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.
Towcester ([Fig. 5]).—There is a motte at Towcester, but no direct evidence has yet been found for the existence of a Norman castle there, though Leland says that he was told of “certen Ruines or Diches of a Castelle.”[98] There was a mill and an oven to which the citizens owed soke,[99] and the value of the manor, which belonged to the king, had risen very greatly since the Conquest;[100] all facts which render the existence of a Norman castle extremely likely. But there can be no question as to the nature of Edward’s work at Towcester, as the Chronicle tells us expressly that “he wrought the burgh at Towcester with a stone wall.”[101] Towcester lies on Watling Street, and is believed to have been the Roman station of Lactodorum. Baker gives a plan of the remains existing in his time, which may either be those of the Roman castrum or of Edward’s borough.[102] The area is stated to be about 35 acres.
Wigingamere.—This place is not yet identified, for the identification with Wigmore in Herefordshire, though accepted by many respectable writers, will not stand a moment’s examination. Wigmore was entirely out of Edward’s beat, and he had far too much on his hands in 918 to attempt a campaign in Herefordshire. As Wigingamere appears to have specially drawn upon itself the wrath of East Anglian and Essex Danes, it must have lain somewhere in their neighbourhood. The mere which is included in the name would seem to point to that great inland water which anciently stretched southwards from the Wash into Cambridgeshire. The only approach to East Anglia from the south lay along a strip of open chalk land which lay between the great swamp and the dense forests which grew east of it.[103] Here ran the ancient road called the Icknield way. On a peninsula which now runs out into the great fens of the Cam and the Ouse there is still a village called Wicken, 6 miles west of the Roman road; and possibly, when the land surrounding this peninsula was under water, this bight may have been called Wigingamere. This suggestion of course is merely tentative, but what gives it some probability is that the Danish army which attacked “the borough at Wigingamere” came from East Anglia as well as Mercia.[104]
Fig. 5.—Plan of Towcester about 1830.
Huntingdon.—The borough of Huntingdon was probably first built by the Danes, as it was only repaired by Edward. In Leland’s time there were still some remains of the walls “in places.” Huntingdon is one of the burgi of Domesday.
Colchester.—This of course was a Roman site, and Edward needed only to restore the walls, as the Chronicle indicates. Colchester was placed so as to defend the river Colne, just as Maldon defended the estuary of the Blackwater. As the repair of Colchester and the successful defence of Wigingamere were followed the same year by the submission of East Anglia, it seems not unlikely that Edward’s various forces may have made a simultaneous advance, along the coast, and along the Roman road by the Fen country; but this of course is the merest conjecture, as the Chronicle gives us no details of this very important event.
Cledemuthan.—This place is only mentioned in the Abingdon MS. of the Chronicle, but the year 921 is the date given for its building. This date should probably be transposed to 918, the year in which, according to Florence, Edward subjugated East Anglia. It is well known how confused the chronology of the various versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is during the reign of Edward the Elder.[105] Cley, in Norfolk, would be etymologically deducible from Clede (the d being frequently dropped, especially in Scandinavian districts), and the muthan points to some river estuary. Cley is one of the few havens on the north coast of Norfolk, and its importance in former times was much greater than now, as is shown not only by the spaciousness of its Early English church, but by the fact that the port has jurisdiction for 30 miles along the coast.[106] It would be highly probable that Edward completed the subjugation of East Anglia by planting a borough at some important point. But as the real date of the fortification of Cledemuthan is uncertain, we must be content to leave this matter in abeyance.[107]
Stamford is another case where the borough is clearly said to have been on the side which is opposite to the one where the Norman castle stands. Edward’s borough was on the south side, the motte and other remains of the Norman castle are on the north of the Welland. It is remarkable that the part of Stamford on the south side of the Welland is still a distinct liberty; it is mentioned in Domesday as the sixth ward of the borough. The line of the earthworks can still be traced in parts. The borough on the north side of the Welland was probably first walled in by the Danes, as it was one of the Five Boroughs—Stamford, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Derby—which appear to have formed an independent or semi-independent state in middle England.[108] Stamford is a borough in Domesday.