Talk by archaeologist Alex Langlands, well known to television viewers as co-presenter of the popular BBC2 'living history' series Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm and Wartime Farm.
Using early maps, place-names and the study of topography, this lecture will set out the case for an urban focus on the site of modern Salisbury before the construction of the cathedral complex and city in the early thirteenth century. It will also present the evidence for an Anglo-Saxon 'burh', a fortified town - possibly of Alfredian date - constructed in the shadow of the hill-fort at Old Sarum. In doing so, this lecture revises the processes of urban development in the Salisbury area and aligns them better with what we know of economic developments elsewhere in Wessex in the Early Medieval period.
Alex Langlands is an archaeologist and historian, and has travelled extensively, excavating prehistoric, Roman and medieval sites in Britain, Europe and Iceland. Alex has recently completed his PhD at Winchester University, on travel and communication in early medieval Wessex.
This lecture is in the Salisbury Museum Archaeology Lectures (SMAL) series. SMAL lectures are held on the second Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm from September to April.