20 Mediæval Military Architecture in England.
stormed a work, "geweorc," which was but half constructed. In the same year Hæsten entered the Thames and "wrought" him a work at Milton, and other Danes landed at Appledore, at the mouth of the Limen. In 894 Ælfred fought with the Danes at Farnham, where the episcopal keep still stands upon a burh. Hæsten or Hastings had already constructed a burh at Benfleet, which was stormed by Ælfred, who in the same year blocked him up at Buttington, on the Severn. In 896, the Danes threw up a work on the Lea, twenty miles from London, whereupon Ælfred threw up another work on each bank of that river lower down, and diverted the waters through a number of shallow courses, thus effectually shutting in the Danish ships. The Danes, in consequence, marched inland, and crossed the country to Quatbridge, on the Severn, and there "wrought a work" and passed the winter. Some of these works remain, and are good examples of moated mounds.
In the tenth century the number of English fortresses was prodigiously increased, chiefly by the energy of Æthelflæd. Ælfred died in 901, and was succeeded by Eadward, his son, who attacked, in the fortress of Badbury, his cousin Æthelwald, who held Christchurch and Wimborne. In 907, Chester, the Roman walls of which had long lain in ruin, was strengthened, probably by the earthworks still to be seen in its south-western corner, though the mound has been almost entirely removed. In 910, Æthelflaed, sister to Eadward and Lady of the Mercians, comes upon the scene as the greatest founder of fortresses in that century. In that year she built a burh at Bramsbury, and in 913 one at Scergeat or Sarrat, and at Bridgenorth (Oldbury). In 913, about the 14th of April, Eadward built the north burh at Hertford, between the rivers Memera or Maran, the Benefica or Bean, and the Lygea or Lea, upon which long after stood the shell keep of the Norman castle ; and after May and before midsummer he encamped at Maldon while Witham burh was being built. Then also the second burh of Hertford, south of the Lea, was built. In the same year, 913, Æhelflaed and her Mercians built the burh of Tamworth in the early summer, and in August that of Stafford ; and in the next year, 914, also in the summer, that of Eddesbury, and towards the end of autumn, that of Warwick, on which are still traces of a later keep.
In 915, Æthelflaed constructed a burh at Chirbury, probably in the field still known as the King's Orchard, and at Wardbury, and before mid-winter that of Runcorn, where was afterwards a Norman castle. In that year the Danes ascended the Bristol Channel and entered Irchenfield, west of Hereford,
