Historic Wigtown : archaeology and development / R D Oram, P F Martin, C A McKean, S Anderson.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Oram, Richard D., author.

Martin, Paula, author.

McKean, Charles, author.

Anderson, Sue, 1964- author.

Contributor:

Council for British Archaeology.

Historic Scotland

University of Stirling

Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland). Council

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Series:

Scottish Burgh Survey (Series)

Scottish Burgh Survey

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Archaeology and history--Scotland--Wigtown.

Archaeology and history.

Wigtown (Scotland)--Antiquities.

Wigtown (Scotland).

Wigtown (Scotland)--History.

Scotland--Wigtown.

Physical Description:

xv, 136 pages : illustrations (colour), maps ( some colour) ; 25 cm + 1 broadsheet.

Place of Publication:

London : The Council for British Archaeology and Historic Scotland, 2014.

Summary:

This survey gives an accessible and broad-ranging synthesis of the history and archaeology of Wigtown, and aims to inform conservation guidance for future development. Situated in what now seems a remote corner of south-west Scotland, Wigtown was once an important county town. With its harbour and location at the lowest fording point of the River Cree, Wigtown was at one time part of a major network of land and sea routes, including a pilgrim route to Whithorn. The layout of the town is notable for its large market square, a reflection of its importance in the cattle trade in the medieval period. The town achieved burgh status in the thirteenth century, by which time it was an important trading centre, and the present arrangement of streets and burgage plots dates to this time. Today the principal access route is from the north, rather than through the East and West Ports which controlled access to the great market place. The burgh arms depict a three-masted sailing ship, demonstrating the importance placed on its maritime trade. This book examines both the town's political history, as it passed between the earldoms of Wigtown and Douglas, and its economic history, as it competed with Whithorn, before its eventual decline in the later nineteenth century. The authors use the surviving buildings to examine the development of the town from the medieval to the modern period. This book is part of the Scottish Burgh Survey -a series funded by Historic Scotland designed to identify the archaeological potential of Scotland's historic towns. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Character statement and executive summary 1

Timeline 5

2 Site and setting 7

Building materials and details 9

The name of the town 10

Note on the burgh arms 11

3 Archaeology and history 13

Prehistory 13

Roman 13

Early historic and medieval archaeology 14

Medieval history 18

Establishment of the burgh 18

The castle 20

The Fleming Earldom of Wigtown, 1341-72 21

The Douglas Earldom, 1372-1455 24

The late fifteenth-century burgh 26

Religious life 29

The burgh's trade c 1400-c 1600 33

The dispute with Whithorn 35

The sixteenth-century burgh 36

The seventeenth-century burgh 37

Seventeenth-century trade 41

Physical decline? 44

Resource management in an age of crisis 47

The long eighteenth century 48

c 1820-1914 60

1914 to the present 76

4 The potential of Wigtown 95

Character analysis 100

The East End 100

North Main Street 102

South Main Street 103

West and South 106

North of the centre 108

Bladnoch 109

Twentieth-century change 109

Conservation: the Township Heritage Initiative 110

Issues for the future 111.

Notes:

Broadsheet with map and illustrations, in pocket attached to inside back cover.

"University of Stirling, Dumfries & Galloway Council."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 121-126) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781909990005

1909990000

OCLC:

879386733

Publisher Number:

99958279454