SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND—Archaeologists recovered four wooden stakes from the moat surrounding ... The timbers were used to protect the fortress from attacks during the English Civil War and are ...

The wooden stakes, made from ash and elm ... in the House of Commons to prevent it from being reused as a fortress. The stakes are believed to have been part of an abatis—a defensive barricade ...

“To be able to hold the very wood to which the defenders of Sheffield Castle trusted their lives is extraordinary.” The stakes were preserved ... built as a royal fortress before it ...