"Though the book is primarily about medieval towns in Britain, many parallels are drawn with contemporary towns and cities all over Europe, from Ireland to Russia and from Scandinavia to Italy. It is written in the belief that medieval urban archaeology should be a Europe-wide study, as are the fields of architecture and urban history."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume is based on possibly the biggest single Europe-wide project in urban history. In 1955 the International Commission for the History of Towns established the European historic towns atlas project in accordance with a common scheme in order to encourage comparative urban studies. Although advances in urban archaeology since the 1960s have highlighted the problematic relationship between the oldest extant town plan and the actual origins of a town, the large-scale cadastral maps as they have been made available by the European historic towns atlas project are still necessary if we want to understand the evolution of the physical form of our towns. By 2014 the project consisted of over 500 individual publications from over 18 different countries across Europe. Each atlas comprises at least a core-map at the scale of 1:2500, analytical maps and an explanatory text. The time has come to use this enormous database that has been compiled over the last 40 years. This volume, itself based on a conference related to this topic that was held in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin in 2006, takes up this challenge. The focus of the volume is on the question of how seigneurial power influenced the creation of towns in medieval Europe and of how this process in turn influenced urban form. Part I of the volume addresses two major issues: the history of the use of town plans in urban research and the methodological challenges of comparative urban history. Parts II and III constitute the core of the book focusing on the dynamic relationship between lordship and town planning in the core area of medieval Europe and on the periphery. In Part IV the symbolic meaning of town plans for medieval people is discussed. Part V consists of critical contributions by an archaeologist, an art historian and an historical geographer. By presenting case studies by leading researchers from different European countries, this volume combines findings that were hitherto not available in English. A comparison of the English and German bibliographies, attached to this volume, reveals some interesting insights as to how the focus of research shifted over time. The book also shows how work on urban topography integrates the approaches of the historian, archaeologist and historical geographer. The narrative of medieval urbanization becomes enriched and the volume is a genuine contribution to European studies.

The pivotal position of the Oxford region in the geological and therefore building history of England is of fundamental importance to the study of traditional construction. Oxford occupies a central position on the ancient route between Northampton and Southampton and on the east - west road between London, The West Country, Wales and Ireland. For this reason, unusually for vernacular architecture, the buildings of the region were subject to a wide range of influences. This book, the fruit of twenty years research, provides an account of vernacular architecture in the Oxford region from Anglo-Saxon times to the 19th century. It begins with a discussion of methods and procedures followed by a description of building materials, stone, brick, slate and thatch. This serves as an introduction to the heart of the book, eleven chapters dealing with surveys of cruck buildings, manorial and moated sites, town houses with particular emphasis on Abingdon, and houses in the countryside from farmhouses to cottages. There are then chapters on fire hazards, public houses and public buildings. Several appendices are devoted to wall paintings, ferramenta, apotropaic marks, carpentry details, secrets under the floorboards, fireplaces, staircases and windows. The book is richly and profusely illustrated with over 500 illustrations, photographs, maps, and a particular strength, a large number of drawings of architectural details and sketch perspectives.