Talk:Berkhamsted Castle

The Anglo-Saxon town that did not move

Regards the former/formerly exchange in the page edits.

Until 1999 the only known local Anglo-Saxon period were found in the church of St Mary's Northchurch. There is now good evidence that a settlement already existed in the seventh to eleventh century (based on substantial rare Anglo-Saxon pottery finds) between Chesham Road and St John's Well Lane on the Akeman Road. This is the centre of modern Berkhamsted. (Add to this the water mills near Mill Street in use from the late ninth century, and the chapel of St James). Even after the castle was built - the town (a borough in 1066 and a flourishing market town throughout the high middle ages) remained on the Akeman road, with two spurs pointing towards the castle. The town no doubt benefited from the royal castle, but Berkhamsted was never really a castle town and the town did not re-organise around the castle, but remained on the main highway on the other side of the river Bulbourne and the marshes that existed in the valley.-- BOD -- 16:39, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

Hi! Could you recommend any published sources for this analysis...? Hchc2009 (talk) 17:14, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

Excuse the brief reply ... I am on an Ipad, 250 miles away from my computer in the town in question ...prob the best source is:

Thompson, Isobel; Bryant, Stewart (2005). Extensive Urban Surveys: Berkhamsted, Revision 2005 (Report). http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-436-1/dissemination/pdf/berkhamstead.pdf by the Historic Environment Unit, Hertfordshire County Council. Also See http://www.pre-construct.com/Publications/report-downloads/HHST12-exc-summary.pdf%7Ctitle=300 High Street, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. The fact that the town did not form round the castle seems evident if you look at a map of Berkhamsted and the castle. Hope this helps.

Other useful texts, might be but I dont have easy access. Sherwood, Jennifer (2008). "Influences on the Growth of Medieval and Early Modern Berkhamsted" (In Wheeler, Michael. A County of Small Towns: the Development of Hertfordshire's Urban Landscape to 1800. Hatfied, UK: Hertfordshire Publications. pp. 224–248. ISBN 978-190531344-0.) And Slater, T.R.; Goose, Nigel (2008). A county of small towns : the development of Hertfordshire's urban landscape to 1800. Hatfield, UK: University of Hertfordshire Press. ISBN 978-190531344-0.-- BOD -- 18:43, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

I know the problems of mobile wiki-ing! I'll try the Urban Survey tomorrow morning. Thanks, Hchc2009 (talk) 18:58, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

Hi. The Historic Environment Unit is broken unfortunately, but I've re-read the Urban Survey again. I still think it is supporting a shift in settlement focus, in particular the statements in the article that The castle became a new administrative centre, and the former Anglo-Saxon settlement of Berkhamsted reorganised around it. and The old Anglo-Saxon manorial centre was moved to the site, and as a result the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Berkhampsted also shifted from the area now called Northchurch to the castle. Key bits from the Urban Survey include:

• "Until recently the only known remains of the period before the Norman conquest consisted of the south and west walls of St Mary’s church. The ecclesiastical name for the parish was Berkhamsted St Mary; ‘Northchurch’ is a popular name"
• "This [Anglo-Saxon] estate, one of the largest in Hertfordshire, was coterminous with St Mary’s parish before a large portion of it was made a new parish for the borough of Berkhamsted after the Norman conquest"
• "After the [Norman] conquest a new manorial centre was built on a new site: this was Berkhamsted Castle.... This was a radical shift from the old centre at Northchurch. The new town grew up on Akeman Street [which is just on the other side of the river from the castle I think..?] and not at the castle gate, but this was evidently dictated by topography."
• "The town’s prosperity derived from trade along the highway, as well as its association with the castle... An early [Norman] settlement nucleus might possibly lie undiscovered in the area between the highway and the castle"

I'll try and see if I can read the two books you've suggested as well. Hchc2009 (talk) 07:08, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Not sure if the books/chapters will help my case much. Unable to access them or the EUS for next few days. Berkhamsted castle is about .25 miles from the old Akeman road, the land gradually raises up to it. St Marys is a mile distant. The marshy ground would have encouraged the settlement to be on the road, this where the anglo-saxon pottery is found. I have to agree about the parish boundaries, though it is very unclear, i dont think it is Really known when the enclave within st marys parish was first made, or dates for St James. Rush rush.-- BOD -- 09:39, 12 April 2015 (UTC) The Anglian pottery points to asettlement closer to the castle prior to conquest.-- BOD -- 09:59, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

"The ...(:-))... town grew up on Akeman Street and not at the castle gate". Until the is any evidence of Norman settlement closer to the castle I do not think anyone can claim the was one. I wish the was more archeological evidence for the saxon settlement, espicially the refrence to Oldburgh which was supposed to be close to St Johns Well lane.-- BOD -- 15:07, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Berkhamsted Town did not move or reorganise around Berkhamsted Castle.

I forgot about the discussion above, but I still felt that though close to the castle, the town principally developed along the old pre Roman Akeman Street (actually .4 miles (1 km) to the south of the castle). The is no evidence of medieval buildings close to the castle.

The bulbourne valley prior to the 19th century (before the canal drained it) was very marshy. The river created a marsh environment (at times referred to as an 'unhealthy swamp') in the center of the valley. So building round the castle in medieval times was not possible. The castle is even now mostly separated from the town by the canal, railway, parks and carparks. The houses close today were only possible after 19th & 20th centuries.

Yes St Mary’s Northchurch, formerly St Mary’s Berkhamsted is the earliest existent building in the area. It has structural evidence of the Anglo-Saxon period are in the south and west walls of St Mary's Northchurch, one mile (two kilometres) to the north west of modern Berkhamsted. The church may have been an important minster, attached to a high status Anglo-Saxon estate, which became part of the medieval manor of Berkhamsted after the Norman conquest. The parish of Berkhamsted St Mary's (in Northchurch) once stretched five miles from the hamlet of Dudswell, through Northchurch and Berkhamsted to the former hamlet of Bourne End.

But the is also evidence of even older Anglo Saxon settlement much closer to the centre of modern Berkhamsted, near to Akeman Street. Rare Anglo-Saxon pottery dating from the 7th century onwards has been found between Chesham Road and St John's Well Lane. Both of Berkhamsted’s Water Mills were listed in the Domesday book and archeological evidence show that they were active in the 9th Century.

The layout of Berkhamsted's centre is typical of a medieval market settlement; the linear High Street (aligned on the Roman Akeman Street) forms the spine of the town(roughly aligned east-west), from which extend medieval burgage plots (to the north and south). In King John's reign, Geoffrey Fitz Peter (c. 1162–1213), Earl of Essex and the Chief Justiciar of England (effectively the king's principal minister) held the Honour and Manor of Berkhamsted from 1199 to 1212. During his time in the castle he was responsible for the foundation of the new parish church of St Peter (the size of which reflects the growing prosperity of the town), two hospitals, St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist (one of which was a leper hospital), which survived until 1516, and the lay out of the town. All three religious buildings were on or close to the high street. Even during the height of the castle, all the town’s other known medieval buildings including - 173 High Street (1277-97, a aisled hall house) 125 High Street (14th century manor house), The Swan, 139 High Street (14th century), 129 High Street Dean Incent's House (Pre 15th century) were built on Akeman Street not round the castle. Geoffry is responsible for building Castle street, which was a street specifically built between Akeman Street and the Castle, but it has no known medieval buildings built close to the castle.

After the castle was abandoned Berkhamsted remained centred along the old Roman road.-- BOD -- 22:36, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Sorry my obsessive tendencies are showing in my above posting. -- BOD -- 23:35, 27 February 2017 (UTC)