' Tūn,' whilst sounding like 'town,' actually means 'village.' For many of us today, living in a town or city is just a normal part of our lives. For those who spoke Old English, however, living in a village would be far more common. The urban centres left behind by the Romans in 410 CE could continue to be inhabited but were mostly abandoned or declined considerably. It is only by c.700 that urban centres began to develop again, mostly in line with trade routes. London ( Lundenwic ), Southampton ( Hamwic ), and York ( Eoforwic ), for example, were all major ports for Mercia, Wessex, and Northumbria respectively. The layout of a village may have appeared quite random, a bit like the illustration below. Buildings were made out of wood or wattle-and-daub, with thatched roofs. Recent studies suggest that villages in early and middle Saxon periods were often shifting, moving about the landscape as their lives demanded. This means that particular regions can appear
Blogging Old English and Early Medieval Britain