Although the Church played a major role in the development of towns and cities from the earliest times, many important aspects of the early stages of urbanization in England are still poorly understood. Urban Growth and the Medieval Church employs a wealth of historical and archaeological evidence from two key towns Gloucester and Worcester to provide a comprehensive picture of their respective developments throughout the medieval period. Only then can the crucial role played by the Church, in shaping the spiritual, social, economic and cultural development of the urban environment, be discovered.

Author Biography

Richard Holt is Professor, Department of History, at the University of Tromso, Norway.

List of illustrations	p. ix
List of plates	p. xiii
Preface and Acknowledgements	p. xv
List of abbreviations	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Gloucester: sources
Worcester: sources
The urban landscape
Gloucester and the Church before 1100	p. 15
The foundation of the Old Minster
Early grants to the Church of Gloucester
Abbesses and clergy
The Minster and the city of Gloucester 679-c. 880
The foundation of the burh
The New Minster
The tenth and eleventh centuries
The Gloucester minsters in the eleventh century
The landscape of medieval Gloucester	p. 27
Introduction
The intramural city
The east, south and transpontine suburbs
Gloucester: churches, chapels and parishes	p. 97
Churches with parishes
Non-parochial chapels
Worcester and the Church before 1100	p. 127
The Church of Worcester and the early city
The commercial interests of the Church of Worcester in the eighth and ninth centuries
The founding of the burh at Worcester
The Church of Worcester in the tenth and eleventh centuries
The city in the tenth and eleventh centuries
The landscape of medieval Worcester	p. 139
Introduction
The intramural city
The suburbs
Worcester: churches, chapels and parishes	p. 197
The earliest foundations
Probable later pre-Conquest foundations
Post-Conquest foundations
Non-parochial chapels
The lesser churches and chapels of Gloucester and Worcester: conclusions	p. 219
The foundation of the parish churches
Church buildings
Church dedications
The distribution and siting of the lesser churches
Churches and church-plots
The development of the parishes	p. 239
Introduction
Parochial rights in Worcester and Gloucester
Parish boundaries: Worcester
Parish boundaries: Gloucester
Conclusions
The major religious institutions: their lands and their role in urban growth	p. 261
Introduction
The city property of the bishops of Worcester
The city property of Worcester Cathedral Priory
The Gloucester lands of St Peter's Abbey
The Gloucester lands of St Oswald's Priory
The Gloucester lands of Lanthony Priory
Conclusion
The major religious institutions: their relationship to urban secular authority	p. 293
St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester
The cathedral priory, Worcester
St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester
Lanthony Priory, Gloucester
Ecclesiastical precincts in the urban landscape	p. 307
The minster churches
The friaries
Hospitals and nunneries
The suburbs and the Church	p. 325
Gloucester
Worcester
Gloucester and Worcester: the character of the suburbs
Conclusion
The Church, town-planning and public works	p. 345
Defining town-planning
Town-planning and public works in Gloucester and Worcester: the foundation of the burhs
The burhs: extramural and post-mural growth
Conclusions: the Church and town-planning in Gloucester and Worcester
Conclusion	p. 365
Appendix	p. 379
Bibliography	p. 381
Index	p. 397
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