throp-girdle
Old English: þropgyrdel
A semi-permanent enclosure around a small village, farm or hamlet, erected to help contain livestock and/or delineate arable land under cultivation by the local community. Generally oval in shape, throp-girdles gradually replaced the rectilinear land boundaries created earlier by the Romans (although the first Anglo Saxon settlements of this period were often unbounded). Archeological evidence for throp-girdles is based on the excavation of shallow features such as fence-lines and trackways, with some of the best known examples coming from West Stow and Mucking in Suffolk and Essex respectively, both dating from the early 7th C.
A semi-permanent enclosure around a small village, farm or hamlet, erected to help contain livestock and/or delineate arable land under cultivation by the local community. Generally oval in shape, throp-girdles gradually replaced the rectilinear land boundaries created earlier by the Romans (although the first Anglo Saxon settlements of this period were often unbounded). Archeological evidence for throp-girdles is based on the excavation of shallow features such as fence-lines and trackways, with some of the best known examples coming from West Stow and Mucking in Suffolk and Essex respectively, both dating from the early 7th C.
Sum wudewe wunode Oswyn éðelstaðoles bewindende stīfne þropgyrdel ārǣrde gehaten æt þæs halgan byrgene on gebedum and fæstenum manega gear syððan
"A certain widow, named Oswyn, raised a stout throp-girdle about her humble settlement and dwelt at the grave of the holy one in prayer and fasting for many years afterwards" - Ælfric's Life of St. Edmund
"A certain widow, named Oswyn, raised a stout throp-girdle about her humble settlement and dwelt at the grave of the holy one in prayer and fasting for many years afterwards" - Ælfric's Life of St. Edmund
throp-girdle by mambofish January 2, 2025
