The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles. — John Shaqi
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
WITHAM (Fig. 4).--There are some remains of a _burh_ here which are
very remarkable, as they show an inner enclosure within the outer one.
They have been carefully surveyed by Mr F. C. J. Spurrell, who has
published a plan of them.[93] Each enclosure formed roughly a square
with much-rounded corners. The ditch round the outer work was 30 feet
wide; the inner work was not ditched. The area enclosed by the outer
bank was 26-1/4 acres, an enclosure much too large for a castle; the
area of the inner enclosure was 9-1/2 acres. As far as is at present
known, Witham is the only instance we have of an Anglo-Saxon earthwork
which has a double enclosure.[94] Witham is not mentioned as a borough
in Domesday Book, but the fact that it had a mint in the days of
Hardicanute shows that it maintained its borough rights for more than
a hundred years. The name Chipping Hill points to a market within the
borough.
BUCKINGHAM is another case where a _burh_ was built on both sides of
the river, and as at Hertford, there was only one motte, site of the
castle of the Norman Giffards, now almost obliterated. The river Ouse
here makes a long narrow loop to the south-west, within which stands
the town, and, without doubt, this would be the site of Edward's
borough. No trace is left of the second borough on the other side of
the river. Buckingham is one of the boroughs of Domesday.
BEDFORD has had a motte and a Norman castle on the north side of
the Ouse; but this was not the site of Edward's borough, which the
_Chronicle_ tells us was placed on the south side of that river. On the
south side an ancient ditch, 10 or 12 feet broad, with some traces of
an inner rampart, semicircular in plan, but with a square extension,
is still visible, and fills with water at flood times.[95] This is
very likely to be the ditch of Edward's borough. Both at Bedford and
Buckingham the _Chronicle_ states that Edward spent four weeks in
building the _burh_. Mediæval numbers must never be taken as precise;
but the disproportion between four weeks and eight days, the space
often given for the building of an early Norman castle, corresponds
very well to the difference between the time needed to throw up the
bank and stockade of a town, and that needed for the building of an
earthen and wooden castle.
MALDON.--Only one angle of the earthen bank of Edward's borough remains
now, but Gough states that it was an oblong camp enclosing about 22
acres.[96] It had rounded corners and a very wide ditch, with a bank on
both scarp and counterscarp. Maldon was a borough at Domesday;[97] the
king had a hall there, but there was never any castle, nor is there any
trace of a motte.
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