CRECGELADE

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Nineth century burh of Cricklade, fortified by 919 or possibly earlier. The town is surrounded by a square earthwork now surviving as a low bank. The present circuit extends for 2073 metres, the equivalent of 1650 hides. Version A of the Burghal Hidage attributes 1400 hides to Cricklade, while Version B attributes 1500 hides. Excavations have discerned four elements of the circuit; a timber-revetted clay and turf bank; a double-ditch system externally; an intra-mural walkway around the inner face of the bank; a simple tower at each corner inside the bank. A stone wall, 4 feet thick at the base, was added to the front of the bank, probably early in the 10th century. Haslam notes that the parish boundary of the former parish of St Mary's, now a `ward', was in existence by 985, and he suggests that it reflects a Saxon land division designed to support the defence of the north sector of the town.

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SU 09889391, 10029392, 10199330, 10369375 Town Wall
(NR) (Course of) (NAT). (1)

Cricklade was fortified in the last twenty years of the 9th
century by King Alfred against the Danish invasions. (2)

The borough of Cricklade (SU 100936) is a rectangular area of some 80 acres. The ramparts are much spread; where best preserved they show as a broad bank between 50 and 60 ft wide and about 3 ft high. In places this bank has entirely disappeared; more generally it is marked by modern hedges or shows as a slight rise in the ground. Extensive excavations by W T Wainright and C A R Radford between 1948 and 1964 and by J Haslam in 1975, have shown that there were three distinctive phases of construction and reconstruction. First a clay bank, presumably late 9th century, was built, revetted with turves. Two ditches were cut, the inner one separated from the bank by a berm 7.0m wide, with the outer one 4.0m beyond it. They were 2.0m wide and 1.5m deep. Apparently these ditches did not round the corners of the ramparts, within each one of which stood a tower. Secondly a stone wall, more than 1.0m thick at the base was built against the front of the bank, probably in the early 11th century. Soon
after this, however, the wall was deliberately pulled down
and its stones used to fill up the ditches, an act which may
be related to the historic slighting of the defences by Cnut in
1016. The third phase was the construction of a timber
palisade around the 9th century bank, the recutting of the inner south ditch and its extension to a point 70.0m beyond the line
of the west rampart. This reconstruction may be related to refortification by William of Dover in 1144 against King
Stephen.

The surviving lines of the Medieval burgage tenements, such as
the bank and ditch (SU 10259369 to 10349367), possibly defining the south side of an area granted to Abingdon Abbey in 1008,
together with the traces of intramural roads revealed by excavation, show that Cricklade was laid out on a grid possibly contemporary with the foundation of the borough. (3-6)

The town walls are visible as broad spread banks averaging 0.7m high. A plaque in the cemetery at SU 09819371 marks the outer face of the course of the Saxon stone wall.

Surveyed at 1:2500. (7)

Cricklade is mentioned as being taxed as a borough from 1306 onwards.(8)

J.Haslam gives a metrological analysis of the Saxon burh. (9)

A ?medieval bowl, found among the footings of the walling
excavated in 1954 was found to be a modern intrusion.(10)

Present topography (particularly the parish boundary of St.Mary's
Church) preserves the extent of a land unit set out around the
north gate of the burh as part of the defensive arrangements.(11)

The following features were mapped from good quality air photographs and considered to be the Early Medieval town defences of Cricklade borough:-

Probable Early Medieval ditch, seen as earthworks. Morphological description: a single linear feature, defined by 1 ditch with a
maximum length of 165m.
Centred at:-SU 1015 9331
(Morph No. TG.94.2.1)

Probable Early Medieval ditch, seen as earthworks. Morphological description: a single linear feature, defined by 1 ditch with a
maximum length of 155m.
Centred at:-SU 1036 9368
(Morph No. TG.94.2.2)

This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
(12)

The Cricklade mint was active from the reign of Ethelred II but was never an important one, (see SU 19 SW 21). (13)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 25" 1971-72

( 2) by F M Stenton 1971 Anglo-Saxon England

The Oxford history of England 2 Page(s)264-5

( 3) Medieval archaeology : journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology

C A R Radford 14, 1970 Page(s)88-91

( 4) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

C A R Radford 67, 1972 Page(s)61-111

( 5) Department of the Environment Archaeological excavations

1975

( 6) Externally held archive reference

The Times 2 Jan 1976 (J Haslam)

( 7) Field Investigators Comments

F1 NVQ 12-JAN-1970

( 8) M W Beresford and H P R Finberg 1973 English medieval boroughs : a hand-list

Page(s)177

( 9) Medieval archaeology : journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology

30, 1986 Page(s)99-102

(10) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

Ralegh Radford et al 70/71, 1975-6 Page(s)131

(11) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

76, 1981 Page(s)77-81

(12) RCHME/EH Aerial Photographers Comment

Carolyn Dyer/08-MAR-1993/RCHME: Thames Valley NMP

(13) edited by David Hill and Alexander R Rumble 1996 The defence of Wessex : the Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon fortifications

Page(s)200-1

(14) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

76, 1981 Page(s)77-81

(15) edited by Jeremy Haslam 1984 Anglo-Saxon towns in southern England

Page(s)106-111

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