The Burh System

Active learning works well for this topic because students need to grasp both the strategic planning and everyday life in Anglo-Saxon England. Building models or simulating decisions helps them see Alfred’s system as more than just facts on a page, making the 33 burhs and their 20-mile rule memorable and meaningful.

• Year 5
• History
• 3 activities
• 25 min–50 min

Learning Objectives

1. Explain how the strategic placement and construction of burhs provided a defensive network against Viking raids.
2. Analyze the 'Burghal Hidage' to calculate the number of men required to defend specific burhs.
3. Identify at least three modern English towns that originated as Anglo-Saxon burhs.
4. Compare the defensive strengths of Alfred's burh system with earlier Anglo-Saxon settlement defenses.
5. Design a basic plan for a burh, including key defensive features and strategic location considerations.

Ready-to-Use Activities

Inquiry Circle

⏱ 50 min·Small Groups

Inquiry Circle: Design a Burh

Groups are given a 'site' (e.g., a river bend or an old Roman ruin). They must design a burh, deciding where to put the walls, the gates, the market, and the church. They must explain how their design makes the town easy to defend but also a good place for people to live and trade.

Prepare & details

Explain how the burhs worked as a defensive system.

Facilitation Tip: During Collaborative Investigation: Design a Burh, circulate with a timer so groups stay on task and allocate roles like architect, merchant, or defender to ensure everyone contributes.

Setup: Groups at tables with access to source materials

Materials: Source material collection, Inquiry cycle worksheet, Question generation protocol, Findings presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Self-Awareness

Simulation Game

⏱ 40 min·Small Groups

Simulation Game: The 20-Mile Rule

On a large map of Wessex, students place 'burh' markers. They use string to draw 20-mile circles around each one. They then 'attack' different points on the map with Viking pieces to see if the local farmers could reach a burh before being caught, demonstrating the effectiveness of the network.

Prepare & details

Analyze how many of these burhs became modern English towns.

Facilitation Tip: In Simulation: The 20-Mile Rule, set up a simple grid on the floor where students physically move and measure distances to reinforce the practicality of Alfred’s strategy.

Setup: Flexible space for group stations

Materials: Role cards with goals/resources, Game currency or tokens, Round tracker

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Think-Pair-Share

⏱ 25 min·Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Why live in a Burh?

Students think about the pros and cons of moving from a lonely farm into a crowded, walled burh. They discuss in pairs, considering themes like safety vs. space, and then share whether they would have made the move if they lived in the 9th century.

Prepare & details

Justify why a permanent navy was also necessary for defense.

Facilitation Tip: For Think-Pair-Share: Why live in a Burh?, provide sentence starters like ‘I would live in a burh because...’ to scaffold responses for hesitant students.

Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor

Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Teaching This Topic

Teaching this topic works best when you connect geography to strategy and trade to daily life. Avoid presenting the burhs as static forts; instead, emphasize their dual role as safe havens and bustling markets. Research shows that hands-on construction and role play help students retain both the military and economic aspects of Alfred’s plan.

What to Expect

Students will show they understand Alfred’s planning by designing a functional burh, explaining its defensive advantages, and recognizing its role as a trading center. Success looks like clear reasoning, teamwork, and creative problem-solving using historical evidence.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Collaborative Investigation: Design a Burh, watch for students who design a burh with only thick walls and no market stalls or coin mints.

What to Teach Instead

Prompt groups to include labeled areas for trade and coin production, reminding them that Alfred wanted burhs to be both safe and economically thriving.

Common Misconception

During Collaborative Investigation: Design a Burh, watch for students who assume the walls were made of stone like later castles.

What to Teach Instead

Provide clay or sand and challenge students to first build a low, wide earth bank topped with a wooden palisade to reflect the real materials used in Alfred’s time.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

After Simulation: The 20-Mile Rule, give students a map with a Viking landing site and three possible locations for a new burh. Ask them to circle the best spot and write two sentences explaining their choice based on distance and terrain.

Quick Check

During Simulation: The 20-Mile Rule, ask students to hold up fingers to represent the number of defenders Alfred’s Burghal Hidage says a small versus large burh needed, then have two volunteers explain the difference in their own words.

Discussion Prompt

After Think-Pair-Share: Why live in a Burh?, pose the question: ‘If you were Alfred, would you prioritize building more burhs or a stronger navy? Why?’ Listen for references to Viking mobility, trade routes, or the defensibility of inland burhs to assess their understanding.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge: Ask students to research a modern city that began as a burh, such as Winchester, and present one slide on how its layout still reflects its Anglo-Saxon origins.
• Scaffolding: Provide a word bank or sentence frames like ‘A burh is like a ______ because ______’ to support struggling students during discussions.
• Deeper: Invite students to write a diary entry from the perspective of a merchant living in a burh, describing a typical market day and the security provided by the walls.

Key Vocabulary

Burh	A fortified Anglo-Saxon town or stronghold, often built with earthwork ramparts and ditches, designed for defense and administration.
Burghal Hidage	An early medieval document listing the burhs of Anglo-Saxon England and the number of hides (land units) associated with each, indicating their defensive capacity.
Hidage	A tax assessment based on the hide, a unit of land measurement, used to determine the number of men a burh could provide for defense.
Rampart	A defensive wall or embankment, typically made of earth and stone, surrounding a castle, town, or fort.
Ditch	A long, narrow excavation dug around a fortification, serving as an obstacle to attackers and often used to provide material for the rampart.