The Burgal Hidage is a collection of a number of medieval texts that describe the location of defensive forts
around the state of Wessex during the time of Alfred the Great. The document was named the Burghal Hidage by
F. W. Maitland in 1897 after a great deal of research into the subject.
The documents list the major defensive forts anti clockwise around Wessex
starting at the unproven location of 'Eorpeburnan' somewhere on the Kent,Sussex or Surrey borders
and ending at the last fort in the list at Southwark on the Thames .
The Anglo Saxon word Burgh or more correctly Burh describes a defensive position or fort usually on a hill with a
defensive ditch and bank topped with wooden walls and an internal regular layout to help the defenders.
These Burhs were mostly built during the reign of Alfred the Great to defend Wessex against the Viking invaders.
Each Burh has a number of hides associated with it, which describes the size of the Burh
and its defensive population.
Each hide of land supplied 1 defender to the fort and 4 defenders were needed to
defend 1 pole (1 pole is 16.5ft) of wall. Therefore each hide will provide protection
for approx 4 ft of wall.
For the maintenance and defence of an acre's area of wall 16 hides are required. If every hide is
represented by 1 man, then every pole of wall can be manned by 4 men. Then for the maintenance of 20 poles
of wall 80 hides are required, therefore an approximate size of the fort can be estimated. From the data
below the Hastings Burh of 500 hides would have a wall of 125 poles so about 2000 ft of wall enclosing a 500ft
square of land which would have been defended by 500 men.
At this moment in time the Burh of Eorpburnan(the fort on the brown stream) has not been found, but
please click on the following link to show what information we have regarding the lost fort of Eorpeburnan.
This assumption is based on the County Boundaries of Kent(an independent state)
at the time, the Forest of Andredsweald together with the other Hideage Fort positions and the old name of Orpington.
The Burhs listed in the Burghal Hidage were as follows
|
|---|
w| Eorpeburnan | 324 hides |
|---|
| Hastings | 500 hides |
|---|
| Lewes | 1300 hides |
|---|
| Burpham | 720 hides |
|---|
| Chichester | 1500 hides |
|---|
| Portchester | 500 hides |
|---|
| Southampton | 150 hides |
|---|
| Winchester | 2400 hides |
|---|
| Wilton | 1400 hides |
|---|
| Chisbury | 700 hides |
|---|
| Shaftesbury | 700 hides |
|---|
| Twynam (now called Christchurch, Dorset) | 470 hides |
|---|
| Wareham | 1600 hides |
|---|
| Bridport | 760 hides |
|---|
| Exeter | 734 hides |
|---|
| Halwell | 300 hides |
|---|
| Lydford | 140 hides |
|---|
| Pilton | 360 hides |
|---|
| Watchet | 513 hides |
|---|
| Axbridge | 400 hides |
|---|
| Lyng | 100 hides |
|---|
| Langport | 600 hides |
|---|
| Bath | 1000 hides |
|---|
| Malmesbury | 1200 hides |
|---|
| Cricklade | 1500 hides |
|---|
| Oxford | 1400 hides |
|---|
| Wallingford | 2400 hides |
|---|
| Buckingham | 1600 hides |
|---|
| Sashes | 1000 hides |
|---|
| Eashing | 600 hides |
|---|
| Southwark | 1800 hides |
|---|
| Worcester | 1200 hides |
|---|
| Warwick | 2400 hides |
|---|
|
