A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
court to the east of the main enclosure, as though for extra defence to 
‘naust’ and harbour. Its bank and ditch are lost in ploughed fields after 
reaching the hedge, but their return may be traced on the other side 
of the line. 
The Northmen were accustomed to provide some such shelter for 
their fleets when campaigning, and this work is described with some 
detail because of its situation on the line of their advance on Bedford. 
They may have left their ships under guard here before crossing to the 
north bank of the Ouse, where the fighting certainly took place. The 
harbour would have space for between twenty-five to thirty ships of the 
Gokstad type, which would allow for a force of about 2,500 men. That 
there is no reference to Willington in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may 
be due to the fact that after their defeat the Danes withdrew on Temps- 
ford, where the next recorded fighting took place. Not having been 
itself the scene of battle, Willington might easily pass unnamed. 
(4) Rennorp.—On the north bank of the river, opposite to Will- 
ington, there is a curious small circular work on a commanding height. 
It is surrounded by defences 
RENHOLD of disproportionate size for 
the scale of the enclosure, 
which is only 120 feet in 
HIGH ROAD diameter, whilst the rampart 
= wt Wp is some 40 feet broad at the 
= “Onn base, 8 feet high above the 
A, 
N : es inner level,and 11 feet above 
= 3% the fosse outside, which is 
ae. Ce x 50 feet across, and at present 
TIC Sy, yyy w of very flat section. This 
“an uibnus is due to the fact that 
twenty-five years ago it was 
Scents ur Feat drained of its water and then 
6 100 200-300 filled up. Formerly the 
depth must have been in 
proportion to its breadth. Now it is only 3 feet, and towards the 
rear the ditch has been almost obliterated. Water still stands in a portion to 
the south. There are entrances at the east and west, through which an old 
road once ran, the latter being double the width of the former. As the ram- 
part near it and especially to the north has evidently been tampered with, 
the gap here may have been widened. The high road between Bedford and 
St. Neots runs past the north rampart, and the ditch has here disappeared ; 
no doubt the shovel has been at work to level the sides of the road. 
An old man of eighty remembers the road before it was hedged, when 
the work lay open and untouched. On the high flat ground between 
1 The Jomsviking Saga speaks of a harbour made by Palnatoki the Viking at Jomsborg, perhaps 
on the Isle of Wollin. ‘There he had a large and strong sea-burg made. He also had a harbour 
made within the burg in which 300 long ships could lie at the same time, all being locked in the burg’ 
(The Viking Age, Du Chaillu, ii. 162). 
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