The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles

Ella Sophia Armitage (1841–1931) was one of the first five students of Newnham College, Cambridge, and was involved with women's education throughout her life. This illustrated 1912 work, arising from her abiding interest in medieval history and archaeology, discusses the fortifications of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes before describing Norman castles in Normandy and the earliest of their deliberately dominant buildings in England. The motte castles of Wales, Scotland and Ireland are also reviewed. Armitage argues that the earthworks which are often the only survivals of motte-and-bailey castles had been relatively neglected in the nineteenth century, and attributes a renewal of interest in them to the surveying work of Pitt-Rivers. She identifies a total of 84 eleventh-century Norman castles in England, giving their architectural type, acreage and present condition. As a detailed survey of visible remains, this book is still an important reference source for the Norman settlement in Britain.