 The complex formed a secure aristocratic residence called a "burh" and the use of stone, rather than timber, in a secular building such as this was very unusual for the period.Like some other "burhs", it may have had an entrance tower called a "burh-geat", symbolising the status of the owner.After the Norman invasion of 1066, Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux and the new Earl of Kent, probably acquired the manor, which had by this time been lost by its former owners in Canterbury.