Pickering itself must have been an Anglo-Saxon village of some importance, and the artificial mound on which the keep of the castle now stands would probably have been raised during this period if it had not 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 Blansby, Dalby, Farmanby, Aislaby, Roxby, and Normanby.  To the east near Scarborough there are Osgodby, Killerby, Willerby, Flotmanby, and Hunmanby, so that it would appear that the strong community of Anglo-Saxon villages along the margin of the vale kept the Danish settlers at a distance.

[Illustration:  The Tower of Middleton Church near Pickering.