Ringwork Castles on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
A ringwork is a form of fortified 
A survey published in 1969 identified 198 ringwork castles in England and Wales, with a further 50 sites that were considered to possibly be ringworks.
A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense indus ...
structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...
castles without the motte. Defences were usually earthworks in the form of a ditch and bank surrounding the site.
Ringworks originated in Germany in the 10th century as an early form of medieval castle and at first were little more than a fortified manor house. They appeared in England just prior to the Norman conquest and large numbers were built during the late 11th and early 12th centuries. More elaborate versions (such as Stansted Mountfitchet Castle
Stansted Mountfitchet Castle, also termed simply Mountfitchet Castle, is a Norman ringwork and bailey fortification in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England. The site is currently in use as a Living history museum.
History
The castle wa ...
) comprise a ringwork and bailey, the ringwork replacing the more usual motte and the bailey acting as a military stronghold.
A survey published in 1969 identified 198 ringwork castles in England and Wales, with a further 50 sites that were considered to possibly be ringworks. D. J. Cathcart King
David James Cathcart King (1913 – 29 September 1989) was a British historian, archaeologist, and school-teacher. While working as a teacher he perused his research in his free time, becoming "one of the leading authorities on the medieval cast ...
and Leslie Alcock proposed the following classification of ringworks based on their surviving remains:
*A – a bank and ditch encircling the site
*B – a bank and ditch encircling the site, with an artificially raising interior
*Bb – a bank and ditch encircling the site on a natural hillock, where the ground surface slopes so that the interior is higher than the exterior
*C – a bank on one side with sloping ground on the other
*D – a bank on one side with sloping ground on the other combined with a ditch and an artificially raised interior
*Dd – a bank on one side with sloping ground on the other combined with a ditch and the interior raised by a natural hillock
See also
* *References
Castles by type {{Europe-archaeology-stub