The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.Armitage, Ella Sophia
History
The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.
Armitage, Ella Sophia
Architecture, Norman; Castles -- Great Britain -- History -- To 1500; Normans -- Great Britain
Our list is very far from being a complete list of all the Anglo-Saxon
boroughs existing in Edward's day. In the document known as the
"Burghal Hidage" we have another quite different list of thirty-two
boroughs,[63] which, according to Professor Maitland, "sets forth
certain arrangements made early in the 10th century for the defence
of Wessex against the Danish inroads."[64] Five at least on the list
are Roman chesters; twenty are mentioned as boroughs in Domesday
Book. There are two among them which are of special interest, because
there is reason to believe that the earthen ramparts which still
surround them are of Saxon origin: Wallingford and Wareham. Both these
fortifications are after the Roman pattern, the earthen banks forming a
square with rounded corners.[65] See Fig. 3.
To complete our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon fortification, we ought
to examine the places mentioned in Anglo-Saxon charters as royal
seats, where possibly defensive works of some kind may have existed.
Unfortunately we are unable to learn that there are any such works,
except at one place, Bensington in Oxfordshire, where about a hundred
years ago "a bank and trench, which seem to have been of a square
form," were to be seen.[66]
[Illustration:FIG. 3. Wallingford, Berks. Wareham, Dorset.]
In the following chapter we shall deal in detail with such archæological
remains as still exist of the boroughs of Edward and Ethelfleda, but
here we will briefly summarise by anticipation the results to which
that chapter will lead. We see that sites defensible by nature were
often seized upon for fortification, as at Bamborough, Bridgenorth, and
Eddisbury; but that this was by no means always the case, as a weak
site, such as Witham, for example, was sometimes rendered defensible by
works which appear to have fulfilled their purpose. In only one case
(Witham) do we find an inner enclosure; and as it is of large size
(9-1/2 acres) it is more probable that the outer enclosure was for
cattle, than that the inner one was designed solely for the protection
of the king and his court. We are not told of stone walls more than
once (at Towcester); but the use of the word _timbrian_, which does
not exclusively mean to build in wood,[67] does not preclude walls of
stone in important places. In the square or oblong form, with rounded
corners, we see the influence which Roman models exercised on eyes
which still beheld them existing.
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