During the middle of the 13th century England contained some thirty or so towns of any scale which we would today find notable; these large towns containing populations ranging from around 2000 people to the (then) enormous population of London, which probably held around 30000 inhabitants in the 1260's.
(As European trade and wealth grew throughout Edward 1st's reign, in the latter half of the 13th century, some estimates suggest that London may have acquired a population exceeding 80000 people by 1300).
Surrounding the Marches were a few of the large towns: Chester (click for map) along with Bristol and Coventry (just off the map). Each of these towns had populations around about the ten thousand mark.
Within the Welsh Marches itself, the market-orientated (and necessarily strategic) towns of Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Hereford and Gloucester lay towards the lower edge of this range of large towns, with populations of perhaps 5000 people each. These were certainly small by today's standards, but they were easily big enough to support a distinctive mercantile class, relying on annual fairs and the regular daily flow of goods and services into and out of the town. While economically powerful, to put these "big town" settlements into perspective, only 3% of the total English population lived within them.
England contained a further 500 or so smaller towns serving the marketing needs of more localised communities. These towns had populations ranging from a few hundred to a couple of thousand people. Around the Welsh Marches; Worcester, Stafford and Evesham fell into this category, with perhaps 1000 to 2000 residents in each. Towns of this scale, spread across England, accounted for a further 10% of the total population.
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