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, 1 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) Renhold. — 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 1 20 feet in diameter, whilst the rampart is some 40 feet broad at the base, 8 feet high above the inner level, and 1 1 feet above the fosse outside, which is 50 feet across, and at present of very flat section. This is due to the fact that twenty-five years ago it was drained of its water and then 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). 284
