A map of places named in the Burghal Hidage Eorpeburnan is the first place identified in the Burghal Hidage, a document created in the late 9th or early 10th century, that provides a list of thirty three fortified places mainly in Wessex. It details the location of fortifications designed to defend the West Saxon kingdom from the Vikings but also the relative size of burghal defences and their garrisons. Eorpeburnan is designated as having a hidage of 324, its precise location is lost in history, but scholars have suggested some possible sites.Hill. A gazetteer of Burghal Hidage sites in Hill/ Rumble The Defence of Wessex: The Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon fortifications.
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Hill/ Rumble. Defence of Wessex: The Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon Fortifications. p. 1Hill. The Burghal Hidage, the establishment of a text in Medieval archaeology vol XIII 1969. pp. 84-92 There have been some problems with the Nowell transcription.
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Jawbat Burghal () is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Latakia Governorate, located east of Latakia in an-Nusayriyah Mountains. Nearby localities include Qardaha, al-Fakhurah, Istamo and Shatha. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Jawbat Burghal had a population of 959 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004 .
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Cookham may derive its name from a river port here named "Cwch-ium", which in the Celtic language means "Boat-Place". In Saxon times, Sashes Island was the site of a burh built under Alfred the Great as a defence against the Danes. It was listed in the 914 AD Burghal Hidage. The Burghal Hidage reports that the defences of "Sceaftessige" were 4,125ft long.
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A map of places named in the Burghal Hidage The Burghal Hidage () is an Anglo- Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (burhs), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes (recorded as numbers of hides) assigned for their maintenance.Hill/ Rumble. The Defence of Wessex. p. 5 The document, so named by Frederic William Maitland in 1897, survives in two versions of medieval and early modern date.Maitland.
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Certainly it would be reasonable to assume that when King Alexander II granted royal burghal status in 1222 to 'his new town beside his castle at Dumbarton', there was already a well-established church.
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After his victory over them at the Battle of Edington (878) he set about building a system of fortified towns or forts, known as burhs. He also updated the traditional fyrd to provide a standing army and navy. To fund all of these changes Alfred required a new system of tax and conscription that is contained in a document, now known as the Burghal Hidage. The Burghal Hidage contains a list of over thirty fortified places and the taxes, recorded as numbers of hides, assigned for their maintenance.
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502 – 503 The network of burhs, listed in the Burghal Hidage, was part of Alfred the Great's response to a series of raids and invasions by the Vikings.Stenton, F. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
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The Anglo- Saxon Chronicle records that in the year 892 a 'great host of the Danes came up into the estuary of the Limen (now the River Rother), with two hundred and fifty ships' it further describes how they stormed a half finished fortress.ASC 892 It is possible that the fort described by the chronicle is Castle Toll, Newenden in Kent.Davison. The Burghal hidage fort of Eorpeburnan in Medieval Archaeology, Vol. XVI. pp.81-86 However, some historians have argued against Castle Toll being Eorpeburnan as the Burghal hidage does not provide for the defence of Kent.Kitchen.
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Other burhs of the Burghal Hidage were also strengthened with stone walls, which suggests this was part of a systematic upgrade of the defensive provisions for Wessex, ordered at the time by the king. The third phase is marked by systematic razing of the stone wall, which was pulled down over the inner berm (the space between the wall and the inner ditch). Stones from it were used to fill the inner two ditches, which shows that the process was deliberate. A similar phase can be seen in the archaeological record at Christchurch, Dorset, another burh of the Burghal Hidage.
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A map of burhs named in the Burghal Hidage The walled defence round a burh. Alfred's capital, Winchester. Saxon and medieval work on Roman foundations. At the centre of Alfred's reformed military defence system was a network of burhs, distributed at strategic points throughout the kingdom.
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Fortifications in Wessex c. 800–1066. p. 26 Based on figures from the Burghal Hidage, it is probable that a fifth of the adult male population of Wessex (27,000 men) would have been mobilised.Hooper and Bennett. The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768–1487. pp.
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It is possible that the rape of Chichester may have existed before the Norman conquest. The rapes in general pre-date the Norman conquest and many rapes are based on King Alfred's fortifications in the Burghal Hidage. As Chichester was also a fortification in the Burghal Hidage, it is quite possible that it existed as a separate administrative unit in the Saxon era and was merged with neighbouring Arundel rape by William the Conqueror and given to Earl Roger of Montgomery. William might of course have created five rapes only, one of which, out of all proportion to the others in size, was afterwards divided, but for this there is no evidence.
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In Edinburgh, the pretorium and belhous appear to have much the same meaning, being the burghal offices. The land granted by the Royal charter was located just a few feet from the north-west corner of St Giles' Cathedral. The construction of the Tolbooth substantially reduced the width of the street at this point.
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It was under Alfred that the Viking threat was contained. However, the system of military reforms and the Burghal Hidage introduced by Edward the Elder enabled Alfred's successors to retake control of the lands occupied in the North of England by the Danes.Horspool, Why Alfred Burnt the Cakes, pp. 104-110ASC 896, ASC 897.
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The amount of taxation required to maintain each town was laid down in a document known as the Burghal Hidage. Each lord had his individual holding of land assessed in hides. Based on his land holding, he had to contribute men and arms to maintain and defend the burhs. Non- compliance with this requirement could lead to severe penalties.
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Starkey, Monarchy, p. 63 He built a navy, reorganised the army, and set up a system of fortified towns known as burhs. He mainly used old Roman cities for his burhs, as he was able to rebuild and reinforce their existing fortifications. To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation system known as the Burghal Hidage.
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Horspool, Alfred, p. 102. A hide was somewhat like a tax – it was the number of men required to maintain and defend an area for the King. The Burghal Hideage defined the measurement as one hide being equivalent to one man. The hidage explains that for the maintenance and defence of an acre's breadth of wall, sixteen hides are required.
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London: Penguin; pp. 61, 175–176, 193–194; cf. ibid, p. 89. Apart from the reference to Egbert's grant at Pawton there is no indication that English rule extended deep into Cornwall at this stage and the absence of any burhs west of Lydford in the Burghal Hidage may suggest limitations on the authority of the Kingdom of Wessex in parts of Cornwall.
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The 'Burghal Hidage' lists boroughs in geographical order. Burpham was the predecessor of Arundel and Eorpeburnan or Heorpeburnan should be the predecessor of Rye. Pevensey and Steyning were not included. It looks as if the lands of Steyning served Lewes and those of Pevensey served Hastings, while the eastern portion of the later Hastings rape was attached to the Rye area.
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The mediaeval roots of the Convention lay in the 13th-century Court of the Four Burghs which comprised delegates from Berwick, Edinburgh, Roxburgh and Stirling. (In 1369 Lanark and Linlithgow replaced Berwick and Roxburgh after these came under English occupation.)Donaldson and Morpeth 1992 Donaldson 1980 Representatives of these burghs met in advance of parliamentary sittings and communicated with the sovereign through the Court or through the Chamberlain who presided over its meetings in his function as the Crown’s chief fiscal officer. The Court, described in a charter from the reign of James II (1430-60) as the Parliament of the Four Burghs, determined burghal law (leges burgorum), settled inter-burghal disputes and heard appeals from burgh courts.Dickinson 1961 The earliest record of its deliberations dates from 1292 when "the four burghs" were asked to interpret the law on a question of debt.
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The town of Rye has also been suggested as the site of Eorpeburnan. Rye is in Sussex and the hidage makes provision for the defence of Sussex. The second location listed in the Burghal Hidage is westwards of Rye at Hastings. However, there is no firm evidence of Anglo-Saxon occupation in the Rye area, if any Saxon work existed, no trace remains now.
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There was originally an iron hill fort in prehistory on the hill north of Hereford. One of the earliest settlements in the shire it stood on a Roman road from Kenchester; it was probably recognised by Alfred the Great's 'burghal hidage'. Burghill was called Burgelle in the Domesday Book, and in Pipe Rolls, 1169, Burchil. By 1212 the Red Book of Exchequer used the name Burghulle.
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The concept of a network of burhs as a defence in depth is usually attributed to Alfred. This network is described in a manuscript document which has survived in later iterations, named by scholars the Burghal Hidage, which lists thirty three burhs in Wessex and English Mercia. Most of these survived into the post Norman Conquest era and are the core of later Parliamentary Boroughs and municipal corporations.
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Bath was technically in Mercia at the time [but] defended the South and South Western part of Hwicce. The view that the Burghal Hidage is of early 10th century date is based on the inclusion of Buckingham and Oxford, two settlements that were sited in Mercia not Wessex, and according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Buckingham was created as a burh by Edward the Elder in 918.Tait.
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The fact that the construction of a burh at Buckingham by Alfred can be logically placed within this strategic scheme at this period (878-9), removes the necessity of having to place the creation of the original version of the Burghal Hidage after the first documentary mention of Buckingham in 914. Its composition can therefore be most appropriately placed in a West Saxon context, rather than one which relates to the formation of burhs and shires in Mercia in the early 10th century – to which situation it has no relevance. In Wessex a number of the burhs which were part of the system recorded in the Burghal Hidage, and which were merely fortresses rather than fortified towns, were in many cases replaced at a later date by larger fortresses which were fortified towns. The received view of the date of this process is that this took place in the 920s or 930s during the reign of King Athelstan.
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Stenton p.295. See also Cyril Hart: The Tribal Hidage in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th series Vol.21 (1971) The Burghal Hidage (early 10th century) is a list of boroughs giving the hide assessments of neighbouring districts which were liable to contribute to the defence of the borough, each contributing to the maintenance and manning of the fortifications in proportion to the number of hides for which they answered.Stenton p.265.
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Map of the constituency in Glasgow electoral region, 1950 boundary 1918–1949: "The burgh of Rutherglen and the parts of the Lower Ward and Middle Ward County Districts which are contained within the parishes of Carmunnock, Cambuslang, and Blantyre, and the extra-burghal portion of the parish of Rutherglen." 1950–1970: The Large Burgh of Rutherglen, and the eighth district. 1970–1983: The Large Burgh of Rutherglen, and part of the eighth and ninth districts.
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Baker, Dalwood, Holt, Mundy and Taylor, p.73; Creighton and Higham, p.60. Archaeological evidence suggests that the burh had 4,650 feet (1,417 m) of walls in total; documentary evidence from the Burghal Hidage document, written shortly after the creation of the walls, suggests they were 4,960 feet (1,512 m) long, a discrepancy that may be accounted for by changes in the course of the river since the 10th century.Hill and Rumble, pp.96–97.
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Eorpeburnan is the first of thirty three fortified places (burhsLavelle. Fortifications in Wessex. p. 4 - Burh does not mean fortified town per se. Anglo Saxons used the word to denote any place within a boundary which could include private fortifications or simply a place with a hedge or fence round it.) in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, that is listed on a document that has come to be known as the Burghal Hidage.
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His remains had been hastily buried there and were later taken from Wareham to Shaftesbury Abbey in north Dorset (and now lie in Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey). By the end of the Saxon period, Wareham had become one of the most important towns in the county, to the extent that it housed two mints for the issue of Royal money. The Burghal Hidage lists the town as 1,600 hides, the third largest in the realm.
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Al-Murshid was encouraged by the French mandate authorities to establish a new sect, and made Jawbat Burghal his base where he became a proponent of Alawite independence. He acquired livestock from his followers and built a western villa in the town. After Syria's independence, however, the central Syrian government in Damascus cracked down on separatist movements including Murshid's. He surrendered to the authorities after a short confrontation with Syrian Army units at his headquarters.
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The castle is damaged totally and is being restored now. The outer walls are surrounding the bulk massive of the castle; there are cisterns, underground rooms and remnants of premises in the middle, plus are visible some arches and towers. The only attaching section to the surrounding land is through southern piece of connecting lane, where the road goes. The castle is reached through paved road via Qardaha from west and Jawbat Burghal from east.
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A map of burhs named in the 10th-century Burghal Hidage. A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constructions; others were situated at the site of Iron Age hillforts or Roman forts and employed materials from the original fortifications.
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A burg in the Beowulf In the Middle Ages, boroughs were settlements in England that were granted some self-government; burghs were the Scottish equivalent. In medieval England, boroughs were also entitled to elect members of parliament. The use of the word borough probably derives from the burghal system of Alfred the Great. Alfred set up a system of defensive strong points (Burhs); in order to maintain these particular settlements, he granted them a degree of autonomy.
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Langport is on the ancient way from Glastonbury to Taunton. Langport could have been important during the Roman occupation as there were several villas in the vicinity. It was one of the forts listed in the Burghal Hidage indicating its strategic position for King Alfred, as well as being close to the royal centre of Somerton. In 1086, according to Domesday Book, it had 34 resident burgesses and was worth the then large sum of £79 10s 7d.
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Bridport's origins are Saxon. During the reign of King Alfred it became one of the four most important settlements in Dorset – the other three being Dorchester, Shaftesbury and Wareham – with the construction of fortifications and establishment of a mint.Bettey, p29 Bridport's name probably derives from another location nearby. In the early 10th century the Burghal Hidage recorded the existence of a fortified centre or burh in this area, called 'Brydian', which is generally accepted as referring to Bridport.
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127–129 To maintain the burhs, as well as the standing army, Alfred set up a system of taxation and conscription that is recorded in a document now known as the Burghal Hidage.Horspool. Why Alfred Burnt the Cakes, p. 102 The burhs were connected with a network of military roads, known as herepaths, enabling Alfred's troops to move swiftly to engage the enemy. Some historians believe that each burh would have had a mounted force ready for action against the Vikings.Lavelle.
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The surrounding area has yielded Iron Age and Neolithic remains including the bones of an elephant near Peppering Farm. The village is next to the site of a Saxon Burh (an Old English term for "fortification") with earthworks to protect against Viking attack up the River Arun. It is one of a series of burhs ordered by Alfred the Great or his successor, Edward the Elder in about AD 900 and listed in the Burghal Hidage. Burpham's toponym is derived from burh.
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Some were based upon pre-existing Roman structures, some newly built, though others may have been built at a later date. Æthelstan granted these burhs the right to mint coinage and in the tenth and eleventh centuries the firm rule was that no coin was to be struck outside a burh.Loyn 1991:137f. A tenth-century document, now known as the Burghal Hidage and so named by Frederic William Maitland in 1897, cites thirty burhs in Wessex and three in Mercia.
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The Defence of Wessex. p. 14 There are several discrepancies in the lists recorded in the two versions of the document: Version A includes references to Burpham, Wareham and Bridport but omits Shaftesbury and Barnstaple which are listed in Version B. Version B also names Worcester and Warwick in an appended list. The Burghal Hidage offers a detailed picture of the network of burhs that Alfred the Great designed to defend his kingdom from the predations of Viking invaders.Stenton, F. (1971).
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In the same year, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that London was "refounded" by Alfred. Archaeological research shows that this involved abandonment of Lundenwic and a revival of life and trade within the old Roman walls. This was part Alfred's policy of building an in-depth defence of the Kingdom of Wessex against the Vikings as well as creating an offensive strategy against the Vikings who controlled Mercia. The Burghal Hidage of Southwark was also created on the southbank of the River Thames during this time.
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However, he left a still greater legacy to the city of Glasgow. At some point between the years 1175 and 1178, Jocelin obtained from King William a grant of burghal status for the settlement of Glasgow, with a market every Thursday. The grant of a market was the first ever official grant of a weekly market to a burgh. Moreover, between 1189 and 1195, King William granted the burgh an annual fair, a fair still in existence today, increasing Glasgow's status as an important settlement.
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The purpose was primarily to provide defence for a port or town, and the surrounding farms, villages and hamlets. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred constructed a series of burhs, listed in the Burghal Hidage numbering over 30. Apparently, it was Alfred's intention that no English farm or village be any more than away from a burh. He built a network of well maintained army roads, known as herepaths, that interconnected the burhs, allowing the population quick access to shelter (in their local burh).
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It is possible that the Burghal Hideage was created as a blue-print for the way that burhs were connected with hidation, originally worked out in Wessex, and applied to the situation in Mercia at that time. This received view has now been challenged from two directions – from the perspectives of the strategies involved,Haslam. King Alfred and the Vikings: strategies and tactics, 876-886AD, in Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 13. pp. 121-153. and a new interpretation of the coinage of King Alfred.
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This interpretation is supported by the issue at this time of the special celebratory London Monogram coinage from the London mint, now under the control of Alfred, and by the issue at the same time of coins from Oxford and Gloucester in southern Mercia.M Blackburn, "The London Mint in the Reign of Alfred", in M.A.S. Blackburn and D N Dumville (eds.) Kings, Currency and Alliances: History and Coinage in Southern England in the Ninth Century (1998) pp. 105-23. The fact that the Burghal Hidage does not include London, only taken in late 879; that many of the burhs recorded in the document were of a temporary nature and were only replaced by more permanent fortified sites later on; and that its organisation reflects a strategic offensive against the Viking presence in Mercia and London, are factors which argue strongly that the Burghal Hidage is a prescriptive list describing a system which was in process of being planned and implemented before late 879. It is therefore likely to have originated in a context in which the logistics of the system and the means for its implementation and support were being worked out in practice on the ground.
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See also David Hill & A.R.Rumble (edd): The Defence of Wessex - The Burghal Hidage (1996) The County Hidage (early 11th century) lists the total number of hides to be assessed on each county and it seems that by this time at least the total number of hides in a given area was imposed from above. Each county was assigned a round number of hides, for which it would be required to answer. For instance, at an early date in the 11th century, Northamptonshire was assigned 3,200 hides, while Staffordshire was assigned only 500.Stenton, p. 646.
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The name Suthriganaweorc or Suthringa geweorche is recorded for the area in the 10th-century Anglo-Saxon document known as the Burghal Hidage and means "fort of the men of Surrey" or "the defensive work of the men of Surrey". Southwark is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Sudweca. The name means "southern defensive work" and is formed from the Old English sūþ (south) and weorc (work). The southern location is in reference to the City of London to the north, Southwark being at the southern end of London Bridge.
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As well as new revenues for the bishop, the rights entailed by Glasgow's new burghal status and market privileges brought new people to the settlement, one of the first of whom was one Ranulf de Haddington, a former burghess of Haddington. The new settlement was laid out (probably under the influence of the burgh of Haddington) around Glasgow Cross, down the hill from the cathedral and old fort of Glasgow, but above the flood level of the River Clyde.For the information in this paragraph, see Ibid., pp. 11-12.
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The Strathmartine Castle Stone, a type I Pictish stone The early medieval history of the town relies heavily on tradition. In Pictish times, the part of Dundee that was later expanded into the Burghal town in the twelfth/13th centuries was a minor settlement in the kingdom of Circinn, later known as Angus.Barrow (1990); Chadwick (1949) An area roughly equivalent to the current urban area of Dundee is likely to have formed a demesne, centred on Dundee castle.Barrow (1990) Boece records the ancient name of the settlement as Alectum.
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The tower was rebuilt and extended by Isabel Ker of Cessford and renamed Castle Holydean. The castle became the home of the Ker family, later the Dukes of Roxburghe, who lived there for two centuries before the castle was finally destroyed in 1760 by the 3rd Duke, John Ker. The Roxburghes moved to their new home, Floors Castle, in the early 18th century. In 1531, Bowden village was granted the right to hold a market, the first non-burghal market in Scotland, and a market cross which still stands today was erected - such was the importance of the village in mediaeval times.
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St Mary the Virgin church Ladywell in Pilton Pilton was originally separate from Barnstaple. Situated on an easily defended hill at the head of the Taw estuary and close to where the river narrows enough to be fordable, Pilton was an important Saxon settlement. Alfred the Great (871–899) had a fortified town, or burh, built at Pilton. According to the Burghal Hidage, an early 10th Century document setting out the details of all burhs then functioning, Pilton's wall was 1485 feet long and the nominated garrison consisted of 360 men drawn from the surrounding district in the event of an invasion.
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In the Burghal Hidage of 919, nearby Watchet is attributed 513 hides, which converts to a defensive perimeter of 645 m. It is not clear whether this refers to the walls of the town, or of Daw's Castle high on the cliff above. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a Viking raid on Watchet in 914, but they were defeated with great slaughter ... so that few of them came away, except those only who swam out to the ships.Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 902-24 AD There was a plundering raid in 987, and another in 997, with much evil wrought in burning and manslaughter.
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Hoskins, p.104 According to the Burghal Hidage (an early 10th Century document describing all burhs then functioning), Halwell's town wall was 1,237 feet long and the garrison consisted of 300 men who could be drawn from the surrounding district in the event of an invasion. However by the close of the 11th centuryHoskins, p.104 "within a century" of the 10th century its status as a burh had been transferred to Totnes, 5 miles to the north and situated on the River Dart, probably because it was better placed for trade at a time when the Viking threat had diminished, after which the significance of Halwell greatly decreased.
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South London began at Southwark at the southern end of London Bridge, the first permanent crossing over the river, with early development of the area being a direct result of the existence and location of the bridge. Olaf, later St Olaf, helped the English retake London Bridge from his fellow Norsemen. Southwark was first known as Suthriganaweorc, the fortress of the men of Surrey, mentioned in the Burghal Hidage as part of military system created by Alfred the Great to defeat the Great Heathen Army of the Vikings. Southwark was also known as the Borough due to be it being an incorporated (nationally represented) Borough from 1295.
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The town, like the rest of the Lothian region, was ceded by King Edgar of England and became part of Scotland in the tenth century. Haddington received burghal status, one of the earliest to do so, during the reign of David I (1124–1153),Book:- giving it trading rights which encouraged its growth into a market town. Today Haddington is a small town with a population of fewer than 10,000 people; although during the High Middle Ages, it was the fourth-biggest city in Scotland after Aberdeen, Roxburgh and Edinburgh. In the middle of the town is the Town House, built in 1748 according to a plan by William Adam.
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Sussex's rapes may have been a similar division to the six or seven lathes of neighbouring Kent which were undoubtedly early administrative units. Another possibility is that the rapes may derive from the system of fortifications, or burhs (boroughs) devised by Alfred the Great in the late ninth century to defeat the Vikings. The Rapes, or similar predecessors may have been created for the purpose of maintaining these early boroughs, or they may have re-used earlier divisions for this purpose. In Sussex, the fortifications in the Burghal Hidage were recorded as being at Eorpeburnan on the Sussex-Kent border, Hastings, Lewes, Burpham and Chichester.
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In such cases, the Vikings were extremely vulnerable to pursuit by the king's joint military forces. Alfred's burh system posed such a formidable challenge against Viking attack that when the Vikings returned in 892 and stormed a half-made, poorly garrisoned fortress up the Lympne estuary in Kent, the Anglo-Saxons were able to limit their penetration to the outer frontiers of Wessex and Mercia. Alfred's burghal system was revolutionary in its strategic conception and potentially expensive in its execution. His contemporary biographer Asser wrote that many nobles balked at the demands placed upon them even though they were for "the common needs of the kingdom".
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These privileges were confirmed by Richard, abbot of Dieulacresse, but the town received no royal charter and failed to establish its burghal position. The Wednesday market which is still held dates from a grant of John to the earl of Chester: in the 17th century it was very considerable. A fair, also granted by John, beginning on the third day before the Translation of Edward the Confessor is still held. The silk manufacture which can be traced to the latter part of the 17th century is thought to have been aided by the settlement in Leek of some Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
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The cathedral for the South Saxons was founded in 681 at Selsey; the seat of the bishopric was moved to Chichester in 1075. Chichester was one of the burhs (fortified towns) established by Alfred the Great, probably in 878–879, making use of the remaining Roman walls. According to the Burghal Hidage, a list written in the early 10th century, it was one of the biggest of Alfred's burhs, supported by 1500 hides, units of land required to supply one soldier each for the garrison in time of emergency. The system was supported by a communication network based on hilltop beacons to provide early warning.
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The defining characteristic of this system is that these fortified sites would have all been built at one occasion to serve a single strategic end, in that the functions of all the individual components of the system complemented the functions of each of the others. It follows that it cannot have originated, for instance, as a core number to which others were added at a later date. By the early 10th century this system was already long out of date and overtaken by events. It is not likely therefore to have survived as a viable and effective system to be recorded as such in the Burghal Hidage after 914.
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However modern scholars have compared Nowell's transcription of other manuscripts, where the originals are still available, enabling a picture of the conventions Nowell used to be built. This model was then applied in the correction of his transcription of the Burghal Hidage Ortho manuscript.Grant. Laurence Nowell, William Lambarde, and the Laws of the Anglo-Saxons, Volume 108. pp. 27-28 It seems that Nowell did not understand the subtlety of the phonetics of the Anglo-Saxon written language and would therefore substitute, using his knowledge of Elizabethan grammar, what he saw as an equivalent letter, thus giving the Anglo-Saxon word a completely different sound and meaning.
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In 1086 Calne may already have been, as it was later, a market town on the main London-Bristol road. The church in it was well endowed. 74 or more households were held almost outright by burghal tenure (as citizens of a borough), and the lordship of its large outlying land was divided between the king (of whom 45 burgesses were tenants) and the church. In the Middle Ages the king's successor as the lord of Calne manor and, as owner of the church's revenues, the treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, each had the right to hold a market and a fair in the town, with two triangular market places or fair grounds.
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Eashing is a hamlet south-east of Shackleford on the River Wey, west of Godalming, and was part of the Hundred of Godalming; in the Anglo-Saxon era it was a significant place and is one of the burhs listed in the Burghal Hidage of Alfred the Great. Eashing is now administered by Guildford Borough Council and is divided into Upper Eashing on top of the steep south-east bank and Lower Eashing set low, immediately below the A3 road embankment on the north-west bank. Lower Eashing has an ancient bridge over the River Wey which was constructed in the 14th century by monks from Waverley Abbey. Twenty buildings strewn across both parts are now architecturally listed buildings.
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Axanbrycg is suggested as the source of the name, meaning a bridge over the River Axe, in the early 9th century. Early inhabitants of the area almost certainly include the Romans (who are known to have mined lead on the top of the Mendips) and earlier still, prehistoric man, who lived in the local caves, and whose flint tools have been found on the slopes of the local hills. The history of Axbridge can be traced back to the reign of King Alfred when it was part of the Saxons' defence system for Wessex against the Vikings. In the Burghal Hidage, a list of burhs compiled in 910, it was listed as Axanbrycg.
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There were thirty-three burhs, spaced approximately apart, enabling the military to confront attacks anywhere in the kingdom within a day. Alfred's burhs (of which 22 developed into boroughs) ranged from former Roman towns, such as Winchester, where the stone walls were repaired and ditches added, to massive earthen walls surrounded by wide ditches, probably reinforced with wooden revetments and palisades, such as at Burpham in West Sussex. The size of the burhs ranged from tiny outposts such as Pilton in Devon, to large fortifications in established towns, the largest being at Winchester., which is referenced in A document now known as the Burghal Hidage provides an insight into how the system worked.
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A borough was usually, though perhaps not invariably, the companion of a Norman castle. In some cases a French bourg was created by the side of an English borough, and the two remained for many generations distinct in their laws and customs: in other cases a French bourg was settled by the side of an English village. A large number of the followers of the Norman lords had been almost certainly town-dwellers in their own country, and lost none of their burghal privileges by the migration. Every castle needed for its maintenance a group of skilled artisans, and the lords wished to draw to the castle gates all kinds of commodities for the castle's provision.
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His victory must have earned him wide acclaim. It is this juncture which seems the most appropriate time for the start of the planning and construction of the system of burhs recorded in the Burghal Hidage. Throughout 878 Guthrum's Vikings were in control of Mercia and, arguably, London, with his base in Cirencester. The creation of burhs at Oxford and Buckingham at this time fits in with the likelihood that Alfred was able to regain control of this area which he had exercised before being deprived of it as a result of the Viking partition of 877, and their siting demonstrates that he was able to initiate a strategic offensive against the Vikings in Eastern Mercia and London.
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Map of Bath by John Speed published in 1610 By the 9th century the old Roman street pattern was lost and Bath was a royal possession. King Alfred laid out the town afresh, leaving its south-eastern quadrant as the abbey precinct. In the Burghal Hidage, Bath is recorded as a burh (borough) and is described as having walls of and was allocated 1000 men for defence. During the reign of Edward the Elder coins were minted in Bath based on a design from the Winchester mint but with 'BAD' on the obverse relating to the Anglo-Saxon name for the town, Baðum, Baðan or Baðon, meaning "at the baths", and this was the source of the present name.
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The shire name first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was derived from "Here- ford", Old English for "Army crossing", the location for the city. The area was covered first by Offa of Mercia, who constructed the dyke as a boundary to keep warring tribes out of the Mercian kingdom: an early indication of the ambivalent relations with the Welsh. The shire as an administrative unit was developed from Alfred the Great's Burghal Hidage, and the Shire-reeve courts of the Hundred. In 676, during the reign of King Æthelred of Mercia the Archbishop of Canterbury Saint Theodore of Tarsus founded the Diocese of Hereford, to minister to the minor sub-kingdom of Magonsaete, and he appointed Putta as the first Bishop of Hereford.
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The area to the north and east of this boundary became known as the Danelaw because it was under Norse political influence, whilst those areas south and west of it remained under Anglo-Saxon dominance. Alfred's government set about constructing a series of defended towns or burhs, began the construction of a navy, and organised a militia system (the fyrd) whereby half of his peasant army remained on active service at any one time. To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation and conscription system known as the Burghal Hidage.Horspool 2006. p. 102 In 892, a new Viking army, with 250 ships, established itself in Appledore, Kent and another army of 80 ships soon afterwards in Milton Regis.
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It is one of thirty burhs (boroughs, i. e. fortresses or fortified towns) recorded in the Burghal Hidage document, which describes a system of fortresses and fortified towns built around Wessex by King Alfred. Recent research has suggested that these burhs were built in the short period 878–879, to defend Wessex against the Vikings under Guthrum, and to act as an offensive to the Viking presence in Mercia. It is argued that the completion of this system – of which Cricklade was a key military element, being a short distance down Ermin Way from Cirencester, the Viking base for a year – precipitated the retreat of the Vikings from Mercia and London to East Anglia, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in late 879.
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The name Suthriganaweorc or Suthringa geweorche is recorded for the area in the early 10th-century Anglo-Saxon document known as the Burghal Hidage and means "fort of the men of Surrey" or "the defensive work of the men of Surrey". Southwark is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Sudweca. The name means "southern defensive work" and is formed from the Old English sūþ (south) and weorc (work). In Old English, Surrey means “southern district (or the men of the southern district)”,Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place Names, Eilert Erkwall, 4th edition so the change from “southern district work” to the latter “southern work” may be an evolution based on the elision of the single syllable ge element, meaning district.
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At above sea level, Chisbury hillfort is the highest point in Little Bedwyn parishCrowley, 1999, pages 50-69 and encloses an area of about .Pevsner & Cherry, 1975, page 174 Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age artefacts have been found in the area, but the hillfort was most probably built in the late Iron Age in the 1st century AD. The hillfort was re-used in the Anglo-Saxon times as a burh, cited in the Burghal Hidage document which lists the fortifications of Wessex from that time. St. Martin's chapel, on the eastern edge of the hillfort, seems to have been built in the early part of the 13th century. There are written records of it from 1246 onwards and its surviving architecture is contemporary with that period.
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Buckingham is mentioned in the Burghal Hidage, a document commonly ascribed to the early tenth century, but more probably of the period 878-9, which describes a system of forts set up by King Alfred (d.899) over the whole of the West Saxon kingdom. When King Edward encamped at Buckingham with his army in 914, he was therefore restoring a fort which had already existed for more than a generation. This tactical move was part of a putsch against the Danish Vikings who controlled what had been southern Mercia, and which involved the taking of control of Viking centres at Bedford, Northampton, Cambridge and eventually the whole of East Anglia by the end of 917. Buckingham is the first settlement referred to in the Buckinghamshire section of the Domesday Book of 1086.
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There is no substantive evidence that Shaftesbury was the "Caer Palladur" (or "Caer Palladwr") of Celtic and Roman times, and instead the town's recorded history dates from Anglo-Saxon times. By the early 8th century there was an important minster church here,Bettey, pp 62-63 and in 880 Alfred the Great founded a burgh (fortified settlement) here as a defence in the struggle with the Danish invaders. The burgh is recorded in the early-10th-century Burghal Hidage as one of only three that existed in the county (the others being at Wareham and 'Bredy' - which is probably Bridport). The ruins of Shaftesbury Abbey In 888 Alfred founded Shaftesbury Abbey, a Benedictine nunnery by the town's east gate, and appointed his daughter Ethelgifu as the first abbess.
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This, along with St Stevens Free Church, the Free Church in Kinloch Street, Barry Free Church and Newton of Panbride Church became part of the United Free Church when the United Presbyterians and Free Church merged in 1900. The Scottish Episcopal Church traces its history in Carnoustie to 1853 when it began meeting in an old Schoolhouse off Maule Street. It was formed into a congregation in 1877, which rapidly outgrew its premises, leading to the building of The Church of The Holyrood in 1881, the former building becoming the church hall. The church building was graded as a Category B listed building in 1971 In 1901, the established Church of Scotland built a new church, St Brides Chapel, on Carlogie Road for the burghal part of Panbride parish.
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If this entailed transforming the West Saxon fyrd from a sporadic levy of king's men and their retinues into a mounted standing army, so be it. If his kingdom lacked strongpoints to impede the progress of an enemy army, he would build them. If the enemy struck from the sea, he would counter them with his own naval power. To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a system of taxation and conscription that is recorded in a document, now known as the Burghal Hidage; thirty three fortified towns are listed along with their taxable value (known as hides). Characteristically, all of Alfred's innovations were firmly rooted in traditional West Saxon practice, drawing as they did upon the three ‘common burdens' that all holders of bookland and royal loanland owed the Crown.
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Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West. pp. 124-125 The retreat of Guthrum and his band to East Anglia in late 879 and the similar retreat of the Viking army stationed at Fulham, west of London, back to the Continent at the same time (both events recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), can be seen as a tactical response to the effectiveness of the strategic offensive posed by the construction of the Burghal system. The ratification of a mutually agreed boundary to the east of London, in Alfred and Guthrum's Treaty, between Guthrum's new Viking kingdom of East Anglia and Alfred's newly won territory, can best be ascribed to this time. These developments gave Alfred control of London and its surrounding territory, which included a good length of the strategically important Watling Street as it approached London.
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The pressure of taxation led in the 13th century to a closer definition of the burghal constitutions; the Commons sought to get an audit of accounts, and (in London) not only to hear but to treat of municipal affairs. By the end of the century London had definitely established two councils, that of the mayor and aldermen, representing the old borough court, and a common council, representing the voice of the commonalty, as expressed through the city wards. The choice of councillors in the wards rested probably with the aldermen and the ward jury summoned by them to make the presentments. In some cases juries were summoned not to represent different areas but different classes; thus at Lincoln there were in 1272 juries of the rich, the middling and the poor, chosen presumably by authority from groups divided by means of the tax roll.
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The development of the burhs across the southern half of England suggests a considerable awareness of a repeated problem The Burghal Hidage documents five such fortifications in Sussex — at Chichester, Burpham, Lewes, Hastings and Eorpeburnan. In the reign of Æthelred the Unready, the threat of the Danes continued — in 994 and 1000 the Anglo Saxon Chronicle records burning, plundering and manslaughter on the coast of Sussex and neighbouring counties. The most serious attacks took place in 1009, when a Viking army took up position over the winter period on the Isle of Wight and ravaged Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The rectilinear street plan of Chichester is typical of the towns which developed from the fortified burhs, which had intramural streets running around the town walls; this allowed garrison troops to defend the town and large peripheral blocks that were left as hedged areas (hagae) into which fugitives from the countryside could flee.
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Edgar, King of England 959 to 975 At least from the 10th century the burh had a moot or court, the relation of which to the other courts is matter of speculation. A law of Edgar, about 960, required that it should meet three times a year, these being in all likelihood assemblies at which attendance was compulsory on all tenants of the burghal district, when pleas concerning life and liberty and land were held, and men were compelled to find pledges answerable for their good conduct. At these great meetings the borough reeve (gerefa) presided, declaring the law and guiding the judgments given by the suitors of the court. The reeve was supported by a group of assistants, called in Devon the witan, in the boroughs of the Danelaw by a group of (generally twelve) " lawmen," in other towns probably by a group of aldermen, senior burgesses, with military and police authority, whose office was in some cases hereditary.
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Cowal, and the islands of the Firth of Clyde.Dunbar; Duncan (1971) p. 2. Such success may account for the commencement of the royal castle of Tarbert,Oram (2011) p. 186; Oram (2008) p. 176; Murray, N (2005) p. 291, 291 n. 27; Stringer, K (2004); McDonald (1997) pp. 84, 241–242; Duncan (1996) p. 528; Barrow (1981) p. 114. the conferment of burghal status on Dumbarton shortly afterwards,Oram (2011) p. 186; Dennison (2005) p. 274; Murray, N (2005) pp. 291, 291–292 n. 29; Duncan (1996) p. 528. and the notice of a royal constable at Dunoon—a record that appears to reveal the construction of a castle onsite and the transfer of Cowal to Walter fitz Alan II, Steward of Scotland.Oram (2013) ch. 4; Murray, N (2005) p. 292; McDonald (1997) p. 84; Barrow (1981) p. 114; Registrum Monasterii de Passelet (1832) pp. 132–133; Document 3/333/2 (n.d.). It is evident that the amicable cooperation between Ruaidhrí and Thomas had ended by the early 1220s.Pollock (2005) p. 29 n. 155. As the king's principal adherents in the maritime west, ThomasBrown (2004) p. 76.
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