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A HISTORY OF ESSEX N (pa flr Eadweard cyn'mg mid sumum his fultume on Eastseaxe to Mteldune f wlcode peer }>a hwile J>e man pa burh worhte y getimbrede tet Witbam?) (Then went King Edward with some of his force to Maldon in Essex, and there encamped, while the burh at Witham was being wrought and built.) The second (A. 920) reference is as follows : (Her on pys gere foran to middum sumera for Eadweard cyn'mg to Mteldune & getimbrede j)a burg is" gestaffolode <sr he ponon fore.) (In this year, before Midsummer, King Edward went to Maldon, and built and established the burg, ere he went thence.) WITHAM BURY. Some sixty years ago, when little interest was taken in such relics of past history, the Eastern Counties railway was cut through the heart of this fortress, which is second to none to those who are interested in England's story unfolded in the pages of the Saxon Chronicle ; for there we read of King Edward staying in Maldon in A. 9 1 3 while this burb was being constructed. Road-makers and gravel-diggers have for long aided in the work of its destruction, till only fragments remain of the burh that Edward ivorbte & getimbrede at Witham. The best modern ac- count of this earthwork was i // T^ written by Mr. F. C. J. / I /* I Spurrell. 1 His paper gives a plan showing, in addition to the ramparts which are plain to the eye of the passer-by, the course of the destroyed works, traced by Mr. Spurrell when in winter visits he was able to follow their line. The original fort seems to have consisted of a large enclosure of about 400 by 350 yards, with an inner ward or keep 200 by 175 yards. If this could be regarded as the typical form for a royal military burh of the period, much importance would be added to traces thereof. Mr. Spurrell (to whose courtesy we are indebted for the basis of our plan, in which the black lines signify banks) says : On the south-west side, or that on which the River Panta runs, the hillside is very steep ; on the other sides the land slopes gently from the middle of the camp. . . . The ditches were dry ; about thirty feet wide, and of slight depth. ... I should think that, measured from the inside, the average height [of the banks] was seven feet. 1 Essex Naturalist, 1887, i. 19. 288 Enhances?