St George's Church dates almost entirely in its present form to the 1854-8 rebuilding of an earlier medieval structure by Sir George Gilbert Scott which burnt down in 1853 (Pevsner 1967,181). Map evidence points to the present structure having been constructed on or closely following the footprint of the medieval building although comparison of the modern building and the older structure as depicted on an engraving of the ruins of its predecessor (in SMR file 457) shows that the present building was built substantially taller. The site has been a very significant focus for activity in the settlement since at least the 1st century AD with the construction of a Roman fort c.AD 71 which was rebuilt at least 4 times during the Roman occupation with a marked change in the character of deposits around c.350 associated with the development 'black silts containing pottery and bone' and the cessation of road maintenance and grid planning (Magilton 1977, 34). The close correlation of the Roman fort to later developments of the town plan demonstrates considerable and continuous visibility of this area as a coherent landscape feature between the Roman occupation and the Norman conquest. Excavations during the early 1970s in advance of the construction of Church Way demonstrated a sequence of two phases of defensive ditches, roughly concentric with the walls of the Roman fort dating to the post Roman - pre Conquest period and conventionally referred to as a 'Burh' although, as cautioned by Buckland, Magilton and Hayfield, "the implications of this term remain uncertain" (1986, 72) as very little evidence exists to inform a detailed interpretation of the activities that took place within and around this enclosed area. The next period of fortification involved the construction of a ring work 'castle' in the Norman period - of which the precursor of the present church is thought to have originated as a castle chapel. Only the crypt of the earlier church is thought to survive although parts of the north and western boundary of this site may relate to the approximate course of the 4th century walled fort. Medieval buildings have encroached on most of the burgh defences. Fragmentary legibility of earlier phases only.