ST. ALBANS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
249 
the Abbey precincts around a large triangular market-place 
formed on the west side of a high road by the widening of that 
road, and was defended probably by a ditch. 
The Abbot’s town flourished, and there consequently arose 
a rivalry between it and Kingsbury, its neighbour. The Abbot, 
to gain an advantage for his tenants, purchased between 957 
and 975 from King Edgar the lake on the south-west side of 
Kingsbury, which was a source of livelihood to the King’s 
townsmen, and drained it. The drainage was effected by 
cutting through the British dam or causeway on the south of 
the lake where the opening still remains, though recently 
spanned by a small brick bridge. This, however, had not the 
desired effect of ruining the royal town, so a few years later the 
Abbot bought from King Ethelred the whole site of Kingsbury 
except the small eastern bulwark before referred to. He 
summarily turned out the inhabitants and levelled the town. 
The bulwark remained in the hands of the Crown quasi sjoina 
in oculo of the monastery till King Stephen granted it to the 
abbey about 1152, when the site was levelled, ploughed, and sown. 
At the time Abbot Wulsin laid out the market-place at 
St. Albans, he also built the churches of St. Peter, St. Michael, 
and St. Stephen at the three approaches to the town. No part 
of the existing churches seems to be of so early a date as Wulsin, 
but the church of St. Michael is a Saxon church probably of the 
early part of the eleventh century, and originally consisted of 
a nave and chancel, the existing features of this date being the 
remains of the Saxon windows over the nave arcades, and the 
blocked doorway on the north side of the chancel. The present 
St. Stephen’s Church, and Sandridge Church, formerly a chapel 
of St. Peter’s, were probably both built just after the Conquest. 
Of objects of archaeological interest outside the city of 
St. Albans, mention must be made of the Aubreys Camp at 
Redbourn. The earthworks of this camp have a resemblance 
to those at Yerulam, on a smaller scale, and may be of the Late 
Celtic period, but no systematic excavations have been made and 
no finds indicative of a date have been discovered. The camp 
is oval in shape and covers about 23 acres. The rampart 
and ditch are double, except on the west, where they are single, 
and on the east, where a single rampart and ditch alone remain, 
the other having been destroyed. There is only one well-defined 
entrance, but indications exist of a small opening on the north. 
The Hills of the Banners at Redbourn Common, where the 
bones of St. Amphibalus and his companions were supposed to 
have been found in 1178, were clearly, from the minute descriptions 
given by the chronicler, two Saxon barrows, and the bones found 
those of pagan Saxons. 
The Dykes in Sandridge and Wheathampstead parishes, known 
as Beech Bottom, the Devil’s Dyke, and the Slad, are unlike 
ordinary boundary dykes as the two last-named at all events 
have no ramparts. The object and date of these earthworks are 
