Monument record 727 - Towcester

There is as yet no significant evidence which would indicate that the town was occupied in the early-middle Saxon period, although the discovery of a few early-middle Saxon sherds from near the castle may indicate a settlement very close. There was however significant occupation on the permeable geologies of the Tove valley in this area, for an early Saxon cemetery has been found a short distance to the north west of the town. By 1086 there were two royal estate centres in the Tove valley, one at Greens Norton and the other at Towcester. The intermixing of the dependencies of these estate centres and of their dependent hundreds suggests that the two represent a splitting of a single late Saxon and possibly earlier estate centre. This was probably at Norton, whose name seems to reflect its position to the north of the Roman town. The re-establishment of occupation and an estate centre at Towcester may have been a result of the refortification of the Roman town as a burh against the Danes in 917 by Edward the Elder. At this time Towcester probably represented the most defensible location on the Danish frontier. The defeat of a Danish attack on the town in that year represented the key action in the reconquest of this part of the Danelaw by the kings of Wessex. Whereas before 917 Towcester and Norton were probably part of a Mercian province attached to Kings Sutton, after the reconquest they became part of the new shire attached to Northampton. Towcester itself may only have been reoccupied from this time onwards. Slight evidence of late Saxon activity has been recovered in the town, in the form of boundary ditches in the Allen’s Yard area. This may have been part of the laying out of an agricultural settlement at Towcester, within the Roman defences. There is no evidence that the settlement was raised to urban status with the creation of the burh, although this remains a possibility. If so then the laying out of the late Saxon ditches may have been part of this process. It is uncertain whether the refurbished Roman defences continued to function into the early medieval period, but in the late 11th or earlier 12th century a motte and bailey castle was constructed at Towcester in the south eastern part of the defended area. This will have been constructed both as an estate centre but perhaps most importantly to control the road network at a key location where the Oxford to Northampton road crossed Watling Street. It will have been constructed by the king or by the Earl of Clare who subsequently acquired the manor. The market is not recorded until 1220, but it had already been in existence for some time. It is possible that a market existed here in 1086 and was simply not mentioned in Domesday, however the other Domesday markets encompass the handful iof what appear to have been the most important administrative centres of the Saxon period, evenly distributed across the county. It is therefore likely that the market did not exist in 1086. If so then it must have been established soon after. The town clearly developed as a significant local marketing centre, benefiting not only from its function as an estate centre in the Tove valley and so at the heart of the best agricultural land in the area, it also had the important added advantage of lying at a key junction in the national road network. The town maintained its marketing functions through the medieval period and survived the recession of the 14th century to re-emerge as a successful small town in the post medieval period. This role as a local commercial centre was maintained through the post medieval period and up to the present day. It benefited substantially from the expansion of travel in the 17th century and especially from the development of coaching. During the 18th and early 19th centuries Towcester flourished as an important staging post on what was by then the single most important road in England, the coaching route from London to Holyhead. A substantial amount of the economy of the town was based on passing trade and a number of coaching inns were established along Watling Street through the centre of Towcester. The coaching routes declined rapidly following the establishment of the railway network across the country. Despite the loss of a major element of its trade Towcester retained its status as a market town and as a centre for local administration. There was some limited industry in the town including lace making and wool stapling in the 18th century and a small boot and shoe trade in the 19th century, but this remained secondary to its commercial role. The town is also unique in the county in having the Roman and late Saxon through to modern town superimposed on exactly the same site. Despite this re-use, the archaeology of the town from the late Iron Age to the post medieval has been demonstrated to survive in good condition in various locations and it clearly has a very high archaeological potential. There is also a good survival of historic buildings in the town, with a handful from the medieval period and many more from the post medieval and industrial periods. Although its documentary record is nowhere near as good as that for Oundle, Brackley or even Daventry, it clearly has a high potential for the investigation of urbanisation from the Roman through to the present. There is as yet no significant evidence which would indicate that the town was occupied in the early-middle Saxon period, although the discovery of a few early-middle Saxon sherds from near the castle may indicate a settlement very close. There was however significant occupation on the permeable geologies of the Tove valley in this area, for an early Saxon cemetery has been found a short distance to the north west of the town. By 1086 there were two royal estate centres in the Tove valley, one at Greens Norton and the other at Towcester. The intermixing of the dependencies of these estate centres and of their dependent hundreds suggests that the two represent a splitting of a single late Saxon and possibly earlier estate centre. This was probably at Norton, whose name seems to reflect its position to the north of the Roman town. The re-establishment of occupation and an estate centre at Towcester may have been a result of the refortification of the Roman town as a burh against the Danes in 917 by Edward the Elder. At this time Towcester probably represented the most defensible location on the Danish frontier. The defeat of a Danish attack on the town in that year represented the key action in the reconquest of this part of the Danelaw by the kings of Wessex. Whereas before 917 Towcester and Norton were probably part of a Mercian province attached to Kings Sutton, after the reconquest they became part of the new shire attached to Northampton. Towcester itself may only have been reoccupied from this time onwards. Slight evidence of late Saxon activity has been recovered in the town, in the form of boundary ditches in the Allen’s Yard area. This may have been part of the laying out of an agricultural settlement at Towcester, within the Roman defences. There is no evidence that the settlement was raised to urban status with the creation of the burh, although this remains a possibility. If so then the laying out of the late Saxon ditches may have been part of this process. It is uncertain whether the refurbished Roman defences continued to function into the early medieval period, but in the late 11th or earlier 12th century a motte and bailey castle was constructed at Towcester in the south eastern part of the defended area. This will have been constructed both as an estate centre but perhaps most importantly to control the road network at a key location where the Oxford to Northampton road crossed Watling Street. It will have been constructed by the king or by the Earl of Clare who subsequently acquired the manor. The market is not recorded until 1220, but it had already been in existence for some time. It is possible that a market existed here in 1086 and was simply not mentioned in Domesday, however the other Domesday markets encompass the handful iof what appear to have been the most important administrative centres of the Saxon period, evenly distributed across the county. It is therefore likely that the market did not exist in 1086. If so then it must have been established soon after. The town clearly developed as a significant local marketing centre, benefiting not only from its function as an estate centre in the Tove valley and so at the heart of the best agricultural land in the area, it also had the important added advantage of lying at a key junction in the national road network. The town maintained its marketing functions through the medieval period and survived the recession of the 14th century to re-emerge as a successful small town in the post medieval period. This role as a local commercial centre was maintained through the post medieval period and up to the present day. It benefited substantially from the expansion of travel in the 17th century and especially from the development of coaching. During the 18th and early 19th centuries Towcester flourished as an important staging post on what was by then the single most important road in England, the coaching route from London to Holyhead. A substantial amount of the economy of the town was based on passing trade and a number of coaching inns were established along Watling Street through the centre of Towcester. The coaching routes declined rapidly following the establishment of the railway network across the country. Despite the loss of a major element of its trade Towcester retained its status as a market town and as a centre for local administration. There was some limited industry in the town including lace making and wool stapling in the 18th century and a small boot and shoe trade in the 19th century, but this remained secondary to its commercial role. The town is also unique in the county in having the Roman and late Saxon through to modern town superimposed on exactly the same site. Despite this re-use, the archaeology of the town from the late Iron Age to the post medieval has been demonstrated to survive in good condition in various locations and it clearly has a very high archaeological potential. There is also a good survival of historic buildings in the town, with a handful from the medieval period and many more from the post medieval and industrial periods. Although its documentary record is nowhere near as good as that for Oundle, Brackley or even Daventry, it clearly has a high potential for the investigation of urbanisation from the Roman through to the present.

{12} Towcester was the centre of a late Saxon royal estate and this administrative function persisted into the medieval period when it served as head of the hundred. The Domesday entry recorded that Towcester was held by the king and that it comprised 7½ hides, with land for 22 ploughs. Only 12 ploughs were accounted for in 1086: two ploughs which were held in demesne, and ten ploughs which were held by 15 villeins. There were 12 acres of meadow, and a wood two leagues long and one league wide. This large entry undoubtedly included the subsidiary hamlets known from the medieval period: Wood Burcote, Caldcot, Abthorpe, Foscot, together with Handley (?) which was part of Whittlebury Forest, and possibly a small fee in Silverstone which was dependent upon Towcester in the 13th century.
Riden has found little sign of ‘planning’ in the layout of the plots on either side of Watling Street and concludes that no part of Towcester shows any indication of being a medieval ‘new town’, nor even of being an expanded town, as was Brackley. He writes: ‘There is little evidence that either the population or the built-up area of Towcester expanded or shrank to any extent between the end of the Middle Ages and the early 20th century’.He concludes that it is probably safe to accept the map of 1848 and the 1882 OS map as a guide to the size and shape of the medieval built-up area.
The ‘fraternity and gyld of Our Lady and St George’ was named in a will made in 1519, and is mentioned in other early 16th century documents. No evidence survives for the guild’s activities.
(Ref 2.0)The absence of relevant documents makes it impossible to reconstruct the topographical development of Towcester with any certainty. No detailed rentals and surveys survive from the medieval period and the earliest maps of the town date only from the first half of the 19th century. Moreover, these maps lack schedules.
(Ref 3.5.3)Towcester’s location at the junction of important routeways allowed the place to function as a thoroughfare town. The inhabitants benefited by providing facilities for travellers and their horses, men like the officials of Merton College, Oxford, who in November 1299 journeyed to Surrey via Brackley, Towcester and Northampton. They spent 3s 6¼d at Towcester, on a meal of bread, ale, beef, chicken and eggs, and on candles, fuel, coal and straw for their beds. Fodder for the horses cost over one shilling, and two pence was spent on hay. (For further details on victuallers see report).
The number of houses was 424 in 1801, 465 in 1811 and 529 in 1821. In 1831 there were 542 inhabited houses in Towcester, Caldecote, Handley and Wood Burcote. By 1881 the number had increased to 624. The work of P. Riden has shown that there were about 250 houses on Watling Street in the 1850s. He has suggested that if the older property on Park Street is added to this number and if it is assumed that there was always some secondary building behind the larger plots, then there were perhaps some 300 houses in medieval Towcester. This would imply, he suggests, a population of at least 1000 and possibly as many as 1500. The tax figures do not support this total. (For population figures and militia lists see report).
(Ref 3.5.4)The town was surrounded by a number of very small shrunken places including Foscote, Duncote, Caldecote, Hulcote, Heathencote and Wood Burcote, whose names indicate their secondary or subsidiary status. Towcester is considered to have been historically the market town for the northern half of Cleley Hundred, and it has been claimed that the dependence of villages in the Hundreds of Towcester and Greens Norton continued into the 19th century.
(Ref 3.5.1)The medieval taxation records included the hamlets of Abthorpe, Foscote, Caldecote and Wood Burcote with Towcester itself, thus making it difficult to establish the population and wealth of the urban settlement. In 1301 Towcester was assessed cum membris (i.e. with the hamlets). A total of 111 taxpayers were listed, of whom 45 (40.54%) lived in Abthorpe, Foscote and Caldecote. This would leave 66 taxpayers (just under 60%) for Towcester, although there is a slight possibility that the names of other hamlets have been lost in the damaged left hand margin of the document. One or two of these 66 taxpayers are known from other sources to have lived in Wood Burcote. Almost all those assessed to pay the largest amounts lived in the town. (for further detailed accounts of taxation including Hearth Tax see Report).
(Ref 3.5.2)The numbers of hearths listed in 1674 indicate the potential dangers of fire. Two years later a large fire destroyed over 85 bays of building belonging to the townsmen who petitioned for relief, and many more belonging to other inhabitants. The miller Edward Padbury claimed that three bays of his house had been destroyed and that he had lost goods valued at £12. By 1681 his property seems to have been repaired; his inventory recorded a kitchen buttery, parlour, brewhouse, kitchen chamber, and buttery chamber. The experience of such fires may have prompted the regulations recorded in a 17th-century court roll. Any inhabitant with a wooden chimney was to amend it within 20 days or refrain from lighting a fire. The keeping of wood in kilns was also forbidden. Such regulations did not prevent further calamities.
(Ref 3.4.3)In the Middle Ages the open fields may have extended almost up to the edge of the town on the west and the south; on the east there was meadow land, and more meadow land to the north, beyond which lay the open fields of Caldecote. The three major fields recorded in 1700 were to the south and west of the town and would seem to have been the fields of Towcester and Burcote. Caldecote would therefore have had a separate system, as is suggested by the names recorded in 1606.
(References to non site specific Butchery in and around Towcester see report section 3.5.3).
(References to other Industries attributed to Towcester through inhabitants surnames see report section 3.5.4).
(References to possible non site specific ironworking see report section 3.4.1).
(References to fuel consumption in Towcester and references to two unlocatable Woods, Rokenhull and Dokwellehay see report section 3.7.1).
Reference to a fire in 1749 started in the stable of the George Inn (unlocatable) which caused siginifcant damage to Towcester, through the loss of 36 houses, barns and outbuildings, the damage to Towcester was valued at £2000.

{18} Map of 1840 showing Earl of Pomfret's lands in Towcester; circa 1840; shows town & field boundaries & roads.

{29} In the C11th or early C12th a motte and bailey castle was constructed in Towcester and the town developed as a significant market centre. The town maintained its role as a market throughout the medieval period, and became a successful small town in the post-medieval period.

{30} A programme of archaeological observation, investigation, recording, analysis and publication was undertaken by Northamptonshire Archaeology on land adjacent to 1 Queen's Road, Towcester. Three trenches were excavated within the footprint of the development. No evidence relating to the Roman town defences was present and archaeological deposits were limited to late post medieval make-up layers and garden soils.

{31} The ‘burh’ of Tofeceaster is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in c.925 AD. The tern ‘burh’ is accepted as meaning a defendable town. Whilst ‘Tofe’ no doubt refers to the River Tove, ‘ceastre’ was used by the Anglo-Saxons to describe a Roman town or camp. This entry infers that in the C10th Towcester was able to withstand the raiding Danish armies. However it is uncertain whether the re-furbished Roman defences continued to function into the early medieval period.

{32}{33} In 917 the burh was fortified by Edward the Elder.

{35} Photo of seal found at Towcester, also photo of terracotta medallion depicting Pope Boniface V111, map of Towcester;

<1> 1844, TITHE MAP, (unchecked) (Map). SNN59500.

<2> 1806, Estate Map (NRO Map 2923), (checked) (Map). SNN59501.

<3> 1840, Towcester Estate Map (NRO Map 2922), (unchecked) (Map). SNN54886.

<4> 1848, Estate Map (Towcester), (unchecked) (Map). SNN59502.

<5> Eyre T. (Revised by Jefferys T.), 1779, Map of the County of Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Map). SNN1852.

<6> Ogilby J., 1675, Britannia, (unchecked) (Atlas). SNN3212.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 1834, First Edition Ornance Survey Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN54887.

<8> , 1884, First Edition OS Mapping, (unchecked) (Map). SNN59505.

<9> , 1884, First Edition OS Mapping, (unchecked) (Map). SNN59506.

<10> , 1900, MAP, (unchecked) (Map). SNN54888.

<11> , 1900, MAP, (unchecked) (Map). SNN59507.

<12> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Laughton J.; Steadman S.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester, 1.0, 2.0, 3.5.3, 3.5.4, 3.5.1, 3.5.2, 3.4.3, 3.5.4 (Report). SNN103132.

<13> Ryland, W, Adkins, D, and Serjeantson, R M, 1902, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.185 (unchecked) (Series). SNN100368.

<14> Poor Law Union, 1855, Towcester Poor Law Union Map, (unchecked) (Map). SNN105243.

<15> Atkins R.; Chapman A., 2002, Excavation of a Roman Settlement at Sponne School, Towcester, 1997, (unchecked) (Article). SNN103874.

<16> Towcester & District Local History Society, 2007, Old Towcester In Camera, (unchecked) (Series). SNN105849.

<17> Woodfield P., 1992, Towcester Retail Development: Historic Landscape Assessment, (checked) (Full Report). SNN46827.

<18> 1840, Towcester Estate Map (NRO Map 2922), (unchecked) (Map). SNN54886.

<19> 1993, SMR REPORT FORM, (unchecked) (SMR Report Form). SNN48751.

<20> BRIDGENS M., 1999, A study of Towcester, examining whether it conforms to the theoretical model of an industrial town, (unchecked) (Dissertation). SNN63151.

<21> Towcester & District Local History Society, 1995, Towcester: The Story of An English Country Town, (unchecked) (Book). SNN72341.

<22> Wilson D.M. (Editor), 1976, The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, (unchecked) (Book). SNN107011.

<23> COTSWOLD ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST, 1992, Towcester Retail Development, Northamptonshire, Stage 1: Archaeological Assessment, p.6 (checked) (Draft). SNN70046.

<24> Welsh, T., 2012, Random Jottings on Towcester History, (unchecked) (Note). SNN108605.

<25> Towcester & District Local History Society, 1983?, A Towcester Trail, (unchecked) (Leaflet). SNN107712.

<26> Carlyle S., 2012, Moat Lane Regeneration, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation, (checked) (Report). SNN109163.

<28> Hall D., 2001, The Woodland Landscapes of Southern Northamptonshire, p.33-46 (unchecked) (Article). SNN102520.

<29> Havard T., 2010, Belle Baulk, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation, p.7 (checked) (Report). SNN108051.

<30> Markus S., 2013, Archaeological Observation, Investigation, Recording and Analysis on Land Adjacent to 1 Queen's Road, Towcester, Northamptonshire, (checked) (Report). SNN108962.

<31> John Samuels Archaeological Consultants, 2006, An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment of Land at 147 Watling Street, Towcester, Northamptonshire, p.10 (checked) (Report). SNN105760.

<32> Beresford, MW, and Finberg, HPR, 1973, English medieval boroughs: a handlist, (unchecked) (Document). SNN33700.

<33> Dorothy Whitelock, 1961, Anglo Saxon Chronicle (A revised translation), (unchecked) (Mention). SNN27410.

<34> Giggens, B, 2018, The A5, Towcester: Potential Archaeological Sites (Report). SNN112332.

<35> Dryden H.E.L., 1842-1895, Dryden Collection, DR/25/274/1,5 (Archive). SNN115.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:46PM