Witham Camp has often been equated with Edward the Elder's burh , but excavations since the 1930's have demonstrated it to be an Iron Age earthwork, in which a castle was planted in the 12th century; here also was the hundredal meeting place and focus of a royal manor. Next to the earthwork lies a minster church, early market site and a small planned settlement, and a short distance away the Knights Templar laid out a substantial new town over the remains of a possible Viking camp. This book reports on this whole remarkable complex, using all available topographical, archaeological and documentary evidence to trace the development of Witham from the prehistoric era to the Middle Ages.