Burh in the context of Castra

Malmesbury (/ˈmɑː(l)mzbəri/) is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately 14 miles (23 km) west of Swindon, 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Bristol, and 9 miles (14 km) north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upper waters of the Bristol Avon and one of its tributaries.

Once the site of an Iron Age fort, in the early medieval period Malmesbury became the site of Malmesbury Abbey, a monastery famed for its learning. It was later home to one of Alfred the Great's fortified burhs for defence against the Vikings. Æthelstan, the first king of all England, was buried in the abbey when he died in 939. As a market town, it became prominent in the Middle Ages as a centre for learning, focused on and around the abbey.

Stafford (/ˈstæfərd/) is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about 15 miles (24 km) south of Stoke-on-Trent, 15 miles (24 km) north of Wolverhampton and 24 miles (39 km) north-west of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021 census, and is the main settlement within the larger Borough of Stafford, which had a population of 136,837 in 2021.

Stafford has Anglo-Saxon roots, being founded in 913, when Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, founded a defensive burh; it became the county town of Staffordshire soon after. Stafford became an important market town in the Middle Ages and later grew into an important industrial town, due to the proliferation of shoemaking, engineering and electrical industries.

Christchurch (/ˈkraɪs(t)tʃɜːrtʃ/) is a town and civil parish on the south coast of Dorset, England. The parish had a population of 31,372 in 2021. It adjoins Bournemouth to the west, with the New Forest to the east. Part of the historic county of Hampshire, Christchurch was a borough within the administrative county of Dorset from 1974 until 2019, when it became part of the new Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority.

Founded in the 7th century at the confluence of the rivers Avon and Stour which flow into Christchurch Harbour, the town was originally named Twynham but became known as Christchurch following the construction of the priory in 1094. The town developed into an important trading port, and was fortified in the 9th century. Further defences were added in the 12th century with the construction of a castle, which was destroyed during the English Civil War by the Parliamentarian Army. During the 18th and 19th centuries, smuggling flourished and became one of the town's most lucrative industries. The town was heavily fortified during the Second World War as a precaution against an expected invasion, and in 1940 an Airspeed factory was established on the town's airfield to make aircraft for the Royal Air Force.

The Burghal Hidage (/ˈbɜːrɡəl ˈhaɪdɪdʒ/) is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (burhs), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes (recorded as numbers of hides) assigned for their maintenance. The document, so named by Frederic William Maitland in 1897, survives in two versions of medieval and early modern date. Version A, Cotton Otho B.xi was badly damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in Westminster in 1731, but the body of the text survives in a transcript made by the antiquary Laurence Nowell in 1562. Version B survives as a composite part of seven further manuscripts, usually given the title De numero hydarum Anglie in Britannia. There are several discrepancies in the lists recorded in the two versions of the document: Version A includes references to Burpham, Wareham and Bridport but omits Shaftesbury and Barnstaple which are listed in Version B. Version B also names Worcester and Warwick in an appended list.

The Burghal Hidage offers a detailed picture of the network of burhs that Alfred the Great designed to defend his kingdom from the predations of Viking invaders.

Christchurch Castle is a Norman motte and bailey castle in Christchurch, Dorset, England (grid reference SZ160927). The earliest stonework has been dated to 1160 (866 years ago) (1160). The castle's site is inside the old Saxon burh dominating the River Avon's lowest crossing.

The Constable's House standing adjacent to the castle was added at around 1160, and is a rare and notable example of a Norman domestic dwelling. Today the bailey is home to a bowling green and gardens, and the ditch has been filled in, but parts of the keep and much of the Constable's House still stand. The site is managed by English Heritage.

Burford (/ˈbɜːrfərd/) is a town on the River Windrush, in the Cotswold hills, in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is often referred to as the 'gateway' to the Cotswolds. Burford is located 18 miles (29 km) west of Oxford and 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Cheltenham, about 2 miles (3 km) from the Gloucestershire boundary. The toponym derives from the Old English words burh meaning fortified town or hilltown and ford, the crossing of a river. The 2011 Census recorded the population of Burford parish as 1,422.

The Battle of Buttington was fought in 893 between a Viking army and an alliance of Anglo-Saxons and Welsh.

The annals for 893 reported that a large Viking army had landed in the Lympne Estuary, Kent and a smaller force had landed in the Thames estuary under the command of Danish king Hastein. These were reinforced by ships from the settled Danes of East Anglia and Northumbria, some of this contingent sailed round the coast to besiege a fortified place (known as a burh) and Exeter, both in Devon. The English king Alfred the Great, on hearing of Exeter's demise, led all his mounted men to relieve the city. He left his son-in-law Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians and ealdormen Æthelhelm, Æthelnoth, and others in charge of defending various towns and cities from the rest of the Viking army.

Winchester city walls are a series of defensive walls in central Winchester, originally built during the Roman settlement of southern Britain, in what was then the settlement of Venta Belgarum. The area surrounding Winchester had been populated throughout the Iron Age, with Britonnic settlements existing at Oram's Arbour, St Catherine's Hill, and Worthy Down; Venta Belgarum took its name from the Belgae tribes of the area. Earthwork defences were constructed around the end of the 2nd century AD, being rebuilt in stone during the latter part of the 3rd century.

Under Saxon rule, Alfred the Great rebuilt Winchester and its defences as part of the burh system developed to protect against Norse incursions. Winchester was later chosen as the location of one of the first Norman castles in England, with Winchester Castle being built alongside the walls in 1067. As well as the royal castle in the West of the city, Wolvesey Castle, the palace of the Bishop of Winchester, was built in the East of the City alongside the River Itchen; during the Civil War known as The Anarchy, the forces of Queen Matilda, on behalf of King Stephen, besieged the forces of Empress Matilda, destroying much of the old city including the urban defences, in an event known as the Rout of Winchester.