'Have you Found Anything Interesting?' Exploring Late-Saxon and Medieval Urbanism at Wallingford: Sources, Results, and Questions

This short article outlines the aims, scope, and preliminary outcomes of the Wallingford Burh to Borough Research Project--a major archaeological project funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) for 2008-10 and organized by staff from Leicester, Exeter, and Oxford universities working in close liaison with key local bodies (notably Wallingford Town Council, Wallingford Museum, The Wallingford Historical and Archaeological Society (TWHAS), plus The Northmoor Trust and Reading Museum). The study was set up to provide a detailed archaeological analysis of Wallingford's origins, growth, and decline, and to put this into a broader regional, national, and European context of urban development. It centres on a site with strong physical survivals from the early Middle Ages onwards and with much untapped documentary evidence. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]