The perception of an eleventh-century ‘castral revolution’ is, to a large extent, the product of modern historiography but one that continues to deeply colour our understanding of castles and their origins. While the earliest castles were distinctive in many ways, they were part of a broader phenomenon that gained pace around the first millennium AD, as aristocrats invested in private power centres of varying kinds. Drawing upon the results of Where Power Lies, a recently completed AHRC-funded research project, this talk examines some of the ‘technologies of power’ consistently found at lordly centres, an approach that helps contextualise the development of the castle and reevaluate their impact upon the English rural landscape. Fieldwork results in particular urge us to reconsider the relationship between late Saxon residences and early castles, with new evidence suggesting more complex chronological development at sites such as Earls Barton (Northants) and Great Somerford (Wilts) than previously appreciated.