Here in Midhurst the central thoroughfare
(ceap straet, or market street, now Church
Hill) runs north-south. Parallel to it are Duck
Lane (dic lane), Sheep Lane (shepecaeping
lane) and another lane, now lost, behind
Sheep Lane. These three extended further
south than they do now. Cutting across them
were four east-west routes that connected
the lost lane to Duck Lane. The northernmost
remains only as that part of Sheep Lane
beside Lloyds Bank; it once extended into
Duck Lane. (A later development joined it to
Rumbolds Hill: that still exists but the middle
part has been built over.) The next cross-lane
went through the burial ground (an 18th
century development), across the north side
of the church (then much smaller), via the
land now occupied by Lyndale/Birdcage
House into Duck Lane. The third, still remaining, links St. Ann's Hill with West Street,
albeit interrupted by the 1551 Market House.
The fourth is partly visible as the spur from
Edinburgh Square to South Street.
These four lanes existed until the 18th
century and are the reason why Church Hill
was not divided by a continuous line of properties. Old maps show three separate blocks
of houses, the Middle Rows (two of which are
still partially standing) which could not be
joined because doing so would block the
east-west thoroughfares. These were finally
closed by the building of large town houses
for Georgian merchants.
The area enclosed by the ditch was
greater than the land occupied by the population. This was deliberate. Space was left for
the country people who came into Midhurst
when danger threatened. For them it was a
place of refuge (fluchtburh) where the
women and children could live in safety while
their men added to the number of the town's
defenders. When the Vikings had moved on,
they returned home.
A Midhurst Society Publication
THE SAXON
DEFENCES
THE DEFENDED TOWN
A vital part of the defences was the semicircular back lane around the town inside the
ditch/bank fortification. This connected the
north-south and east-west thoroughfares and
completed the grid layout of the town. These
three features (the back lane, the ditch and
the grid) were all part of the defensive plan.
This was a layout that enabled the fighters to
run quickly from one area under attack to
another. It also provided a logically organised
space that could be apportioned to settlers in
the town.
It was important to attract permanent
inhabitants and the inducements included
the availability of building plots, the right to
hold a market and the establishment of a
local judicial system. Saxon Midhurst had
these. The Viking threat ended soon after the
coming of the Normans; the ditch was backfilled and the town developed from burh to
borough.
The Midhurst Society aims to…
• Stimulate public interest in Midhurst and its
neighbouring villages.
• Promote high standards of planning and architecture.
• Encourage the preservation, development and
improvement of features of historic or public interest.
• Pursue these objectives through meetings, lectures,
exhibitions, research and publications.
Text by Bridget Howard
© The Midhurst Society 2006
Printed by KerryType, Midhurst, 2006
From the Bayeux Tapestry
S
axon Midhurst was protected against
Viking attack by a massive ditch with an
earthwork bank. This surrounded the town.
Within its perimeters the streets were laid out
in a criss-cross pattern to form an interlocking
grid. Encircling this was a back lane. All these
were part of the defences.
Over the years the ditch and the grid
pattern have disappeared. The ditch was
back-filled in the 13th/14th centuries. The
grid was eroded as Midhurst expanded and
was finally lost in the Georgian rebuilding.
Recently both have been rediscovered.
The ditch was found by archaeologists in
1997 and the street plan was plotted in 2006.
Their routes were confirmed from old maps
and documents, allied to a careful study of
property boundaries.
WHY WAS THE DITCH DUG?
THE LINE OF THE DITCH
It was too enormous to have been a town
boundary. It was not part of the defences of
the Norman castle on St. Ann's Hill. That was
not a garrison fortress and there was sufficient space on the Hill for the few troops that
were stationed there for relatively short
periods. The castle was abandoned
when the English had been subdued
(within about 20 years) and later events
gave no reason for the digging of a
great ditch around the town.
If it was not contemporary with (or
subsequent to) the Conquest in 1066, it
must pre-date that happening. We can
therefore probably place it in the early
10th century when the kings of Wessex
were strengthening their lands against
the Vikings. For more than a century
these invaders had plundered and
ravaged everything in their path,
murdering innocent peasants and
taking the fittest to be sold at the slave
markets in Dublin.
Digging the ditch was an enormous
task, carried out by men from miles
around over many months. Its size is an
indication of their fear. Using primitive
tools they removed more than 40,000
tons of earth and bedrock to produce a
ditch 11 metres (36 feet) wide by 3-4
metres (10-13 feet) deep and about 600
metres (2,000 feet) in length. The excavated
material was built up into a high bank on the
town side, sharply scarped at the front and
more gently sloping at the rear. Its face was
revetted with turfs, stone and timber, topped
with sharpened stakes and brushwood.
The existence of the ditch was confirmed in
1997 when the Spread Eagle Hotel applied
for planning permission for its Aquila Suite.
Archaeologists were then able to excavate
and use ground-probing radar to form
conclusions about the line taken by the ditch.
turned north between Duck and Wool Lanes,
then struck east to return to St. Ann's Hill,
completing the encirclement of the town. It
was at first thought that the northern limit of
the ditch lay behind Knockhundred Row, but
later opinion puts its line on the brow of
Church Hill where the road narrows.
Evidence of the western boundary comes
from the former names of Duck and
Wool Lanes. 'Duck' was originally dic
meaning a dyke or ditch. This was on
the town side of the earthworks.
Beyond
them,
when
Midhurst
expanded, was Fore Street, so called
because it was before – i.e. outside –
the Saxon town. (The name Wool Lane
is a Victorian invention.)
THE PLANNED TOWN
Ditch
Streets
It formed a rough semicircle around the town
as it then existed and was backed by other
defences on St. Ann's Hill. From the southeast corner of the Hill it ran behind
Edinburgh Square, crossing South Street to
continue along the back of West Street. It
The streets and lanes probably once
formed the interlocking grid pattern
that is typical of towns that were
deliberately planned. By 892 King
Alfred had established certain strategically located towns as fortified burhs
(including Chichester and Winchester).
Their number was increased by his
successors and Midhurst seems to have
been one of them.
Most settlements developed piecemeal,
but these Planned Towns were probably laid
out at one moment in time. Behind their
walls and ditches they have a similar rectilinear layout: a straight principal street with
parallel side streets, all cut by regularly
spaced cross-lanes that divide the town into
equal sized blocks. This was their usual
pattern.