A
Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales
East
and Northeast Wales – Medieval
22/12/2003
This paper is concerned with
the four-hundred year period which runs from the end of the 11th
century when the Normans first started pushing into east Wales, and the end of
the 15th century when a change of dynasty is conventionally tied in
with the initiation of a new era (although other dates of historical
significance such as 1536 and 1541 have also been adopted to mark the change).
In archaeological and architectural
terms it is a period of contrast. On the one hand there are splendid stone
structures such as Flint Castle or the great church at Wrexham and at the other
end of the scale are the humble dwellings evidenced by a slight earthen
platform or building foundation.
It is also the first time
when written sources enable, in at least some areas of study, an extra
dimension to be established, permitting what Andrew Fleming and others term
‘text-aided archaeology’. But, as the variable contributions on the whole
medieval era in the recently published Tempus History of Wales show,
historians still overlook the contribution that archaeology and allied
disciplines can make to the study of the past while archaeologists should
always be aware of the usefulness of the contemporary written word.
It is with these preliminary
considerations that we can move on to consider various general themes that come
to the fore in the medieval era, and which have been suggested by the steering
committee of the Archaeological Research Framework.
Before doing so I would like
to record my thanks to the friends and colleagues who have advised and assisted
in compiling this paper – Richard
Avent, Sian Rees, Jack Spurgeon and Peter White, and to Peter, too, for
agreeing to deliver this paper to the seminar in my unavoidable absence.
Needless to say, individually and collectively, they may not agree with
everything that is written here, but overall, I would like to hope that there
is a general level of consensus on most of the issues.
Settlement in one form or
another represents a predominant but also somewhat heterogeneous theme in the
medieval era. To facilitate discussion we can look at it under three headings:
higher and lower-status sites and urban sites.
Some settlement themes have
been the subject of research over many years, but also inevitably it is the
high-status sites that have attracted attention. Nowhere is this truer than
with the masonry castles. Cathcart King’s corpus of castle sites, Castellarium
Anglicanum, offers a starting point and there are other syntheses, too,
which have advanced our general understanding, many of them usefully
amalgamating documentary references with the analysis of the physical remains
of the buildings. Coupled with the significant number of recently completed and
on-going, in-depth studies of castles such as Flint and Caergwrle in the north,
Montgomery and Dolforwyn in the central part of the region, and Brecon and
Castell Blaenllynfi in the south, the developing state of the study is obvious,
even if, inevitably, some castles have not received the attention they
deserve: Holt is an obvious example.
The earthwork counterparts of
the stone castles are more numerous and the Welsh borderland has one of the
richest concentrations of well-preserved motte and bailey castles anywhere. It
is thus both appropriate and useful that Cathcart King, Spurgeon, Kenyon and
others have contributed to understanding the field remains and distribution of
these earthworks through fieldwork, although inevitably the documentary
background to many of these smaller defensive sites is poor. Only a handful of
motte and bailey castles in the region have been partially excavated:
Mathrafal, Symon’s Castle, Sycharth and Hen Blas, but Barker and Higham’s
protracted examination of the earthwork of Hen Domen near Montgomery is a
landmark in castle studies, while much smaller pieces of work such as CPAT’s
section through mottes at Tomen Llansantffraid near Rhaeadr and Lower Luggy
near Welshpool have contributed to the relatively thin detail that is available
on motte construction.
Other higher-status sites
also demand consideration. Moated sites are localised in their distribution in
this region with concentrations in Wrexham Maelor, and the Usk Valley in the
south of Powys. As with mottes, there is a solid base of fieldwork evidence,
mainly due to the efforts of Jack Spurgeon, but virtually no excavation has
occurred.
That the picture is not
wholly satisfactory is suggested by what may be termed the isolationism of many
castle studies, which tend to focus on the individual sites, their architecture
and the physical remains, at the expense of the hinterland and environment in
which those sites functioned. Every castle whether it be the large masonry caput
overseeing a lordship or the small motte with its timber tower controlling a
more local area, must have interacted with the other physical elements that
went to make up the contemporary landscape – the gardens and other elements of
the infrastructure associated with the castle, the neighbouring peasant
settlements, their fields, the lines of communication and the like. And also,
of course, the people themselves though this is perhaps more the preserve of
the historian. Few studies have tacked this wider topic in any detail –
attention could be drawn here to R R. Davies’ doctoral research on the Usk
Valley, even though this is primarily historical rather than archaeological.
It is, the social and economic
aspects of the castles and their landscapes, which broadly have escaped
attention, and is an aspect that will have to be rectified.
There are, too, other
aspects of castle studies, which ought to be developed. Regional variation is
something that has not received much attention, the availability of reliable
detailed plans is sporadic, and the internal function and planning of the
larger castles is an issue that has appeared on the national stage but where
little advance has been made locally despite the prevalence of castles.
What has been noted for
castles above is equally applicable to moated sites for there is little
information on the landscapes in which they were set, and in this context the
moats of Wrexham Maelor are particularly interesting, not least because they
are a part of a wider phenomenon spreading across the border into the Cheshire
Plain.
When we turn to llysoedd –
the courts of the native Welsh princes - the issues are different, and there
are no strengths to offset the weaknesses in our data. Arguably the topic is
more appropriate to the early medieval research paper, yet there can be little
doubt that in some parts of the region such courts continued to function at the
same time that Norman power was being imposed elsewhere. In northwest Wales the
llysoedd have been the subject of detailed study. Not so in eastern
Wales, where indeed the problems of site identification potentially pose a
greater handicap, and there has been considerably less documentary research.
Perhaps, what has been accomplished in Gwynedd will not be replicated
elsewhere. But of this we cannot be certain until that research is
undertaken.
The landscape context both of
earthen and stone castles and of moats needs to be assessed. Initially this
will need to be done on an extensive scale rather than selectively, as
contemporary landscape survival is not likely to be a commonplace occurrence.
Coupled with this the compilation of detailed and reliable site plans should be
a primary aim, both of the earthworks themselves and, where relevant, the
integrated landscape.
An assessment of the llysoedd
in northeast and east Wales is also important and due attention must be paid to
the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust’s research methodology the subject. In view of
the close association between the llys and the maerdref, the
latter could usefully be included in such a study. Where the assessments lead
to the tighter locational definition of a llys or maerdref,
opportunities for excavation through developer-led works should be given a high
priority.
1) Strengths
Falling within this era are
those surviving vernacular structures, usually of very late medieval date,
which effectively bridge the divide between archaeology and architecture. Here
the pioneering work of the Royal Commission must be mentioned, not only through
Peter Smith’s magisterial Houses of the Welsh Countryside, but also the
more recent surveys by Richard Suggett in Radnorshire, where the expansive use
of dendrochronology is offering a vital timeframe. Nor are these the only
significant contributions; they are supplemented by CPAT’s approach to standing
buildings which are exemplified by excavations on the sites of the medieval
buildings at Ty Mawr and Tyddyn-llwydion, both in Montgomeryshire and Althrey
Hall near Bangor-on-Dee.
Considerably more commonplace
are the lower-status sites that abound in rural areas and have been the focus
of much recent study. Coupled with the past work of the Royal Commission and
the products of their current Upland Initiative, the recent Cadw-funded
pan-Wales assessment of deserted rural settlement has confirmed the substantial
number of earthwork or stone-foundationed sites in rural areas. Implicit in
this work is the realisation that many, many more remain to be identified.
Nevertheless in most parts of
the region the basic patterns of settlement can now be appreciated. Further
fieldwork will almost certainly throw up further atypical, even exceptional,
sites as well as increasing overall numbers. It is much less likely to alter
our overall perceptions.
There are, of course,
weaknesses. One is encountered regularly and is not specific to this theme
only. It is that the border between England and Wales introduces an unwarranted
interruption to academic study and that a greater appreciation of work in the
English border counties could be valuable, whether for standing buildings or
for deserted rural settlements.
Nor are there any grounds for
complacency with deserted rural settlements. Documentary references to such
settlements are rare, and even where they do not exist are usually not specific
to a recognisable site. Much of the fieldwork evidence is biased towards the
uplands, while logic dictates that longer-lived sites ought to be found at
lower altitudes.
Excavation, which might
provide some compensation, has not kept pace with identification, and the more
significant excavations in this region, at Hen Caerwys and Beili Bedw, occurred
in the 1960s. We remain largely ignorant of the physical form, the economic
base and the material culture of medieval rural settlements, whether these were
the permanently occupied dwellings or the seasonal summer settlements in the
hills. And we still have much to learn about how these settlements functioned
in their landscape.
Further fieldwork should be
targeted at lower altitude, enclosed lands. Systematic work in Aberedw (Rads)
and Castle Caereionion (Monts) parishes have demonstrated that sites can be identified
in such locations, even if the remains are not as pronounced as in the less
agriculturally damaged uplands.
The excavation of specific
rural settlement sites of medieval date must be encouraged, and this should be
extended to the search for, and examination of the seasonal settlements (hafodydd)
of medieval date, which are currently elusive.
1) Strengths
The historic settlement
surveys prepared with Cadw funding for the whole region in the early 1990s were
prepared more with a view to planning and heritage conservation than with
academic research. Nevertheless, they offer a solid information base for our
historic settlements from small villages through to county towns. Soulsby’s Town
of Medieval Wales, though nearly twenty years old, represents a significant
source of information and for several towns – Brecon, Denbigh and Ruthin -
articles in a volume edited by Ralph Griffiths in 1978 provide historical
detail. One or two towns, noticeably New Radnor and to a lesser extent Brecon, have
also benefited from detailed studies of a more archaeological nature.
In the urban context there is
much that needs to be done. Issues such as urban growth and plan morphology,
and the survival and analysis of medieval structures have not really been
addressed on anything like a comprehensive basis. Urban excavations are fewer
than might be anticipated in the light of PPG Wales. While Hay-on-Wye, Brecon,
Rhuddlan, Montgomery, New Radnor, Talgarth and most recently Welshpool have
been the subject of urban excavations and evaluations there are some towns such
as Denbigh, Ruthin, Wrexham and Builth Wells very little of this sort of work
has occurred.
Nor we should forget that
there is a whole range of villages – a lower stratum in the nucleated hierarchy
– where the origins and development are a complete mystery.
Opportunities should be taken
for excavation where they exist, but there could be a more direct effort to
prioritise settlements within the urban hierarchy. Which are the key towns and
villages in east and northeast Wales and why? These are questions that should
be asked and where practical efforts ought to go into validating the
conclusions. The interaction between towns and their rural hinterlands offers
interesting avenues for research, with historians such as Rees Davies, working
on the lordship of Brecon, having already explored and elucidated some aspects
relevant to the topic.
It has long been recognised
that the region supports an impressive and diverse range of agrarian
landscapes, reinforced now with the introduction of the CCW/Cadw/ICOMOS Register
of Landscapes and the on-going and allied process of historic landscape
characterisation. Such landscapes are of course underpinned by successive
episodes of land use – the creation and subsequent modification of fields, of
enclosures, of boundaries, of tracks, of watercourses and of buildings. Many of
these landscapes are of, or at least have their origins in, the medieval era.
Few landscapes have been
studied at the level of detail that will provide an explanation of form,
function and development. And we should remember, too, that such elements are
the preserve, not only of the archaeologist, but also the historian and
particularly the historical geographer. Most of the major contributions in this
field – no pun intended – have not come from archaeologists but from the likes
of the late Glanville Jones, Colin Thomas and Dorothy Sylvester. The physical remains that are particularly
our province are not evidenced in such contributions, though there are a few
exceptions including CPAT’s own work on the Berwyns. Both at the micro-scale
(the field boundaries themselves) and the macro-scale (the field systems and
their patterning), there is much that needs to be done.
A more holistic approach to
the elements that go to make up any particular historic landscape - settlement,
farming, communications etc – should be adopted. A case can be made for the
identification and detailed study, perhaps through the mechanism of the present
historic landscape characterisation exercises, of specific, small landscapes
areas to act as exemplars.
Regionality in land use is a
key issue that needs to be addressed -- by archaeologists as well as by
historical geographers who have already established their credentials in this
respect. East and northeast Wales is a very large area and much needs to be
done in order to establish farming patterns through a broad time frame.
Some landscapes call out for
more detailed analysis: lowland tracts such as Wrexham Maelor with its
extensive rig and furrow, its numerous moated, and its elusive medieval
settlements is a prime candidate, or natural topographic units of greater
diversity such as the upper Wye valley, south of Builth Wells. Maelor, though,
is a sizeable area, and a case could be made for the study of smaller units,
such as single valleys, to act as exemplars in understanding the complexities
of pasture, arable, meadow, woodland and moor, and their interaction with the
settlements that utilised them.
Medieval industry and trade
have received very little attention in the past. If there is a determinable
strength, it is that there is a currently untapped, and also incalculable,
potential that has yet to be realised.
There are, inevitably, exceptions; the work on the leading mining
industry in the northeast, for example, but not many! The 1990 volume on
‘Quarrying and Building Stone’ and the 1991 volume on ‘Medieval
Industries’ were, on the authority of their full titles, both confined to
England, a reflection presumably on the negligible impact of Welsh studies at
that time.
In our region medieval
industry was generally conducted on a small and sometimes subsistence scale;
and it was frequently resource-led with the result that the physical remains,
particularly of the extractive industries, might well be subsumed and destroyed
by later, post-medieval industrial activities. Is this why the Resource Audit
could muster only 34 industrial entries for the medieval era? But the very fact that in the northeast the
extractive and processing industries were so extensive in the post-medieval
centuries surely implies that there were medieval predecessors, albeit at a
different scale. Medieval mills and milling have been little studied and
visible remains are few. Although the Welsh Mills Society are concerned with
the mills themselves and their construction less attention has been paid to
their setting and their interaction with other elements of the agricultural
landscape.
Yet it is surely not just a
question of isolating the physical remains of medieval industry. How were the
various industries organised, how localised or extensive were they, how do they
relate to the settlements of contemporary date? Our discipline ought to be able to throw light on at least some
aspects of this theme. At present, however, we have yet to establish a basic framework
for medieval industry.
Marketing and trade, as
evidenced by artefacts, also remains heavily under-researched, particularly the
mechanisms by which manufactured goods were made and distributed to
consumers.
Of the four Welsh regions,
north-east and east Wales has by far the shortest stretch of coastline, and as
the recently published volume on The Coastal Archaeology of Wales displays,
the amount of medieval archaeology is limited. Nevertheless, this volume does
offer a helpful and up-to-date statement on current knowledge.
The theme can be extended to
the inland waterways – the Dee, the Severn, the Clwyd and perhaps the Usk –
which fulfilled a range of roles: as arteries of communication, for commerce,
for power generation, and as magnets for settlement. Again the strength is in
the potential of the resource, rather than in its study.
No assessment, comparable
with that for coastal waters, is available for these inland rivers. All we have
is a series of individual reports on such aspects as the canalisation of the
Clwyd, north of Rhuddlan, and the current recording of what is reputedly one of
the best-preserved medieval mills eroding from the bank of the Severn, at
Buttington, a short distance from here. While some of the facets mentioned
under this heading could equally well be accommodated elsewhere, with the
rivers simply conduits for activity that could happen anywhere, the fundamental
importance of the waterways must be acknowledged.
In this context it might be
noted that the Resource Audit could muster only a single SMR entry under the
heading, ‘Communications’ and this for a beacon.
No opportunities for the
northeast Wales coastline are presented here, but it is suggested that
assessments should be undertaken of the physical features of the major rivers
and the adjacent riverbanks.
There can be little doubt
that the Cadw-funded pan-Wales assessment of historic churches represented a
major advance in our knowledge of the religious building stock. The reports on
over 250 churches, compiled to a consistent standard and examining not just the
architecture and fittings of each church but also the fabric, offer a resource
which could be a starting point for many divergent research themes, even though
such work was in itself, never intended to be part of the original study.
NADFAS is cataloguing church fittings and furnishings, although their progress
is inevitably slow and localised.
More detailed studies of
individual churches are regrettably rare. The Royal Commission’s work on Brecon
Cathedral stands out because it is exceptional, while the excavations at
Pennant Melangell, and Capel Maelog outside Llandrindod Wells, demonstrate how
much can be learnt from excavation.
At a more elevated level, the
medieval monasteries of the east and northeast have seen intermittent study.
Magnets to 19th-century antiquarians, abbeys such as Cwmhir, Strata
Marcella and Valle Crucis have had their ground plans elucidated through
limited excavation. On the historical side David Williams’ remarkable studies
of the Welsh Cistercians provides not only much detail of the monasteries
themselves but also of the infrastructure that supported them, the precincts,
the granges and the like. But it is here again that there is archaeological
potential, in the study of the landscapes that surrounded them.
Few churches have yet been
subjected to the highly detailed and revealing fabric examinations, which will
be familiar to those who work in England. This should be done, if only for a
selected group of churches, and probably with co-operation from experienced
geologists.
But perhaps an even more
important short-term aim should be the accumulation of accurate plans of our
historic churches; the absence of a full corpus of such plans is a fundamental
weakness in church studies, even though, individually many such plans exist in
a variety of archives.
Furthermore, the original research
agenda paper on Wales as a whole which was given at Aberystwyth last year also
flagged up a whole range of issues which have yet to be tackled satisfactorily
anywhere, east and north-east Wales included: the siting of churches, church
origins, external influences, particularly for Romanesque work, the location
and development of sculptural schools of work, and tighter chronologies for
moulding and tracery development.
In focusing on the churches
of the medieval era we should not lose sight of their minor counterparts, the
chapels that were abandoned both before and after the Reformation. References
to these are scattered, often in the antiquarian literature and there are
probably many more of these sites than is immediately apparent. An assessment of
these is long over due.
Whilst the study of the
Cistercian foundations can be cast in a positive light, the same can hardly be
said of the properties of some of the lesser orders. There is no consistent
level of information for the friaries, for instance, usually to be found in an
urban context. While modern research has been undertaken at Brecon, information
on Denbigh is poor.
The development of a corpus
of accurate church plans should be initiated, preferably on a pan-Wales basis.
Such plans exist in a number of repositories but the largest group – those
drawn up by church architects – has been inadequately researched and their
copyright status remains unclear. Opportunities should be taken for the study
(and as importantly the publication) of the fabric and architecture of
individual churches. Such opportunities might emerge on the back of larger
church conservation projects where an archaeological input is deemed
necessary.
An assessment and analysis of
the monastic landscapes of east and northeast Wales is required. Where the
records and the plans of specific monastic precincts and granges are found to
be inadequate this should be rectified by further work.
As a postscript to this short
paper, three further but non-specific opportunities can be flagged:
a) Aerial photography
remains an under-utilised resource. The Royal Commission annually turns up new
material of medieval date in its regular sorties. But there is much
unrecognised and therefore uncatalogued data for this period in the vast
vertical photograph archives at Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Swindon.
b) Contact with those
working in other disciplines, particularly history, historical geography and
economic history in order to break down barriers and foster research in
specific areas or on specific themes should be actively rather than passively
promoted.
c) Many of the issues
discussed are as pertinent to the early post-medieval as to the medieval era, a
terminal date of 1485 or 1500 being large an irrelevance. Studies on say
settlement; land use or urban development should not be constrained by the
imposition of such ‘labels of convenience’ as ‘medieval’.
Paper prepared by Bob
Silvester (CPAT).
This document’s copyright
is held by contributors and sponsors of the Research Framework for the
Archaeology of Wales.