Sleaford, United Kingdom

During the Roman occupation of Britain (AD 43–409), the settlement was "extensive and of considerable importance". It may have been an economic and administrative centre for stewards and owners of fenland estates. There are signs of a road connecting Old Sleaford to Heckington, where Roman tile kilns have been uncovered and may imply the presence of a market. When the first roads were built by the Romans, Sleaford was bypassed as "less conveniently located" and more "geared to native needs". A smaller road, Mareham Lane, which the Romans renewed, ran through Old Sleaford, and south along the fen edge towards Bourne. Where it passed through Old Sleaford, excavations have shown a large Roman domestic residence, associated farm buildings and field systems, and several burials. Other Roman remains, including a burial, have been excavated.

There is little evidence of continuous settlement between the late Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods but the Saxons did establish themselves eventually. South of the modern town, a 6th- to 7th-century cemetery has been uncovered with an estimated 600 burials, many showing signs of pagan rites. The now-ruined church at Old Sleaford has been discovered and excavations of the market place have uncovered Anglo-Saxon remains from the 8th–9th centuries, indicating some form of enclosure with domestic features.

The earliest documentary reference to Sleaford occurs in a 9th-century charter, when it was owned by Medehamstede Abbey in Peterborough, a Mercian royal foundation. There is little evidence of estate structure until the late Saxon period, but there may have been a market and court before the Norman Conquest, and it may have been an economic and jurisdictional centre for surrounding settlements. The Slea played a big part in the town's economy: it never ran dry or froze, and by the 11th century it supported a dozen watermills. The mills and others in nearby Quarrington and the lost hamlet of Millsthorpe formed the "most important mill cluster in Lincolnshire".

In the later Middle Ages, the Romano-British settlement became known as Old Sleaford, while New Sleaford was a settlement centred on St Denys' Church and the market place. The Domesday Book of 1086 has two entries under Eslaforde (Sleaford) recording land held by Ramsey Abbey and the Bishop of Lincoln. The location of these manors is unclear. One theory endorsed by Maurice Beresford is that they focused on the settlement at Old Sleaford, due to evidence that New Sleaford was planted in the 12th century by the bishop to increase his income, a development associated with the construction of Sleaford Castle (1123–39). Beresford's theory has been criticised by the historians Christine Mahany and David Roffe who have reinterpreted the Domesday material and argued that in 1086 the Bishop's manor included the church and associated settlement which became "New" Sleaford.

A charter to hold a fair on the feast day of St Denis was granted by King Stephen to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, in 1136–1140. Between 1154 and 1165, Henry II granted the bishop of Lincoln the right to hold a market at Sleaford and Edward III confirmed this in 1329. The town later had at least two guilds comparable to those found in developed towns. However, there was no formal charter outlining the town's freedoms; tight control by the bishops meant the economy was mainly geared to serve them. It thus retained a strong tradition of demesne farming well into the 14th century. A survey of burgage tenure from 1258 survives, analysis of which indicates that demesne farming centred on the hamlet of Holdingham. As the economic initiative passed more to burgesses and middlemen who formed ties with nearby towns such as Boston, evidence suggests that Sleaford developed a locally important role in the wool trade. In the Lay Subsidy of 1334, New Sleaford was the wealthiest settlement in the Flaxwell wapentake, with a value of £16 0s. 81/4d. Meanwhile, Old Sleaford, an "insignificant" place since the end of the Roman period, declined and may have been deserted by the 16th century.