupied an area beyond the town ditch prior to plot development, Kilpeck (Herefordshire), where smithing and smelting debris pre-dates thirteenth–fourteenth-century development, and Marygate, Berwick-upon-Tweed (Northumberland), where large quantities of fish processing waste were recovered from pits pre-dating the fourteenth-century build-up of the street frontage.Footnote ¹⁵⁵

At Carlisle, suburban industry developed as occupation within the walled town increased (fig 11). In the early stages of urban development there is good evidence for intermural metal working. At Rickergate, smithing slag and a rare pair of bellows were dumped into a ditchFootnote ¹⁵⁶ and, at the Lanes, silver and copper alloy working, as well as blacksmithing, took place in the twelfth–thirteenth centuries. This declined as the area became more intensively built up.Footnote ¹⁵⁷ Intermural pottery production took place around Scotch Street in the fourteenth century, and tanning may also have taken place within the walls.Footnote ¹⁵⁸ At Caldewgate, a later fourteenth–fifteenth-century suburban bronze foundry was excavated at 17 John Street.Footnote ¹⁵⁹

Fig 11.

The distribution of industries in Carlisle. Image: authors.

Fig 11. Long description

The map depicts the distribution of industries in Carlisle, highlighting various medieval activities and landmarks. Key locations include the Anchor Hotel, Brandon Rd, and Mill Lane. The map uses different symbols to indicate specific activities such as iron smithing, leather working, silver working, malting, oven use, spinning, and smithing. Religious houses, quarries, castles, and areas with no medieval evidence are also marked. The map shows rivers and roads, with directions indicated by arrows. The legend explains the symbols used for different activities and their respective centuries.

In the South Gate suburb of Bath, historical and archaeological evidence attest to diverse industry. The 1377 poll tax lists dyers, spinners and weavers, as well as a tanner, resident here. An artificial watercourse, likely associated with a mill, was probably used for flax retting during the twelfth–thirteenth centuries. The processing of dyestuffs is suggested by madder stained pottery, cloth finishing by teasel seeds and cloth drying by the postholes of a possible tentering rack.Footnote ¹⁶⁰ Several smithing hearth bases were recovered from make-up deposits and road surfaces, from which there was also evidence for leather and hide processing, making it unclear where these processes took place. Similar evidence comes from Leominster, where tanning evidence was identified at the Hop Pole, and industrial furnaces pre-dating the building up of the street frontage were identified at the Meatpackers site, both at the northern edge of the town.Footnote ¹⁶¹ A similar relationship between industry and suburbanisation can be seen in the sixteenth century at Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, where copper alloy working, including casting and the working of sheet metal, took place.Footnote ¹⁶²

Towns contracted as well as expanded, with industries re-locating into previously occupied areas. At the Seven Stars, Ledbury (Herefordshire), three sixteenth-century tanning pits mark the re-use of a vacant site in the town centre.Footnote ¹⁶³ Similarly, at St Ives (Cambridgeshire) several inter-cutting ovens were constructed in the fifteenth century, following a period of hiatus.Footnote ¹⁶⁴ At Abingdon (Oxfordshire) a tannery at the peripheral 75 Ock Street was in operation between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries (fig 12).Footnote ¹⁶⁵ Corresponding with the end of the industry here, tanning from the later fourteenth century, intensifying through the sixteenth century, is evident to the east at Morlands Brewery, closer to the urban core.Footnote ¹⁶⁶ Also on Ock Street, hide processing and leather working took place at the cinema site in the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries based on dumps of faunal material from a yard area that was extended when an earlier house fell out of use.Footnote ¹⁶⁷ On East St Helen Street, faunal evidence suggests a shift from domestic to industrial waste, with butchery, horn working and glue making all being suggested.Footnote ¹⁶⁸ Together this suggests a general movement of noxious industries towards the core of the town, corresponding with a period of contraction whereby sites in the western and northern periphery appear to have been abandoned.

Fig 12.

The distribution of industries in Abingdon. Image: authors.

Evidence from Bedford (Bedfordshire) demonstrates that this was not a simple process of contraction, however. In the fourteenth–sixteenth centuries land at 29–39 St John’s Street, situated at the southern periphery, appears to have fallen out of use. During the twelfth–thirteenth centuries there was a bread oven in operation here, and a kiln may have produced lime for the tanning industry.Footnote ¹⁶⁹ Further north, at 5–11 St Mary’s Street, a sequence of fourteenth–fifteenth-century hearths and ovens suggests substantial baking or brewing, implying a movement of this activity from the periphery towards the core; however, evidence from further south along St Mary’s Street and in the wider vicinity is suggestive of continued activity, including some high-status housing.Footnote ¹⁷⁰