Ringworks acted as strongholds for military operations and defended aristocratic or major settlements.
The shape of the former strongholds are marked in several places in the topology of roads into this area.
In order to facilitate transportation, toll booths and other checkpoints along roads were largely eliminated, as were unnecessary military strongholds.
Instead, they would retreat into fortified strongholds and wait for mobile forces ("comitatenses") to arrive and intercept the invaders.
They passed by many fortresses because they were unable to fight with the strongholds.
I was brought up to believe that county councils were the feudal strongholds of the country gentlemen, very different from the democratic borough councils, rural district councils and so on.
In matters of the administration of health, all these things were confined within the walled towns, which were the only strongholds of culture in mediaeval ages.
Local government in these northern strongholds is no longer under the control of those who pay for it.
