History and Development of Morton - Some Questions Answered

Why no development south of the River?

A feature that has puzzled many is why there is virtually no development south of the river. The lack of bridges is a factor but a town on only one side of a river is normally that way because of borders - but the Durran has never served as a border in the region of Morton. Two factors come into play...
Firstly, in the earliest days of the settlement the river was a key part of the town's defences and to this day the town wall does not extend along the river bank. So one part of the lack of development is this historical detail, driven by occasional raids or incursions into the settled area around the town by the Taru. But this was a thousand years ago...
Secondly, Morivian culture has always called for a separation of the living and the dead. Because the town was concentrated on the north bank, the south bank was the obvious place for the burial grounds and even though the land closest to the river is seldom used for burials now there is no desire to develop it for any hole dug tends to turn up human remains and this is seen as an omen of bad luck. As a side note, this is why these areas are mostly turned over to hay making or pasture as no ploughing is required.

Why are the Walls like that?

From the outside, the walls of Morton look pretty typical of town walls but from the inside are clearly different. Atop the wall is a broad walkway inside which a bank slopes down to ground level and Wall Street. This arrangement takes considerably more space than the classic town wall of a few strides thickness but supply of stone for such a wall was a problem so from the very start of Morton's development earth or sand banks have been the mainstay of the defences with a stone facade seldom even a stride thick.
Many have remarked on the road layout and the number of gates - surely there must once have been meant to be more gates in the wall? In the years around 800 when the current walls were being erected there was an expectation that there would be at least two more gates and these are the points obvious in the road plan (most notably at the ends of Durran Road¹, The Droveway and Orrits Lane).
Wall Street provides a good route of communications, along with the radial main roads, and the slope ansures that any attacker gaining the top of the wall can be shot at from a wide range of directions. For this reason the slope is kept clear, though it has been dug into at various points for ovens and kilns to reduce the risk of fire.

Can you tell me BRIEFLY how the town grew?

Briefly? You know me too well I fear. The town was founded as a fortified settlement originally defined by the banks of the Durran and the Storrow and a pallisade (later developed into a wall) along the line of Wal Street. The town rapidly outgrew it's boundaries and several areas grew up around the walls only to be destroyed at the end of Duke Carron's rule (see The Legend of Carron's Daughter ). In the following years the town continued to grow and by the time of the Treaty of Durranmouth in 107MD the second wall was complete - this following the line of the imaginatively named Newall Street.
The third wall was built early in the 6th century as the town expanded following the incorporation of the Houghlands into the duchy. This folowed Taw Street and Cross Street before running through the middle of the Duke's current palace grounds to meet the Storrow. The current wall was built at the end of the Covrin Wars which though they hadn't damaged the town had caused enough of a worry to the Duke and the Town.
Since then there has been no further extramural growth, but the development of Outer Morton has accommodated the ongoing expansion of the town.

1 As a general rule, "roads" are or originally were the routes to places, "streets" the thoroughfares around town and "lanes" the routes that predated the area falling within the town's walls. Urban backstreets are typically ways (wider - room for a cart but no passing places), snicks (narrower - room for two people to pass easily, or two pack animals if not overly broad in their load) or alleys (narrowest - a man, or a small pack animal). As times change though a route may become mre or less significant so these terms do not always match what you wil find on the ground.