medieval-atlas/regional-and-local/458

Transcription

Settlement in burghs Although the burgh as a formal institution was freshly imported into Scotland at the beginning of the twelfth century, it owed much, as a unit of human settlement, to the nucleated village familiar in Britain wherever Germanic settlers had established permanent agrarian communities; and it may have owed something, in purely physical terms, to at least the more simply planned among the trading towns (,Ports', 'boroughs') ofEngland and Flanders. The plans given here are .designed to show evolution of types of layout, from the pristine simplicity of Forres to the relative complexity of Glasgow or Berwick upon Tweed, and also the various ways in which burgh plans were adapted to physical problems of terrain or to changing historical circumstances. It will be noted that save at Perth (and to some extent at Berwick) Scots burghs were not enclosed by walls but relied on 'back dykes', often represented by modem roads and building plots, punctuated by gates ('ports') which marked the entry and exit points of principal highways. The peripheral yet associated placing of a castle, never itself it part of the burgh, is noteworthy, as is the siting-whether central as at Elgin, or peripheral as at Ayr -of the chief parish kirk. These plans are derived from a detailed analysis of the property and street boundaries shown on eighteenth century plans of Perth. These early cartographic sources have then been compared in great detail with the first 1:500 Ordnanc/s1vey plan of Perth in order to provide a standard accuracy oMa~urement. The careful identification of the largely man made boundaries within the town, has allowed the various phases in the towns growth to be identified. Earliest Early twelfth century Mid-twelfth century , I ___ : '- Late twelfth century Thirteenth century Settlement in Perth RMS 458

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