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IHTA Town Type Series: Anglo-Norman Towns

13 May 2020

In the third IHTA town type essay, Michael Potterton, Irish Historic Towns Atlas editor and Maynooth University lecturer, focuses on the buildling boom of Irish towns from the twelth to fourteenth centuries. 

For some more Lockdown Reading over the coming weeks we are revisiting the expert essays that were published along side the launch of each of the IHTA Online town types:

Monastic Towns – Anngret Simms Eary Modern, Gaelic and Plantation Towns – Raymond Gillespie
Viking Towns – Howard Clarke Towns in the Eighteenth Century – Colm Lennon
Anglo-Norman Towns – Michael Potterton Towns in Nineteenth-Century –  Jacinta Prunty


'Kragfargus towne', c. 1560. BL, Cotton MS Augustus I, ii, 42. It appears as Map 4 in IHTA no. 2 Carrickferfgus by Philip Robinson (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1986). The third in the series is by Michael Potterton who highlights the vast expansion of exisiting monastic and Viking urban centres as well as creation of new towns on green field sites in Ireland. 

To go directly to the IHTA towns of nos. 2 Carrickgergus, by Philip Robinson; 5 Mullingar, by J.H. Andrews with Mary Davies; 6 Athlone, by Harman Murtagh; 10 Kilkenny, by John Bradely; 13 Fethard, by Tadhg O'Keeffe;  14 Trim, by Mark Hennessy; 23 Carlingford, by Harold O'Sullivan and Raymond Gillespie, 24 Sligo, by Fióna Gallagher and Marie-Louise Legg and 27 Youghal by David Kelly and Tadhg O'Keeffe click here. 

Further reading

For more on the Anglo-Norman town in Ireland, see the chapter in Reading the maps by Howard Clarke and Jacinta Prunty for download here. There are some useful questions at the end of the chapter to test your Anglo-Norman town knowledge. 

To read the previous essay by Howard Clarke on the Vikng Town cick here. 

To read the next essay by Raymond Gillespie on the Early Modern, Gaelic and Plantation town click here. 

Cover image: Reconstruction of Trim Caslte, c. 1200 and c. 1300, by Uto Hogerzeil that appear in the Topographical Information section of IHTA no. 14, Trim by Mark Hennessy.

 

Irish Historic Towns Atlas

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