Talk:Berkhamsted Castle

message: I forgot about the discussion above, but I still felt that though close to the castle, the town principally developed along the old pre Roman Akeman Street (actually .4 miles (1 km) to the south of the castle). The is no evidence of medieval buildings close to the castle.
The bulbourne valley prior to the 19th century (before the canal drained it) was very marshy. The river created a marsh environment (at times referred to as an 'unhealthy swamp') in the center of the valley. So building round the castle in medieval times was not possible. The castle is even now mostly separated from the town by the canal, railway, parks and carparks. The houses close today were only possible after 19th & 20th centuries.
Yes St Mary’s Northchurch, formerly St Mary’s Berkhamsted is the earliest existent building in the area. It has structural evidence of the Anglo-Saxon period are in the south and west walls of St Mary's Northchurch, one mile (two kilometres) to the north west of modern Berkhamsted. The church may have been an important minster, attached to a high status Anglo-Saxon estate, which became part of the medieval manor of Berkhamsted after the Norman conquest. The parish of Berkhamsted St Mary's (in Northchurch) once stretched five miles from the hamlet of Dudswell, through Northchurch and Berkhamsted to the former hamlet of Bourne End.
But the is also evidence of even older Anglo Saxon settlement much closer to the centre of modern Berkhamsted, near to Akeman Street. Rare Anglo-Saxon pottery dating from the 7th century onwards has been found between Chesham Road and St John's Well Lane. Both of Berkhamsted’s Water Mills were listed in the Domesday book and archeological evidence show that they were active in the 9th Century.
The layout of Berkhamsted's centre is typical of a medieval market settlement; the linear High Street (aligned on the Roman Akeman Street) forms the spine of the town(roughly aligned east-west), from which extend medieval burgage plots (to the north and south). In King John's reign, Geoffrey Fitz Peter (c. 1162–1213), Earl of Essex and the Chief Justiciar of England (effectively the king's principal minister) held the Honour and Manor of Berkhamsted from 1199 to 1212. During his time in the castle he was responsible for the foundation of the new parish church of St Peter (the size of which reflects the growing prosperity of the town), two hospitals, St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist (one of which was a leper hospital), which survived until 1516, and the lay out of the town. All three religious buildings were on or close to the high street. Even during the height of the castle, all the town’s other known medieval buildings including - 173 High Street (1277-97, a aisled hall house) 125 High Street (14th century manor house), The Swan, 139 High Street (14th century), 129 High Street Dean Incent's House (Pre 15th century) were built on Akeman Street not round the castle. Geoffry is responsible for building Castle street, which was a street specifically built between Akeman Street and the Castle, but it has no known medieval buildings built close to the castle.
After the castle was abandoned Berkhamsted remained centred along the old Roman road.--  BOD -- 22:36, 27 February 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Berkhamsted Town did not move or reorganise around Berkhamsted Castle.