Small places with large consequences: the importance of small towns in England, 1000–1540

Abstract

English small towns before industrialization deserve our attention because they provided homes and livings for large numbers of people ± a tenth of the population by 1300. Small towns, even those with only a few hundred inhabitants, can be distinguished from various`town like' settlements such as industrial and open villages. They can be regarded as fully urban, and shared many characteristics with larger towns. They played an important role in the commercial hierarchy, and brought trade to the ordinary producers and consumers of the countryside. Small towns in¯uenced the economy and society of their neighbourhood, not least by providing a channel for migration and social advancement. As centres of entertainment and culture they diverted and even civilized those who lived in and around them. Small towns were important for those who lived at the time, but they are also signi®cant for modern perceptions of the past. Historians, through studying them, are encouraged to revise their views of government, economic change and regional dierences.

Assemblage Theory and Town Foundation in Medieval England

“…The performance of a place brings together human and non-human participants, situating them spatially (a similar perspective on the town as performed has been reached by Christopherson 2015). A town (as defined by Dyer 2002) is never at rest: people move around it, materials transform into objects in workshops and buildings decay. Towns are not material settings for urban life, nor are they collections of people.…”

British Business History: Review of the Periodical Literature for 2002

“…This is a wide-ranging article, but at its heart is the claim that small towns were important for their 'contribution to the emergence of a commercial economy in the whole of England by 1300'. 82 Again, it would seem likely that the application of business history methods and perspectives to this issue could prove highly fruitful. Robinson, conversely, examines the local, economic impact of national-level and political processes of integration, namely the 'shotgun wedding' of England and Scotland in 1707, and finds that economic interests and priorities largely shaped Cumbrian attitudes to Union.…”