Bailey Hamlet

Bailey hamlets consist of a tightly-knit gathering of dwellings and buildings protected by an outer fortification, or bailey, which surrounds the hamlet's inner yard. It's not uncommon for the hovels of less important residents to be located outside the bailey's palisade and defensive ditch.

Such hamlets are always supported by a significant river, with individual farms and communal holdings besides. While they share many characteristics of communal hamlets, a sizable number of persons acting as artisans and skilled labourers accounts for a class of persons that are distinctly non-agrarian, and therefore apart from the communal ideal. While traditions are respected and observed, and especially religion also, an unmistakable divide exists between those who go afield during the day and those whose constant presence in the hamlet itself forms the community's daily mood and sense of locality.