Abstract of paper for the CBA South Midlands Conference, Wallingford, April 26th 2008

FULL TITLE: Between burhs: assessing and comparing evolutions and interpretations. A Wallingford - Bedford case study

Matt Edgeworth
University of Leicester

Wallingford is justly famous for its impressive earthen ramparts and other surviving Anglo-Saxon features. Usually it is compared with the other Wessex burhs listed in the Burghal Hideage and thought to have been built or fortified by Alfred the Great. In this paper, however, I look in a different direction and draw a comparison between Wallingford and the lesser known Mercian burh of Bedford, at the opposite end of the CBA South Midlands region. In recounting recent work on locating the defensive boundaries of late Saxon Bedford, I ask whether this can shed any light on the origins and development of Wallingford. And in considering recent and forthcoming work by the Wallingford Burh to Borough Research Project, run by the Universities of Leicester, Exeter and Oxford, I ask what implications this might have for the study of towns like Bedford.


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