Medieval

The remainder of the population, some 87% - nearly 3.5 million people in 1260 - lived in smaller communities still. (Just a handful of these are shown on the map). These small hamlets would have clustered around the religious houses, manors (such as that at Acton Burnell) and mottes of the region, with populations numbering from a few tens to a few hundreds or so. These settlements typified the extra-urban population.

Drawing on settlement patterns, a reasonable estimate for the population density of the Welsh Marches would suggest a figure of around 20 people per square mile (50 per square kilometre) in 1260. This suggests that Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire each contained extra-urban populations of about 20000 per county.

The ratio of these rural to urban dwellers is lower for the Marches than for the totals inferred for the country as a whole. This is, however, probably a good reflection of the instability of this frontier, further supported by the protection provided by the larger walled towns within the region.