Select Page

Southampton

Southampton- the 7th burh to be cited in the Burghal Hidage

Kingdom Type of Burh No. of Hides O.S. Grid Ref
Wessex Burghal Town 150 SU42201169

 

O.S. Map 1:50,000 – licence: Anquet Maps
(click on the images to enlarge)

Aerial Photograph – licence: Memory Map

Burhs in order of citation

Roman activity at Clausentum was succeeded by the Middle Saxon Emporium of Hamwic see here… This open riverine site on the Itchen was vulnerable to Viking attack, so the Late Saxon burh was relocated to a more protected site on the River Test.

The location of the burh became the site of the medieval town of Southampton which extended northwards.

Southampton – Roman Clausentum; Middle Saxon Hamwic; and Late Saxon and Medieval Southampton
image: Cambridge Org

Holdsworth, P. (1984) “Saxon Southampton” p.338
in “Anglo-Saxon Towns in Southern England”, Haslam, J. (ed)

Next Page: Winchester