- The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- List of Contributors
- Overview: People and Projects
- Methods in Medieval Archaeology
- Embracing New Perspectives
- The Written Evidence for the Later Middle Ages
- Overview: Geographies of Medieval Britain
- Field Systems and the Arable Fields
- The Animal in Late Medieval Britain
- The Archaeobotany of Late Medieval Plant Remains: The Resource and the Research
- Medieval Fishing and Fish Trade
- The Medieval Wild
- Coping with Disaster
- Overview: The Form and Pattern of Medieval Settlement
- Rural Living 1100–1540
- Perceptions of Medieval Settlement
- Peasant Houses
- The Medieval Manor House and the Moated Site
- Agricultural Buildings
- Overview: Living in Medieval Towns
- Urban Housing
- Medieval Shops
- Town and Countryside
- Urban Infrastructure
- Overview: Castles and Elite Landscapes
- Medieval Palaces and Royal Houses
- Royal and Aristocratic Landscapes of Pleasure
- Medieval Battlefield Archaeology
- Symbols of Power
- Overview: Medieval Industry and Commerce
- Quarrying and Extractive Industries
- The Medieval Workshop
- Water and Wind Power
- Old Money, New Methods: Coins and Later Medieval Archaeology
- Play and Playfulness in Late Medieval Britain: Theory, Concept, Practice
- Overview: Church and Landscape c.1100–1550
- The Medieval Monastery and Its Landscape
- The Cathedral
- The Medieval Parish ChurchArchitecture, Furnishings, and Fittings
- Approaching Medieval Sacrality
- Medieval Graffiti Inscriptions
- An Archaeology of Pilgrimage
- The Devotional Image in Late Medieval England
- Overview: The Medieval Senses
- Cooking, Dining, and Drinking
- Sound and Landscape
- London Smellwalk Around 1450: Smelling Medieval Cities
- Medieval Colour
- Overview: Archaeology and the Medieval Life Course
- Birth and Childhood
- Dressing the Body
- Gender and Space in the Later Middle Ages Past, Present, and Future Routes
- Health and Well-Being: The Contribution of the Study of Human Remains to Understanding the Late Medieval Period in Britain
- Medieval Medicine, Public Health, and the Medieval Hospital
- Later Medieval Death and Burial
- The Medieval Afterlife
- Overview: Trade and Other Contacts in Late Medieval Britain
- Looking West: Ireland in the Middle Ages
- Looking South-East: France in the Middle Ages
- Looking North-East: Southern Scandinavia in the Middle Ages
- Looking South: Spain and Portugal in the Middle Ages
- A Last Word: The Study of Later Medieval Archaeology
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
From many excavations in medieval towns in Britain since the 1970s, the forms and development of town houses and properties can be reconstructed. Timber buildings were the great majority, and they grew higher over time, particularly in the central streets. The urban property was usually built around its commercial front, the shop, with domestic accommodation behind and increasingly above. The form of buildings was influenced by urban building regulations, where they existed, to prevent fire and control waste. Histories of buildings can be constructed by dendrochronology. Houses in towns may have been part of an urban culture which was different from that in the countryside; more wealth, more ostentation, different values which encouraged the birth of a consumer society.
Keywords: medieval town houses, shops, medieval towns, medieval construction, dendrochronology, building regulations, consumer society
John Schofield was an archaeologist at the Museum of London from 1974 to 2008. He has written several books about medieval buildings and urban archaeology, including The building of London from the Conquest to the Great Fire (3rd ed, 1999), Medieval London houses (rev. edn, 2003), St Paul’s Cathedral before Wren (2011), London 1100–1600: the archaeology of a capital city (2011) and with Alan Vince, Medieval towns (rev ↵edn, 2005). His interests include the form of London from 1100 to 1700, and St Paul’s Cathedral, where he is Cathedral Archaeologist.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures
- List of Contributors
- Overview: People and Projects
- Methods in Medieval Archaeology
- Embracing New Perspectives
- The Written Evidence for the Later Middle Ages
- Overview: Geographies of Medieval Britain
- Field Systems and the Arable Fields
- The Animal in Late Medieval Britain
- The Archaeobotany of Late Medieval Plant Remains: The Resource and the Research
- Medieval Fishing and Fish Trade
- The Medieval Wild
- Coping with Disaster
- Overview: The Form and Pattern of Medieval Settlement
- Rural Living 1100–1540
- Perceptions of Medieval Settlement
- Peasant Houses
- The Medieval Manor House and the Moated Site
- Agricultural Buildings
- Overview: Living in Medieval Towns
- Urban Housing
- Medieval Shops
- Town and Countryside
- Urban Infrastructure
- Overview: Castles and Elite Landscapes
- Medieval Palaces and Royal Houses
- Royal and Aristocratic Landscapes of Pleasure
- Medieval Battlefield Archaeology
- Symbols of Power
- Overview: Medieval Industry and Commerce
- Quarrying and Extractive Industries
- The Medieval Workshop
- Water and Wind Power
- Old Money, New Methods: Coins and Later Medieval Archaeology
- Play and Playfulness in Late Medieval Britain: Theory, Concept, Practice
- Overview: Church and Landscape c.1100–1550
- The Medieval Monastery and Its Landscape
- The Cathedral
- The Medieval Parish ChurchArchitecture, Furnishings, and Fittings
- Approaching Medieval Sacrality
- Medieval Graffiti Inscriptions
- An Archaeology of Pilgrimage
- The Devotional Image in Late Medieval England
- Overview: The Medieval Senses
- Cooking, Dining, and Drinking
- Sound and Landscape
- London Smellwalk Around 1450: Smelling Medieval Cities
- Medieval Colour
- Overview: Archaeology and the Medieval Life Course
- Birth and Childhood
- Dressing the Body
- Gender and Space in the Later Middle Ages Past, Present, and Future Routes
- Health and Well-Being: The Contribution of the Study of Human Remains to Understanding the Late Medieval Period in Britain
- Medieval Medicine, Public Health, and the Medieval Hospital
- Later Medieval Death and Burial
- The Medieval Afterlife
- Overview: Trade and Other Contacts in Late Medieval Britain
- Looking West: Ireland in the Middle Ages
- Looking South-East: France in the Middle Ages
- Looking North-East: Southern Scandinavia in the Middle Ages
- Looking South: Spain and Portugal in the Middle Ages
- A Last Word: The Study of Later Medieval Archaeology
- Index