What have the Normans ever done for us?

Well, they brought French into our language, and it's still there. Indeed, it's reckoned that 45% of English words originate from Latin, mostly courtesy of the Norman Conquest. Even my own name is Latin and since I rather like it, I suppose I should record my thanks to those Normans.

Most famously, the Normans knew how to throw together a simple, secure castle; literally an earthen hill, with wooden stakes around it and living space within  — the classic Motte and Bailey.  They built hundreds of them, including a well-preserved one at Miserden, in the Cotswolds.

Which brings me to my third thing that the Norman did for us, for they inspired Ellis Peters to write her Cadfael novels. These are set in the period of The Anarchy (1135-1154) when Norman rule had degenerated into civil war, with the Empress Maud and Stephen contending for the throne.

I have Lucy to thank for rekindling my interest in Cadfael — the intrepid, crime-solving Benedictine monk from Shrewsbury. I read A Morbid Taste for Bones several years ago, but otherwise satisfied myself by watching the excellent ITV adaptations, staring Derek Jacobi. I have DVDs of them all. One book that escaped the attentions of the film makers was the last in Ellis Peter's series, Brother Cadfael's Penance, which features the castle of La Musarderie, otherwise known as Miserden.

This long introduction explains why Lucy and I recently met in Miserden for a leisurely lunch at The Carpenters Arms, there to plan our own assault on the ancient castle.  Since it promised to be an energetic escapade, we wisely loaded ourselves with a few hundred calories of energy in the shape of these mouthwatering mixed grills. An army marches on its stomach, does it not?

Off we set, descending from the village in the direction of the River Frome. Here's Lucy, her trusty walking stick at the ready, standing at the edge of the castle's defensive ditch, with the Motte rising to the right. Like us, you'll have to imagine this area devoid of trees and with the castle's stone walls rising high above the earthworks.

Here's another look of the defensive ditch, and below a view of the River Frome, taken from the top of the Motte. In the 12th century, the ditch it would have been deeper and (according to the Wikipedia article) would have been flooded by water from the Frome, creating a moat.  Not an easy obstacle for an attacking army to cross.

A weakness of the castle, though, was that the land between it and the village is higher than the Motte. In Brother Cadfael's Penance it is on this ground that the Empress Maud is able to range her siege engines and archers, and bombard the fort. When Lucy and I were there, neither of us had read far enough to discover whether she won... and now that I do know, I'm not telling you! Buying me a drink at The Rising Sun just might elicit the answer, but a surer way would be to splash out £3.79 for the Kindle edition of the book. I don't think you'll be disappointed.