been
constructed at a much earlier date. It would have palisades defending the
top of the mound, and similar defences inside the entrenchments that
formed the basecourt. These may have occupied the position of the present
dry moat that defends the castle on two of its three sides. If Pickering
had been founded by the Anglo-Saxons we should have expected a name ending
with "ton," "ham," "thorpe," or "borough," but its remarkable position at
the mouth of Newton Dale may have led them to choose a name which may
possibly mean an opening by the "ings" or wet lands. It is, however,
impossible at the present time to discover the correct derivation of the
name. It probably has nothing whatever to do with the superficial "pike"
and "ring," and the suggestion that it means "The Maiden's Ring" from the
Scandinavian "pika," a maiden, and "hringr," a circle or ring, may be
equally incorrect. The settlements in the neighbourhood must have occupied
the margin of the marshes in close proximity to one another, and most of
them from the suffix "ton" would appear to have been the "tuns" or
fortified villages named after the family who founded them. Thus we find
between Pickering and Scarborough at the present time a string of eleven
villages bearing the names Thornton, Wilton, Allerston, Ebberston,
Snainton, Brompton, Ruston, Hutton (Buscel of Norman origin), Sawdon,
Ayton and Irton. In the west and south there are Middleton, Cropton,
Wrelton, Sinnington, Appleton, Nawton, Salton, Marton, Edston or Edstone,
Habton, (Kirby) Misperton, Ryton, Rillington, and many others. Other
Anglo-Saxon settlements indicating someone's ham or home would appear to
have been made at Levisham, Yedingham and Lastingham. Riseborough seems to
suggest the existence of some Anglo-Saxon fortress on that very suitable
elevation in the Vale of Pickering. Barugh, a little to the south, can
scarcely be anything else than a corruption of "buhr" or "burg," for the
Anglian invaders, if they found the small Roman camp that appears to have
been established on that slight eminence in the vale would have probably
found it a most convenient site for one of their own fortifications. Names
ending with "thorpe," such as Kingthorpe, near Pickering, also indicate an
Anglo-Saxon origin. Traces of the "by" or "byr," a single dwelling or
single farm of the Danes, are to be found thickly dotted over this part of
England, but in the immediate neighbourhood of Pickering there are only
Bl