Welcome to the homepage of the Mapping the Medieval Urban Landscape Project

“Mapping the Medieval Urban Landscape” is a two-year research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The project was completed at the end of May 2005.

The project came about to try to further our understanding of the processes that created urban landscapes in the middle ages. Conventional historical records do not reveal much about this, and so it is necessary to look at the plans of the towns themselves to map out how they came into being. This work is important as the middle ages is the key period of European urbanisation, when many towns and cities were established and prospered. Indeed, much of the urban network and heritage of Europe today is the result of our medieval ancestors. To recognise and appreciate this legacy we need to study these towns and cities (Click here for more on the project).

The project has explored the design and planning of towns in the middle ages. This required careful study of the surviving layouts of medieval towns, looking in particular at their shape and form, and to this end the project focused on new towns founded by King Edward I in the late 1200s. Twelve of Edward’s towns in Wales were selected for close scrutiny, and one in England. (Click here for more information on the study towns).

The end result of the project is an online digital atlas of King Edward I’s new towns.