DUFFIELD CASTLE. 151 



fierceness. Fresh stockades would probably be erected, backed 

 by new earthworks, and the configuration of the deep foss changed 

 more than once as seems to have been the case. Some out- 

 lying earthworks on the north side seem to be of this date. 



From little known field-names, as well as from a few of the 

 better known place-names, the degree of settlement that the Danes 

 obtained about here can be readily gauged. They can be more 

 readily traced right up the valley of the Ecclesbourn, leading from 

 Duffield to the lead mines of Wirksworth, than in any other part 

 of the county, and this is just what we should have expected. 

 That the Danes for a time held this site, and that it was the scene 

 of more than one fierce encounter between them and the English 

 there can, we think, be no manner of doubt. In 868-9 tne 

 Danish army was at Nottingham, where it was besieged by the 

 West Saxons. When Alfred died in 901, and was succeeded by 

 his son Edward, there was again much warfare in this district. 

 Ethelfleda, sister to Edward, and a kind of Queen of the Mercians, 

 was most energetic in her operations, in throwing up fresh earth- 

 works, and in strengthening old ones, as bases for her troops in 

 their operations against the Danes. In 913 she built the military 

 burhs of Tamworth and of Stafford, and in 914 that of Warwick. 

 In 917 Derby, which was held by the Danes, fell before the 

 onslaught of Ethelfleda's soldiers, the gates of the town being 

 burnt. In the following year she obtained from the Danes the 

 town of Leicester by capitulation. There can then, we think, be 

 no doubt that Duffield, too, was held at this period by the Danes, 

 and that they were driven out about the year 917, when the 

 Mercian troops were so successful in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood. 



The excavations that have been already undertaken on 

 this site have yielded several interesting details of Anglo-Saxon 

 occupation. 



In the north-west angle of the keep a few human bones 

 were unearthed ; they were the only human remains discovered 

 during the excavations. They were pronounced by two doctors 

 to whom they were submitted to be parts of the skeleton of 



