Contextualising re-conceptions: the Anglo-Saxon palace and Ango-Norman castle in the royal vill of Farndon, Cheshire

King Edgar the Peaceable's parade along the river Dee in AD 973 highlighted not only the significance of royal and comital power at Cheshire's main seat at Chester, but also, it is interpreted here, at the Anglo-Saxon royal vill of Farndon in Cheshire, of which Aldford township formed a fundamental secular component. By focusing on a wider geo-political context, the former site of a late Anglo-Saxon royal palace is suggested based on fresh evidence. In turn, it is demonstrated that Aldford Castle was unlikely to have been built over the former regal palace site, as has been asserted in the past, but instead over an Anglo-Saxon thegnly site of particular strategic and commercial importance. The paper concludes that the seemingly humble earthworks of Aldford Castle that remain in the landscape today, are in fact symbolic of a continuation of significant regal and comital power within the more comprehensive context of the entire royal vill at Farndon from at least the tenth century. Ultimately, the paper promotes a wider temporal and spatial research methodology, to help explain the siting of castles generally.