Burh 2016-10-05

A burh is an Old English name for a fortified town or other defended site, which was sometimes centred upon a hill fort, though always intended as a place of permanent settlement. Its origin was in military defence. According to H. R. Loyn, the burh "represented only a stage, though a vitally important one, in the evolution of the medieval English borough and of the medieval town".[1] The boundaries of ancient burhs can often still be traced to modern urban borough limits. Most of these were founded by Alfred the Great in a consciously planned policy that was continued under his son Edward the Elder and his daughter, Æthelflæd, the 'Lady of the Mercians', and her husband Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia. The Mercian Register tells of the building of ten burhs by Æthelflæd, some as important as Tamworth and Stafford, others now unidentifiable.[2] Some were based on pre-existing Roman structures, some newly built, though others may have been built at a later date. Æthelstan granted these burhs the right to mint coinage and in the tenth and eleventh centuries the firm rule was that no coin was to be struck outside a burh.[3]

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