THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS OF SOUTHWEST WALES
In the mid-1970s the Urban Research Unit in the Department of Archaeology, University College Cardiff, produced a series of reports on the archaeological implications of redevelopment in the historic towns of Wales. Then there had been no archaeological excavations within medieval towns in southwest Wales, although some castles and monastic sites had been investigated. Since then, numerous excavations, evaluations and watching briefs have taken place, but no synthesis of the resulting data. The short reports presented here rectifies this.
No attempt has been made to define a town; the towns here are those included in the Urban Research Unit’s reports.
Some such as Templeton and Trefilan have never been towns, whilst others, such as Narberth, only developed into towns in the post-medieval period. Some settlements such as Rosemarket and St Dogmaels were not included in the Urban Research Unit’s reports and have not been included here, although they would benefit from study in the future.
Each town entry is accompanied by a PDF report outlining the number of listed buildings and scheduled monuments, detailing archaeological interventions, reproducing historic maps and listing key sources.
The exception is the entry for Carmarthen, by far the most complex town in southwest Wales, which does not have an accompanying PDF report. The PDF reports are only available in English.
