Early churches and waterborne trade

Some of the earliest churches in England are often at the limits of navigation of minor rivers, less often at the confluences with major rivers, while often located in the loops of watercourses and almost always near fords or other places connecting land and water transport.
Seemingly these early churches were as much about trade as piety. They certainly created lucrative “tax breaks” and were the precursors to most of our market towns. And even later market towns usually take their name from a term originally denoting early churches.
In this video I look at some of the evidence for waterborne transport along the south coast and right into the middle of land-locked counties such as Leicestershire and Wiltshire.
Most sources and bibliographical details are here (along with a great many more examples of early mynsters in loops, then-limits of navigation, at fords, etc):
Bob Trubshaw, “Minsters and Valleys: A topographical comparison of seventh and eighth century land use in Leicestershire, Rutland and Wiltshire” (Heart of Albion 2015); www.hoap.co.uk/...
Except the map of East Anglia early mynsters which is from:
Austin Mason and Tom Williamson, ‘Ritual Landscapes in Pagan and Early Christian England’, “Fragments” Volume 6, 2017; hdl.handle.net/...