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95-675: The Wiltshire Times is a weekly newspaper published in Trowbridge , Wiltshire in South West England. The paper serves the western Wiltshire towns of Bradford on Avon , Trowbridge, Corsham , Chippenham , Warminster , Westbury and Melksham , and their surrounding rural areas. The newspaper was in existence by 1881 as the Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser . In 1900, the West Wiltshire Printing Company bought

190-482: A bridge, which, rising from the outer side of the moat and supported on posts as it ascends, reaches to the top of the mound". At Durham Castle , contemporaries described how the motte-and-bailey superstructure arose from the "tumulus of rising earth" with a keep rising "into thin air, strong within and without" with a "stalwart house ... glittering with beauty in every part". Mottes were made out of earth and flattened on top, and it can be very hard to determine whether

285-591: A consequence of the centralising of royal authority in the 12th century. David I encouraged Norman and French nobles to settle in Scotland, introducing a feudal mode of landholding and the use of castles as a way of controlling the contested lowlands. The quasi-independent polity of Galloway , which had resisted the rule of David and his predecessors, was a particular focus for this colonisation. The size of these Scottish castles, primarily wooden motte and bailey constructions, varied considerably, from larger designs such as

380-517: A large Victorian building, is a performance and exhibition venue and is also used by community groups. At Wiltshire College the Arc Theatre is used by students and local groups. There is a concert hall at Wiltshire Music Centre in neighbouring Bradford-on-Avon . Trowbridge is part of the historic West Country Carnival circuit. There is an annual multi-day folk music festival called Trowbridge Festival , formerly Trowbridge Village Pump Festival;

475-640: A market charter, arguably the earliest for a town in Wiltshire, and one of the earliest in England. His officials were to lay out burgage plots for traders, artisans, and shopkeepers. The outline of these plots can still be seen today in the footprints of some of the present shops in Fore Street. Within Trowbridge Castle was a 10th-century Anglo-Saxon church. Henry de Bohun turned this to secular use and instead had

570-410: A more gentle incline. Where available, layers of different sorts of earth, such as clay, gravel and chalk , would be used alternatively to build in strength to the design. Layers of turf could also be added to stabilise the motte as it was built up, or a core of stones placed as the heart of the structure to provide strength. Similar issues applied to the defensive ditches, where designers found that

665-645: A mound is artificial or natural without excavation. Some were also built over older artificial structures, such as Bronze Age barrows . The size of mottes varied considerably, with these mounds being 3 metres to 30 metres in height (10–100 feet), and from 30 to 90 metres (100 to 300 ft) in diameter. This minimum height of 3 metres (10 feet) for mottes is usually intended to exclude smaller mounds which often had non-military purposes. In England and Wales, only 7% of mottes were taller than 10 metres (33 feet) high; 24% were between 10 and 5 metres (33 and 16 ft), and 69% were less than 5 metres (16 feet) tall. A motte

760-405: A natural hill could be used, scarping could produce a motte without the need to create an artificial mound, but more commonly much of the motte would have to be constructed by hand. Four methods existed for building a mound and a tower: the mound could either be built first, and a tower placed on top of it; the tower could alternatively be built on the original ground surface and then buried within

855-523: A new church built outside the Castle; this was the first St James's Church. In the base of the tower of the present day church, below the subsequently added spire, can be seen the Romanesque architecture of the period. In 1200 Henry de Bohun was created Earl of Hereford by King John . Like other barons, Henry was later threatened by King John and his caput of Trowbridge was taken from him. Henry then joined with

950-530: A number of years, with Newland Homes building town centre flats incorporating the frontage of the Usher's building. In April 2009, building work started on one of the town's biggest brownfield sites, the former Usher's bottling plant. This was developed into a Sainsbury's supermarket, a public square and housing. There is much of architectural interest in Trowbridge, including many of the old buildings associated with

1045-568: A population of 37,169 in 2021. Long a market town , the Kennet and Avon canal to the north of Trowbridge played an instrumental part in the town's development, as it allowed coal to be transported from the Somerset Coalfield ; this marked the advent of steam-powered manufacturing in woollen cloth mills. The town was the foremost centre of woollen cloth production in south west England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, by which time it held

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1140-570: A range of different castle types as motta , however, and there may not have been as many genuine motte-and-bailey castles in southern Italy as was once thought on the basis of the documentary evidence alone. In addition, there is evidence of the Norman crusaders building a motte and bailey using sand and wood in Egypt in 1221 during the Fifth Crusade . Motte-and-bailey castles became a less popular design in

1235-630: A similar transition occurred in the 13th and 14th centuries. One factor was the introduction of stone into castle buildings. The earliest stone castles had emerged in the 10th century, with stone keeps being built on mottes along the Catalonia frontier and several, including Château de Langeais , in Angers. Although wood was a more powerful defensive material than was once thought, stone became increasingly popular for military and symbolic reasons. Some existing motte-and-bailey castles were converted to stone, with

1330-650: A site adjoining the A361 on County Way, and their former site remained dormant for a decade. The building was demolished but a pile of rubble, nicknamed 'Mount Crushmore' by local media, remained. Legal & General acquired the land and construction of St Stephen's Place Leisure Park began in 2012. A seven-screen Odeon cinema and Nando's restaurant opened in October 2013. A Premier Inn and food outlets including Frankie and Benny's and Prezzo followed in 2014. The former Usher's brewery site has also undergone redevelopment over

1425-532: A stronghold and bailey construction surrounded by water, and widely built in the late medieval period. In England, motte-and-bailey earthworks were put to various uses over later years; in some cases, mottes were turned into garden features in the 18th century, or reused as military defences during the Second World War . Today, almost no mottes of motte-and-bailey castles remain in regular use in Europe, with one of

1520-582: A thousand people and donated a school, almshouses, and the Trowbridge Town Hall to the town. David Stratton , the film critic was born in Trowbridge in 1939. He founded the Melksham and District Film Society before emigrating to Australia in 1963, where he ran the Sydney Film Festival for 17 years, as well as presenting the film review shows The Movie Show on SBS and At The Movies on

1615-610: A turf bank, and by the 12th century was used to refer to the castle design itself. The word "bailey" comes from the Norman-French baille , or basse-cour , referring to a low yard. In medieval sources, the Latin term castellum was used to describe the bailey complex within these castles. One contemporary account of these structures comes from Jean de Colmieu around 1130, describing the Calais region in northern France. De Colmieu described how

1710-509: A wooden or stone structure known as a keep ); and at least one bailey (a fortified enclosure built next to the motte). The constructive elements themselves are ancient, but the term motte-and-bailey is a relatively modern one and is not medieval in origin. The word motte is the French version of the Latin mota , and in France, the word motte , generally used for a clump of turf , came to refer to

1805-414: A year. Its feudal lord was an Anglo-Saxon named Brictric , who was the largest landowner in Wiltshire. The first mention of Trowbridge Castle was in 1139 when it was besieged. It was no longer in military use by the 14th century and by the 16th only ruins remained. The castle is thought to have been a motte-and-bailey castle, and its influence can still be seen in the town today. Fore Street follows

1900-503: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Trowbridge Trowbridge ( / ˈ t r oʊ b r ɪ dʒ / TROH -brij ) is the county town of Wiltshire , England; situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, close to the border with Somerset . The town lies 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Bath , 31 miles (50 km) south-west of Swindon and 20 miles (32 km) south-east of Bristol . The parish had

1995-641: Is a particularly western and northern European phenomenon, most numerous in France and Britain, but also seen in Denmark, Germany, Southern Italy and occasionally beyond. European castles first emerged between the Loire river and the Rhine in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes and local territories became threatened by

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2090-552: Is composed of 21 councillors . County Hall in Bythesea Road, Trowbridge, is the administrative centre for Wiltshire Council , a unitary authority created in April 2009 which replaced both West Wiltshire District Council and the former Wiltshire County Council , also headquartered at County Hall since 1940. Trowbridge civil parish is divided into seven electoral divisions, each electing one member of Wiltshire Council. Trowbridge

2185-592: Is within the South West Wiltshire parliamentary constituency, which has been represented by Andrew Murrison ( Conservative ) since its formation in 2010. The River Biss enters Trowbridge from the southeast, where it flows through Biss Meadows, managed as a country park. In the north of the town it is joined by the Lambrok Stream, then continues north to join the River Avon near Staverton . Northwest of

2280-623: The Wiltshire Gazette & Herald now share offices at the White Horse Business Park in North Bradley, on the outskirts of Trowbridge. The Wiltshire Times often has special "campaigns" that appear in the newspaper, such as a campaign to reduce the number of potholes in Wiltshire and a campaign to save jobs at a Bowyers factory in Trowbridge. The factory closed for good in 2007. This English newspaper–related article

2375-569: The ABC . Nick Blackwell , professional boxer and former British middleweight champion, is from Trowbridge, as are footballer Nathan Dyer (who played for Leicester City in the 2015-16 season when they won the Premier League), disgraced snooker player Stephen Lee , and Daniel Talbot , winner of the 4 × 100 m relay at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in a time of 37.47sec – the third fastest time in history. The Oliver Twins , who created

2470-552: The Angevins , it is argued, began to build them to protect against the Viking raids, and the design spread to deal with the attacks along the Slav and Hungarian frontiers. Another argument is that, given the links between this style of castle and the Norman style, who were of Viking descent, it was in fact originally a Viking design, transported to Normandy and Anjou . The motte-and-bailey castle

2565-602: The Bass of Inverurie to smaller castles like Balmaclellan . Motte-and-bailey castles were introduced to Ireland following the Norman invasion of Ireland that began between 1166 and 1171 under first Richard de Clare and then Henry II of England , with the occupation of southern and eastern Ireland by a number of Anglo-Norman barons. The rapid Norman success depended on key economic and military advantages; their cavalry enabled Norman successes in battles, and castles enabled them to control

2660-552: The Dizzy series of games amongst others, and in 1990 founded Interactive Studios (later Blitz Games), grew up in Trowbridge. A building at the Clarendon Academy is named after the brothers. Dick Lucas , founding member and main vocalist of punk rock band Subhumans was born in Trowbridge. Motte-and-bailey A motte-and-bailey castle was made up of two structures: a motte (a type of mound – often artificial – topped with

2755-515: The Holy Roman Empire , which then spanned central Europe. They now typically took the form of an enclosure on a hilltop, or, on lower ground, a tall, free-standing tower (German Bergfried ). The largest castles had well-defined inner and outer courts, but no mottes. The motte-and-bailey design began to spread into Alsace and the northern Alps from France during the first half of the 11th century, spreading further into Bohemia and Austria in

2850-579: The Low Countries encouraged castle building in a number of regions from the late 12th century to the 14th century. In Flanders , the first motte and bailey castles began relatively early at the end of the 11th century. The rural motte-and-bailey castles followed the traditional design, but the urban castles often lacked the traditional baileys, using parts of the town to fulfil this role instead. Motte-and-bailey castles in Flanders were particularly numerous in

2945-618: The castle in Norwich and 27 for the castle in Cambridge . The second and third waves of castle building in the late-11th century were led by the major magnates and then the more junior knights on their new estates. Some regional patterns in castle building can be seen – relatively few castles were built in East Anglia compared to the west of England or the Marches , for example; this was probably due to

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3040-481: The keep and the gatehouse usually the first parts to be upgraded. Shell keeps were built on many mottes, circular stone shells running around the top of the motte, sometimes protected by a further chemise , or low protective wall, around the base. By the 14th century, a number of motte and bailey castles had been converted into powerful stone fortresses. Newer castle designs placed less emphasis on mottes. Square Norman keeps built in stone became popular following

3135-591: The terpen gave way to hege wieren , non-residential defensive towers, often on motte-like mounds, owned by the increasingly powerful nobles and landowners. On Zeeland the local lords had a high degree of independence during the 12th and 13th centuries, owing to the wider conflict for power between neighbouring Flanders and Friesland. The Zeeland lords had also built terpen mounds, but these gave way to larger werven constructions–effectively mottes–which were later termed bergen . Sometimes both terpen and werven are called vliedburg , or " refuge castles ". During

3230-452: The 12th and 13th centuries a number of terpen mounds were turned into werven mottes, and some new werven mottes were built from scratch. Around 323 known or probable motte and bailey castles of this design are believed to have been built within the borders of the modern Netherlands . In neighbouring Denmark, motte-and-bailey castles appeared somewhat later in the 12th and 13th centuries and in more limited numbers than elsewhere, due to

3325-562: The 130 years to 1951, compared to a considerably larger increase in the population of the country as a whole. From 1951 to 2011, the population increased by 133%. Coinciding with this increase, a considerable conversion of arable fields and some riverside meadows to residential estates took place. According to the census in 2011, the ethnic breakdown of the population of Trowbridge parish was: White 94.8%, Mixed/multiple ethnic groups 1.9%, Asian/Asian British 1.5%, Black/African/Caribbean/Black British 1.1%, Other ethnic group 0.8%. The population of

3420-485: The 14th century to a castrum-curia model, where the castle was built with a fortified bailey and a fortified mound, somewhat smaller than the typical motte. By the 12th century, the castles in Western Germany began to thin in number, due to changes in land ownership, and various mottes were abandoned. In Germany and Denmark, motte-and-bailey castles also provided the model for the later wasserburg , or "water castle",

3515-633: The 2021 Census, the population of the "built-up area" – consisting of Trowbridge, Staverton and Hilperton parishes – was 43,744. Trowbridge railway station was opened in 1848 on the Westbury – Bradford-on-Avon section of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway . Today this line forms part of both the Wessex Main Line (Bristol–Westbury–Southampton) and the Heart of Wessex Line (Bristol–Westbury–Weymouth), while

3610-476: The 2024 edition was held at Southwick , near Trowbridge. Methodism was introduced to the town by local evangelist Joanna Turner in the 18th century. Trowbridge was the birthplace of Sir Isaac Pitman in 1813, developer of the Pitman system of shorthand writing, who has several memorial plaques. Matthew Hutton (later archbishop of Canterbury) was the town's rector from 1726 to 1730. The poet George Crabbe held

3705-464: The Clarendon Academy , the John of Gaunt School and St Augustine's Catholic College . All of the secondary schools also operate their own sixth forms . Larkrise School is a special school for children aged 3 to 19. Wiltshire College has one of its four campuses in Trowbridge offering a range of vocational courses for school-leavers. Trowbridge Cottage Hospital , now Trowbridge Community Hospital

3800-573: The Conqueror , as the Duke of Normandy , is believed to have adopted the motte-and-bailey design from neighbouring Anjou. Duke William went on to prohibit the building of castles without his consent through the Consuetudines et Justicie , with his legal definition of castles centring on the classic motte-and-bailey features of ditching, banking and palisading. By the 11th century, castles were built throughout

3895-551: The Magyars and the Norse. Against this background, various explanations have been put forward to explain the origins and spread of the motte-and-bailey design across western and northern Europe; there is often a tension among the academic community between explanations that stress military and social reasons for the rise of this design. One suggestion is that these castles were built particularly in order to protect against external attack –

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3990-562: The best-known castle design, they were not always the most numerous in any given area. A popular alternative was the ringwork castle, involving a palisade being built on top of a raised earth rampart , protected by a ditch. The choice of motte and bailey or ringwork was partially driven by terrain, as mottes were typically built on low ground, and on deeper clay and alluvial soils. Another factor may have been speed, as ringworks were faster to build than mottes. Some ringwork castles were later converted into motte-and-bailey designs, by filling in

4085-467: The building of motte-and-bailey castles in Normandy accelerated as well, resulting in a broad swath of these castles across the Norman territories, around 741 motte-and-bailey castles in England and Wales alone. Having become well established in Normandy, Germany and Britain, motte-and-bailey castles began to be adopted elsewhere, mainly in northern Europe, during the 12th and 13th centuries. Conflict through

4180-457: The built-up area, which includes Staverton and Hilperton parishes, was 39,409 in 2011 and was estimated to have grown to 43,719 by mid-2020. In 2018 the Office for National Statistics estimated the population of the larger "community area" at 45,822, making Trowbridge the most populous area in Wiltshire (excluding Swindon), with Chippenham close behind in second place and Salisbury third. At

4275-522: The centre of the ringwork to produce a flat-topped motte. The reasons for why this decision was taken are unclear; motte-and-bailey castles may have been felt to be more prestigious, or easier to defend; another theory is that like the terpen in the Netherlands, or Vorburg and Hauptburg in Lower Rhineland, raising the height of the castle was done to create a drier site. The motte-and-bailey castle

4370-516: The construction of a smaller design than that later seen on the sites concerned. Taking into account estimates of the likely available manpower during the period, historians estimate that the larger mottes might have taken between four and nine months to build. This contrasted favourably with stone keeps of the period, which typically took up to ten years to build. Very little skilled labour was required to build motte and bailey castles, which made them very attractive propositions if forced peasant labour

4465-502: The creation of local fiefdoms and feudal landowners, and areas without this method of governance rarely built these castles. Yet another theory suggests that the design emerged as a result of the pressures of space on ringworks and that the earliest motte-and-baileys were converted ringworks. Finally, there may be a link between the local geography and the building of motte-and-bailey castles, which are usually built on low-lying areas, in many cases subject to regular flooding. Regardless of

4560-432: The date for the first motte and bailey castle, at Vincy , back to 979. The castles were built by the more powerful lords of Anjou in the late 10th and 11th centuries, in particular Fulk III and his son, Geoffrey II , who built a great number of them between 987 and 1060. Many of these earliest castles would have appeared quite crude and rustic by later standards, belying the power and prestige of their builders. William

4655-496: The end. The last mill, Salter's Home Mill, closed in 1982 and is now the home of Boswell's Café and Trowbridge Museum and Art Gallery, integrated into the Shires Shopping Centre . The museum portrays the history of woollen cloth production in the town; the displays include a rare Spinning Jenny , one of only five remaining worldwide. There are also working looms on display. Clark's Mill is now home to offices; straddling

4750-408: The first documentary evidence of a native Welsh castle being at Cymmer in 1116. These timber castles, including Tomen y Rhodywdd, Tomen y Faerdre , Gaer Penrhôs , were of equivalent quality to the equivalent Norman fortifications in the area, and it can prove difficult to distinguish the builders of some sites from the archaeological evidence alone. Motte-and-bailey castles in Scotland emerged as

4845-456: The first such construction in Langeais in 994. Several were built in England and Wales after the conquest; by 1216 there were around 100 in the country. These massive keeps could be either erected on top of settled, well-established mottes or could have mottes built around them – so-called "buried" keeps. The ability of mottes, especially newly built mottes, to support the heavier stone structures,

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4940-426: The higher peaks where mottes were unnecessary. In Flanders, a decline came in the 13th century as feudal society changed. In the Netherlands, cheap brick started to be used in castles from the 13th century onwards in place of earthworks, and many mottes were levelled, to help develop the surrounding, low-lying fields; these "levelled mottes" are a particularly Dutch phenomenon. In Denmark, motte and baileys gave way in

5035-455: The identification of these earthwork remains can be contentious. A small number of motte-and-bailey castles were built outside of northern Europe. In the late-12th century, the Normans invaded southern Italy and Sicily ; although they had the technology to build more modern designs, in many cases wooden motte-and-bailey castles were built instead for reasons of speed. The Italians came to refer to

5130-543: The later periods. Larger mottes took disproportionately more effort to build than their smaller equivalents, because of the volumes of earth involved. The largest mottes in England, such as that of Thetford Castle , are estimated to have required up to 24,000 man-days of work; smaller ones required perhaps as little as 1,000. Contemporary accounts talk of some mottes being built in a matter of days, although these low figures have led to suggestions by historians that either these figures were an underestimate, or that they refer to

5225-791: The less feudal society. Except for a handful of mote and bailey castles in Norway, built in the first half of the 11th century and including the royal residence in Oslo , the design did not play a role further north in Scandinavia. The Norman expansion into Wales slowed in the 12th century but remained an ongoing threat to the remaining native rulers. In response, the Welsh princes and lords began to build their own castles, frequently motte-and-bailey designs, usually in wood. There are indications that this may have begun from 1111 onwards under Prince Cadwgan ap Bleddyn , with

5320-576: The mid-medieval period. In France, they were not built after the start of the 12th century, and mottes ceased to be built in most of England after around 1170, although they continued to be erected in Wales and along the Marches. Many motte-and-bailey castles were occupied relatively briefly; in England, many had been abandoned or allowed to lapse into disrepair by the 12th century. In the Low Countries and Germany,

5415-416: The more prestigious Höhenburgen built on high ground, but this is usually regarded as unlikely. In many cases, bergfrieds were converted into motte and bailey designs by burying existing castle towers within the mounds. In England, William invaded from Normandy in 1066, resulting in three phases of castle building in England, around 80% of which were in the motte-and-bailey pattern. The first of these

5510-442: The motte. Typically the ditch of the motte and the bailey joined, forming a figure of eight around the castle. Wherever possible, nearby streams and rivers would be dammed or diverted, creating water-filled moats, artificial lakes and other forms of water defences. In practice, there was a wide number of variations to this common design. A castle could have more than one bailey: at Warkworth Castle an inner and an outer bailey

5605-417: The mound; the tower could potentially be built on the original ground surface and then partially buried within the mound, the buried part forming a cellar beneath; or the tower could be built first, and the mound added later. Regardless of the sequencing, artificial mottes had to be built by piling up earth; this work was undertaken by hand, using wooden shovels and hand-barrows, possibly with picks as well in

5700-484: The name of a hamlet and a common to the west of the town. On John Speed 's map of Wiltshire (1611), the name is spelt Trubridge . In the 10th century, written records and architectural ruins begin marking Trowbridge's existence as a village. In the 1086 Domesday Book the village of Straburg, as Trowbridge was then known, was recorded as having 24 households, well endowed with land, particularly arable ploughlands, and rendering 8 pounds sterling to its feudal lord

5795-487: The nearby River Biss is the "Handle House", formerly used for drying and storage of teazles used to raise the nap of cloth. This is one of very few such buildings still known to exist in the United Kingdom. In its place a bedding industry developed, initially using wool cast off from the mills; the company now known as Airsprung Furniture Group was started in the town in the 1870s. Food production also developed in

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5890-407: The newly conquered territories. The new lords rapidly built castles to protect their possessions; most of these were motte-and-bailey constructions, many of them strongly defended. Unlike Wales, the indigenous Irish lords do not appear to have constructed their own castles in any significant number during the period. Between 350 and 450 motte-and-bailey castles are believed to remain today, although

5985-493: The nickname "The Manchester of the West". The parish encompasses the settlements of Longfield, Lower Studley, Upper Studley, Studley Green and Trowle Common. The origin of the name Trowbridge is uncertain; one source claims derivation from treow-brycg , meaning "Tree Bridge", referring to the first bridge over the Biss, while another states the true meaning is the bridge by Trowle ,

6080-407: The nobles would build "a mound of earth as high as they can and dig a ditch about it as wide and deep as possible. The space on top of the mound is enclosed by a palisade of very strong hewn logs, strengthened at intervals by as many towers as their means can provide. Inside the enclosure is a citadel, or keep, which commands the whole circuit of the defences. The entrance to the fortress is by means of

6175-643: The original route to Melksham, Chippenham and Swindon is used by the TransWilts service. Other services from Trowbridge join the Great Western Main Line at Bath and Chippenham , or join the Reading to Taunton line at Westbury. Trowbridge is about 18 miles (29 km) from junction 17 of the M4 motorway at Chippenham . The A361 runs through the town, connecting it to Swindon to the north-east and Barnstaple to

6270-530: The other barons to oppose John's arbitrary rule and forced him to seal Magna Carta (the Great Charter) at Runnymede ; and was elected as one of the 25 enforcers of the charter. Some years after Runnymede, Henry regained control of Trowbridge. Trowbridge developed as a centre for woollen cloth production from the 14th century. Thus before the start of the Tudor period , the towns of south-west Wiltshire stood out from

6365-505: The path of the castle ditch, and town has a Castle Street and the Castle Place Shopping Centre. It is likely the Castle was built by Humphrey I de Bohun ; his family dominated the town for over a hundred years. The most notable member of the family was Henry de Bohun , born around 1176, who became lord of the manor when he was about 15 years of age. It was he who really began to shape the medieval town. In 1200 he obtained

6460-564: The printing business of William Michael in Westbury for printing The West Wilts Post , which was soon taken over by the Wiltshire Times . For more than a hundred years, the newspaper was based at 15, Duke Street, in the Trowbridge town centre, which had been home to a newspaper office since about 1850. In 2019, it moved to North Bradley , stating that its building was no longer fit for purpose. The paper covers news in all parts of Wiltshire, concentrating on events within its west Wiltshire coverage area. The Wiltshire Times and its sister paper

6555-419: The reasons behind the initial popularity of the motte-and-bailey design, however, there is widespread agreement that the castles were first widely adopted in Normandy and Angevin territory in the 10th and 11th centuries. The earliest purely documentary evidence for motte-and-bailey castles in Normandy and Angers comes from between 1020 and 1040, but a combination of documentary and archaeological evidence pushes

6650-430: The relatively settled and prosperous nature of the east of England and reflected a shortage of unfree labour for constructing mottes. In Wales, the first wave of the Norman castles was again predominantly made of wood in a mixture of motte-and-bailey and ringwork designs. The Norman invaders spread up the valleys, using this form of castle to occupy their new territories. After the Norman conquest of England and Wales,

6745-430: The rest of the county with all the signs of increasing wealth and prosperity during the period of trade recovery led by exports begun under Yorkist Edward IV and, still more, during expansion under Henry VII , when England's annual woollen exports increased from some 60,000 to some 80,000 cloths of assize. During the 17th century the production of woollen cloth became increasingly industrialised. However, mechanisation

6840-454: The same position from 1814 until his death in 1832. Mary Mortimer , born in Trowbridge in 1816, became an American educator. Sir William Cook , born in Trowbridge in 1905, was involved with the development of the British nuclear bomb at Aldermaston in the 1950s, becoming the establishment's deputy director. Sir William Roger Brown (1831–1902), a Trowbridge mill-owner, employed more than

6935-508: The south along the Lower Rhine , a fiercely contested border. Further along the coast in Friesland , the relatively decentralised, egalitarian society initially discouraged the building of motte and bailey castles, although terpen , raised "dwelling mounds" which lacked towers and were usually lower in height than a typical motte, were created instead. By the end of the medieval period, however,

7030-721: The south-west, while the north–south A350 primary route to Poole passes close to the town. The nearest airport is Bristol Airport , which is 30 miles (48 km) west. Primary schools in the town include Bellefield Primary School, The Grove Primary School, Holbrook Primary School, Oasis Academy Longmeadow, Paxcroft Primary School, The Mead Community Primary School, Newtown Primary School, Castle Mead School, St John's Catholic Primary School, Studley Green Primary School and Walwayne Court Primary School. Children may also attend schools in adjacent parishes including North Bradley CE Primary School, Hilperton CE Primary School and Staverton CE Primary School. Secondary schools in Trowbridge are

7125-472: The subsequent years. This form of castle was closely associated with the colonisation of newly cultivated areas within the Empire, as new lords were granted lands by the emperor and built castles close to the local gród , or town. motte-and-bailey castle building substantially enhanced the prestige of local nobles, and it has been suggested that their early adoption was because they were a cheaper way of imitating

7220-585: The textile industry, and the Newtown conservation area, a protected zone of mostly Victorian houses. The town has six Grade I listed buildings , namely St James's Church , Lovemead House on Roundstone Street, and numbers 46, 64, 68 and 70 Fore Street. The latter is referred to more commonly as Parade House . Trowbridge Town Hall is in Market Street, opposite the entrance to the now-pedestrianised Fore Street. This three-storey building with an Italianate clock-tower

7315-458: The town through companies such as frozen food processor Apetito . The largest employers are Wiltshire Council and Apetito. Since 2002, there have been plans in place to redevelop significant town centre sites. Trowbridge Community Area Future (TCAF) produced a Community Area Plan in 2004, to guide future development. In the early 1990s the supermarket chain Tesco moved from St Stephen's Place to

7410-614: The town when Abraham Bowyer started his business in 1805 which eventually, as Pork Farms Bowyers , became one of the largest employers in the town until closure in April 2008 when production moved to the Shaftesbury and Nottingham factories. The town became the county town of Wiltshire in 1889 when Wiltshire County Council was formed and sought a place which representatives from Swindon and Salisbury, among others, could reach and return home from in one day. Trowbridge fulfilled this criterion by virtue of its railway connections and thus

7505-628: The town, part of the Avon Green Belt prevents expansion towards Bradford-on-Avon . To the north and northwest, housing areas in Staverton and Hilperton parishes are contiguous with Trowbridge's urban area; however, to the south and southeast, the villages of Southwick , North Bradley , Yarnbrook and West Ashton maintain their separate identities. The first official census of 1801 showed Trowbridge having 5,799 inhabitants, which rose sharply to 9,545 in 1821. The population rose by less than 50% in

7600-433: The upper storey of the house were garret rooms ... In this storey also the watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house took their sleep". Wooden structures on mottes could be protected by skins and hides to prevent their being easily set alight during a siege. The bailey was an enclosed courtyard overlooked by the high motte and surrounded by a wooden fence called a palisade and another ditch. The bailey

7695-522: The wider the ditch was dug, the deeper and steeper the sides of the scarp could be, making it more defensive. Although militarily a motte was, as Norman Pounds describes it, "almost indestructible", they required frequent maintenance. Soil wash was a problem, particularly with steeper mounds, and mottes could be clad with wood or stone slabs to protect them. Over time, some mottes suffered from subsidence or damage from flooding, requiring repairs and stabilisation work. Although motte-and-bailey castles are

7790-422: The wooden keep on top of the motte at the castle of Ardres , where the "first storey was on the surface of the ground, where were cellars and granaries, and great boxes, tuns, casks, and other domestic utensils. In the storey above were the dwelling and common living rooms of the residents in which were the larders, the rooms of the bakers and butlers, and the great chamber in which the lord and his wife slept ... In

7885-462: Was available, as was the case after the Norman invasion of England. Where the local workforce had to be paid – such as at Clones in Ireland, built in 1211 using imported labourers – the costs would rise quickly, in this case reaching £20. The type of soil would make a difference to the design of the motte, as clay soils could support a steeper motte, whilst sandier soils meant that a motte would need

7980-434: Was called a garillum . Smaller mottes could support only simple towers with room for a few soldiers, whilst larger mottes could be equipped with a much grander building. Many wooden keeps were designed with bretèches , or brattices, small balconies that projected from the upper floors of the building, allowing defenders to cover the base of the fortification wall. The early 12th-century chronicler Lambert of Ardres described

8075-402: Was certainly effective against assault, although as historian André Debord suggests, the historical and archaeological record of the military operation of motte-and-bailey castles remains relatively limited. An alternative approach focuses on the links between this form of castle and what can be termed a feudal mode of society. The spread of motte-and-bailey castles was usually closely tied to

8170-478: Was chosen as the county town, further reinforced by the construction of the county hall in 1939. The brewing company Ushers of Trowbridge opened in 1824, and developed the brewery in the town. This was finally shut in 2000 following several changes of ownership and its equipment was sold to North Korea , where it forms the core of the Taedonggang brewery, just outside Pyongyang . Food production continues in

8265-472: Was constructed, or alternatively, several baileys could flank the motte, as at Windsor Castle . Some baileys had two mottes, such as those at Lincoln . Some mottes could be square instead of round, such as at Cabal Tump (Herefordshire). Instead of single ditches, occasionally double-ditch defences were built, as seen at Berkhamsted . Local geography and the intent of the builder produced many unique designs. Various methods were used to build mottes. Where

8360-402: Was limited, and many needed to be built on fresh ground. Concentric castles , relying on several lines of baileys and defensive walls, made increasingly little use of keeps or mottes at all. Across Europe, motte-and-bailey construction came to an end. At the end of the 12th century, the Welsh rulers began to build castles in stone, primarily in the principality of North Wales and usually along

8455-409: Was often kidney-shaped to fit against a circular motte but could be made in other shapes according to the terrain. The bailey would contain a wide number of buildings, including a hall, kitchens, a chapel, barracks, stores, stables, forges or workshops, and was the centre of the castle's economic activity. The bailey was connected to the motte by a bridge, or, as often seen in England, by steps cut into

8550-540: Was opened in 1870. The town centre is compact, and the focus for shops is the ancient Fore Street; the more modern Shires , Shires Gateway and Castle Place shopping centres provide a variety of outlets. The civic centre, opened in 2011 and next to the town's central park, is a conference and entertainment venue and is home to the town's information centre as well as Trowbridge Town Council. A nearby leisure development includes an Odeon cinema and several food vendors ( Wagamama , Nando's etc.). The former Town Hall ,

8645-407: Was presented to the residents of the town by a local mill-owner, Sir William Roger Brown , in 1889 to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee . The building was the seat of local government until 1974 and subsequently accommodated the magistrates' courts until 2003. More recently it has been used for exhibitions and community events. The Town Council is the first tier of local government and

8740-462: Was protected by a ditch around it, which would typically have also been a source of the earth and soil for constructing the mound itself. A keep and a protective wall would usually be built on top of the motte. Some walls would be large enough to have a wall-walk around them, and the outer walls of the motte and the wall-walk could be strengthened by filling in the gap between the wooden walls with earth and stones, allowing it to carry more weight; this

8835-471: Was resisted by workers in traditional trades; there were riots in 1785 and 1792, and again in the era of Luddism (1811–1816) owing to the introduction of the flying shuttle . Thomas Helliker , a shearman's apprentice, became one of the martyrs of the Industrial Revolution in 1803 when he was hanged at Fisherton Jail, Salisbury . Nevertheless, at one point in 1820, Trowbridge's scale of production

8930-434: Was such it was described as the " Manchester of the West". It had over 20 woollen cloth producing factories, making it comparable to northern industrial towns such as Rochdale . The woollen cloth industry declined in the late 19th century with the advent of ring-spinning , and this decline continued throughout the 20th century, although Trowbridge's West of England cloth maintained a reputation for excellent quality until

9025-484: Was the establishment by the new king of royal castles in key strategic locations, including many towns. These urban castles could make use of the existing town's walls and fortification, but typically required the demolition of local houses to make space for them. This could cause extensive damage: records suggest that in Lincoln 166 houses were destroyed in the construction of Lincoln Castle , and that 113 were destroyed for

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