Southampton

Southampton was founded around the year 700. It's known by two names simultaneously - Hamwic and Hamtun. Tun implies that the town was a royal vill and administration centre,while wic implies that the town was a trading settlement.

Hamwic was based on a rectilinear street grid covering an area of approximately 40 hectares. It was a centre for regional craft production as well as trade.

Southampton was of sufficient importance that it was from this settlement that the name of Hampshire is derived, and not Winchester. It is possible that the two centres were of equal administrative importance with Hamwic covering the south of the region and Winchester the north. The earliest written reference to a shire is in a document dated 757 which mentions Hampshire.

In 840 the Vikings raided and fought over Hamwic.

Southampton is known to have had a mint in the year 1017.