Thus Newcastle-upon-Tyne arose about
the early fortress erected in 1080 by Robert Curthose to guard the
passage of the river at the Pons Aelii. The poor little Saxon village
of Monkchester was then its neighbour. But the castle occupying a fine
strategic position soon attracted townsfolk, who built their houses
'neath its shadow. The town of Richmond owes its existence to the
lordly castle which Alain Rufus, a cousin of the Duke of Brittany,
erected on land granted to him by the Conqueror. An old rhyme tells
how he
Came out of Brittany
With his wife Tiffany,
And his maid Manfras,
And his dog Hardigras.
He built his walls of stone. We must not imagine, however, that an
early Norman castle was always a vast keep of stone. That came later.
The Normans called their earliest strongholds _mottes_, which
consisted of a mound with stockades and a deep ditch and a
bailey-court also defended by a ditch and stockades. Instead of the
great stone keep of later days, "foursquare to every wind that blew,"
there was a wooden tower for the shelter of the garrison. You can see
in the Bayeux tapestry the followers of William the Conqueror in the
act of erecting some such tower of defence. Such structures were
somewhat easily erected, and did not require a long period for their
construction.
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