Collapse of society ?

[Robert Vermaat]

I thought it may be worth drawing attention to this paper suggesting a vestige of Roman "civilisation" or at least administration may have survived in the Midlands. It may have been allowed to survive on the basis of it's value as a lead production area where skills and local knowledge need to be maintained to maintain the tax base. it's tantalising to think maybe a christian enclave survived through the Dark Ages;
http://www.wirksworthromanproject.co.uk/Lutudarum.pdf

Interesting article, but weak on some details. Also, I'm unconvinced that a town with the name Lutudarum means one can speak of a 'civitas of the Lutuderenses', even though I like the arguments.
One more jigsaw piece in an argument against a total collapse of Roman-British society straight into a mudbrick medieval remnant. Looking at Gaul and comparing the survival of many villas into villages, as well as Gallo-Roman society into a new merovingian culture, I've always wondered why Britannia was supposedly wiped out by far less Anglo-saxon invaders. In my opinion, much more of British society assimilated with the new groups, rather than being eradicated. But it's a see-saw discussion, I know.

Noticed this error: "a further place name “Cumberhills” (Hills of the foreigners – if you were a Saxon, the foreigners would be the British of Lutudarum)". The author makes a mistake here I think: 'Cumber' stems from early Welsh Cymr (as in W. Cymru or E. Cumbria), not from a word meaning 'foreigner'. He is thinking of 'wealh' (Welsh) which indeed means 'those on the other side of the border' (popularly interpreted as 'foreigner').