All Saints' Church, and the Saxon Town Defences

All Saints' church (which survives today) stands prominently on the shoulder of a natural slope that was once by the northern defences of the Anglo-Saxon town or burh (borough). Redundant long before 1250, the mounds and hollows representing all that remained of the earth rampart and defensive ditch may be seen here at the back of some of the Broad Street properties.

All Saints' church was founded in the late Saxon period next to a gate where the street called Birdport or Britport, predecessor of the modern Deansway, passed through the defences. Outside, in front of All Saints', was all Hallows Square. This probably originated as a cattle market during the Saxon period , when the livestock trade outgrew, and became too much of a nuisance for, the High Street (the original Saxon market).