SETTLEMENTS.
From the year 876 the Danes became colonists and settlers. Raid and
plunder gave place to peaceful pursuits. The English Chronicle says
that in "this year Halfdene apportioned the lands of Northumbria;
and they henceforth continued ploughing and tilling them." This
colonisation of Deira by the Danes was soon followed in other
districts. The greater part of central Britain with the whole of the
north and east came entirely under Scandinavian rule.
[Illustration: THE VIKING SETTLEMENTS]
In 877 trading is recorded by the Sagas from Norway, in a shipload of
furs, hides, tallow and dried fish, which were exchanged for wheat,
honey, wine and cloth. Thus early was established the increase in
comfort and wealth, as evidenced by the erection of Christian monuments
early in the tenth century.
The origin of "long-weight" and "long-hundred" count is traceable to
the Danish settlements. This peculiar reckoning survives in the selling
of cheese 120 lbs. to the cwt., and in the counting of eggs, 120 to the
hundred. The timber trade counts 120 deals to the hundred. On the East
Coast fish are counted 132 to the hundred. Six score to the hundred is
still popular in Westmorland measure of crops and timber. This Danish
method of count was derived from the Icelandic term "hundred" which
meant 120.
Professor Maitland, in his "Domesday Book and Beyond," says that the
number of sokemen or free men, owing certain dues to the Hundred
Court, or to a lord, who were masters of their own land, like the
customary tenants of Cumberland, was greater in Norfolk and Suffolk
than in Essex, and that in Lincolnshire they formed nearly half the
rural population. At the time of Domesday the number of serfs was
greatest in the West of England, but none are recorded in Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire. In the manors bearing English names the sokemen numbered
two-fifths of the population, while in those manors with Danish names
they formed three-fifths of the population. (Boyle.)
In the Danelaw they represent the original freeholders of the
settlement and owed obedience to the local "Thing" or "Trithing Court."
In those districts which were not conquered by Edward the Elder the
freeholders settled and prospered, and with the spread of Christianity
they became independent proprietors and traders.
The presence of Danish place-names marks the district which they
conquered, including the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby,
Leicester, Rutland, and Northampton. In the rest of Mercia few of these
names are to be found, viz., in Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire,
Worcester, Gloucester, Hereford and Oxfordshire. The eastern part
of the Danish district came to be known as the Five Burghs, namely,
Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Stamford and Nottingham. From the year
880 when Halfdene divided the lands of Deira among his followers the
conditions of life became those of colonists, and the Danes settled
down to cultivate their own lands, learning the language of the earlier
Angles, teaching them many words, and ways of northern handicraft, and
gradually intermarrying and forming the vigorous character of body and
mind which denotes the modern Englishman.
From the middle of the tenth century men bearing Anglo-Danish names
held high positions in the Church; Odo was Archbishop of Canterbury,
his nephew Oswald was Bishop of Worcester and afterwards Archbishop of
York in succession to Oskytel, and many Norse names appear as witnesses
to Royal Charters.
The hatred still existed against these barbarous Danes, and it is
recorded in the Saxon Chronicle that the Saxons learned drunkenness
from the Danes, a vice from which before they were free. This character
is strangely contrasted by the story of John of Wallingford, that "they
were wont, after the fashion of their country, to comb their hair
every day, to bathe every Saturday, Laugardag, 'bath day,'--and to
change their garments often, and to set off their persons by many such
frivolous devices. And in this manner laid siege to the virtue of the
women."
If we are to accept the evidence of Lord Coke, we are indebted to the
Danish invasion for our propensity to make Ale the national beverage.
This eminent authority says that King Edgar, in 'permitting' the Danes
to inhabit England, first brought excessive drinking among us.
The word Ale came into the English language through the Danish öl.
At any rate after the advent of the Norsemen, the English left off
drinking water and began to drink ale as the regular everyday beverage
of the people.
The term 'beer' was used by the Anglo-Saxons, but seems to have fallen
into desuetude until the name was revived to distinguish 'ale' from
hopped ale.'--_From "Inns, Ales, and Drinking Customs of Old England,"
by Frederick W. Hackwood_.
Green the historian in his "Conquest of England" says the names of the
towns and villages of Deira show us in how systematic a way southern
Northumbria was parted among its conquerors.... "The English population
was not displaced, but the lordship of the soil was transferred to
the conqueror. The settlers formed a new aristocracy, while the older
nobles sank to a lower position, for throughout Deira the life of an
English thane was priced at but half the value of a 'northern hold.'"
The inference to be drawn from this passage is that the English lords
of the soil were replaced by Danish ones, the English settlers remained
in possession of their ancient holdings. In the course of time the
two races amalgamated, but at the Norman Conquest this amalgamation
had only been partially effected. In the districts where the Danes
settled they formed new villages, in which they lived apart from the
general Anglian population. Had they not done so the memory of their
settlement could never have been perpetuated by the Danish names given
to their homes. Every group of isolated Danish place-names teaches the
same fact, and there are many such groups. This is the case in the
Wirral district of Cheshire, the peninsula between the Mersey and the
Dee, where we find such names as Raby, Greasby, Frankby, Irby, Pansby,
Whitby and Shotwick, and in the centre of the district the village
called Thingwall. While throughout the rest of the county scarcely a
Danish name can be found, and as these names were conferred by the
Danish settlers it is impossible not to believe that under analogous
conditions the names in other districts were conferred in the same way.
Where a new village was planted midway between two older villages, its
territory would be carved in varying proportions out of the lands of
the earlier settlements. Sometimes certain rights of the older villages
were maintained in the territory of which they had been deprived. Thus
in a Danish village of Anlaby, the lands whereof were carved out of the
adjoining townships of Kirk Ella and Hessle, the respective rectors
of these parishes had curiously divided rights to both the great and
the small tithes; whilst in the neighbouring instance of the Danish
Willerby, carved out of Kirk Ella and Cottingham, the rector of Kirk
Ella took all the great tithes, and the rector of Cottingham took all
the small tithes. This method of Danish _village formation_ explains
a curious point. The foundation of the earlier Anglian settlements
preceded the development of the great road system of England. Leaving
out of consideration the Roman roads and the comparatively few British
roads, the former of which have relation to nothing but the military
needs of that all conquering people, our existing road system is due
to the Anglo-Saxon. Our old roads lead from one village to another and
each village is a centre from which roads radiate. The Danish villages
were, on the contrary, usually roadside settlements. New settlements
were formed on the vast fringes of wood and waste which surrounded
the cultivated lands of the older English villages. The road existed
and the one village street was formed along the line. Such wayside
settlements are Carnaby and Bessingby, on the road from Bridlington
to Driffield. When, as was sometimes the case, the new settlement was
planted at a little distance from the existing road a new road running
at right angles from the old one and leading directly to the settlement
was formed. Skidby, Towthorp, Kirby, Grindalbythe and many others
are cases in point. One consequence of such conditions of formation
would be that where the English settlements were most numerous the
Danish settlements would be few and small, because there was less land
available in such districts for their formation. While, on the other
hand, where English settlements were more sparsely scattered the Danish
settlements would be more numerous, and comparatively large. Taking a
large district like the East Riding, the average area of the Danish
townships may be expected to fall below that of the Anglo-Saxon. The
facts comply with all these tests.
Thus to take the townships with Danish names, and compare with similar
districts of Anglo-Saxon names, we arrive at the conclusion as to
whether the district was thickly populated before the coming of the
Danes. Many Anglo-Saxon villages are to be found along the course of
the Roman road, which coincides with the modern one of to-day. The two
classes of population found only in Danish districts, the Sochmanni and
the "liber tenentes," are wholly absent in purely English districts.
Both held land exempt from villain services, which was a condition of
tenure introduced by the Danes. This fact shatters the theory of Green
that English settlers were communities of freemen. They were in fact
communities of bondmen, villains, bordars, cottars, and serfs, the last
holding no lands, but being bound to the soil as chattels, and the
rest holding their lands, "at the will of the lord," and in return
for actual services. What then was the Sochman? The lawyer of to-day
will answer, "He is one who held land by 'socage,' tenure." Although in
Domesday this "sochman" is confined to Danish districts, a fact which
is recognised in the laws of Edward the Confessor. After the Conquest a
type of tenure more or less closely corresponding to that by which the
earlier sochman held his land, was gradually established over the whole
kingdom.
Tenants who owned such tenures were called "sochmen," and the tenure
itself was called "socage." A distinction was drawn between "free
socage" and "villain socage." The fuller development of the feudal
system which followed the Conquest greatly complicated all questions
of land tenure. New conditions of holding superior to that of "socage"
were introduced. Thus in the pages of Britton, who always speaks in
the person of the King, we read: "Sochmanries are lands and tenements
which are not held by knights' fee, nor by grand serjeantries, but by
simple services, as lands enfranchised by us, or our predecessors,
out of ancient demesnes." Bracton is more explicit. He defines free
socage as the tenure of a tenement, whereof the service is rendered in
money to the chief lords, and nothing whatever is paid, "ad scutum et
servitium regis." "Socage," he proceeds, "is named from soke, and hence
the tenants who held in socage are called sochmanni, since they are
entirely occupied in agriculture, and of whom wardship and marriage
pertain to the nearest parents in the right of blood. And if in any
manner homage is taken thereof, as many times is the case, yet the
chief lord has not on this account, wardship and marriage, which do not
always follow homage." He then goes on to define "villain socage." The
essential principle of socage tenure is rent in lieu of services. It
is to this fact no doubt that the vast impetus which was given to the
coinage of England soon after the coming of the Danes is largely due.
As Mr. Worsaäe says, the Danish coiners increased to fifty in number
from the reign of Aethelred to Edward the Confessor, and the greater
number exercised this vocation at York and Lincoln. Thus the sochmanni
were found only in the settlements of the people who had created in
England a tenure of land free from servile obligations.
The manner of fixing these early settlements of land was the same in
Ireland, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and in Lincolnshire. The same
custom is still observed by our modern colonists who launch out into
the Australian bush. The land was staked out by the settler from the
highest ridge downwards to the creek of the river or shore. By this
means the settler obtained on outlet to the open sea. The homestead
was built by the bondr or husbandman, on the sheltered ground between
the marsh and hill. These settlements became byes, and were encircled
by a garth, or farmyard. The names of some Norse farms and settlements
became composed of a Norse prefix and Saxon ending. Thus we find Oxton
"the farm of the yoke," in the hollow of a long ridge. Storeton, from
stortun or "big field."
Many of these names are repetitions of places which exist in
Cumberland, Denmark, and the Isle of Man. Raby and Irby were smaller
farms on the boundary of large byes, and were derived from the Danish
chief Ivar. Each homestead had its pastures and woods, which are
denoted by the terminals "well," "wall," and "birket," found in such
names as Crabwall, Thelwall, Thingwall.
"Thwaites" or "Hlither" were sloping pastures, cleared of wood,
between the hill and marsh, used for grazing cattle and sheep. This
system of agriculture is of Norse origin, and many such "thwaites"
are to be found in Wallasey, Lancashire, and the Lake district.
Calday and Calder, recorded in Domesday, "Calders," derived from
kalf-gard, are names existing in Calderstones, at Wavertree, and
Calday near Windermere, as well as at Eastham and in Scotland. Each
large settler had summer pastures for cattle on the highland or moor,
called "soeters" or "saetter," a shelter seat for the dairymaids. From
this custom we derive the names Seacombe, Satterthwaite, Seathwaite,
Seascale, and Sellafield. As the population increased the large estates
were divided among the families of the early settlers, and these upland
pastures became separate farms. Evidence that these early Norsemen
were Christians is found in the name Preston, in Domesday. Prestune,
the farm of the priest: who in these early days farmed his own land.
From its position this farm became known as West Kirby.
The stone crosses of Nelson and Bromborough prove that these churches
were founded early in the eleventh century.
The Danish character of Chester at this date is shown by the fact that
it was ruled by "lawmen," in the same manner as the Five Boroughs
(vide Round's "Feudal England," p. 465), and its growing wealth and
importance was due to the trading intercourse through the Danish ships
with Dublin.
Coming from the north-east another Norse and Danish settlement sprang
up round Liverpool. Though we have no distinct historical record,
the place names indicate the centre was at Thelwall (Tingwall). Such
names are Roby, West Derby, Kirkby, Crosby, Formby, Kirkdale, Toxteth,
found in Domesday as "Stockestede," Croxteth, Childwall, Harbreck,
Ravensmeols, Ormskirk, Altcar, Burscough, Skelmersdale.
Out of forty-five names of places recorded in Domesday in West Derby
Hundred, ten are Scandinavian, the rest might be interpreted in either
dialect.
All other names in Domesday in South Lancashire are Anglo-Saxon, which
only amount to twelve: the reason for the small number of names being
that the land was for the most part lying waste, and was thus free from
assessment. Thus we find on the present map that Norse names form a
large number which are not recorded in Domesday. Many of these would be
later settlements. In West Derby the names of three landowners appear
in this survey with Norse names, while three others are probably Norse,
and seven Saxon.
Following the fall of the Danish dynasty the districts of South
Lancashire formed part of Cheshire and we find the names of six
"Drengs" around Warrington, possessing Norman names, while only one
bears a Norse name. The word "Dreng" being Norse, would infer that the
tenure was of "danelaw" origin and not of Anglo-Saxon.
The founder of the Abbey of Burton-on-Trent, Wulfric Spot, held great
tracts of land in Wirral and West Lancashire, which are named in his
Will dated 1002. Thus the "Bondr" here held his land under Mercian
rules, from which the hides and hundreds were similar to those of the
previous "danelaw."
Lancashire was the southern portion of Deira, which was one of the
two kingdoms, Bernicia being the other, into which the conquests of
Ida, king of Northumbria, were on his death divided. In 559 A.D. Ida
died, and Aella became King of Deira, and afterwards sole King of
Northumbria, until 587 or 589. In 617, Edwin son of Ella was King
of Northumbria, the greatest Prince, says Hume the historian, of the
Heptarchy in that age. He was slain in battle with Penda of Mercia. In
634 the kingdom was again divided, Eanfrid reigning in Bernicia, and
Osric in Deira. Then Oswald, saint as well as king, appears to have
reunited the two provinces again under his kingship of Northumberland.
Authorities, in more than one instance, vary as to the exact dates,
within a year or two.
The Saxon kingdom of Northumbria reached from the Humber to the Forth,
and from the North Sea to the Irish Sea. For two centuries after the
death of Ecgfrith the Saxon king and the battle of Nectansmere, history
only records a succession of plunder and pestilence.
Green the historian says "King after king was swept away by treason and
revolt, the country fell into the hands of its turbulent nobles, its
very fields lay waste, and the land was scourged by famine and plague."
The pirate Northmen or Vikings as they were called first, began to raid
the coast of England with their fleets with the object of plunder. The
English Chronicle records their first attacks in the year 787. "Three
of their ships landed on the western shores, these were the first ships
of Danish men that sought the land of Engle-folk."
The Monastery of Lindisfarne was plundered six years later by their
pirate ships, and the coast of Northumbria was ravaged, Jan., 793.
The following year they returned and destroyed the monasteries of
Wearmouth and Jarrow. This was the beginning of the Norse raids on our
Eastern shores.
In 875 Halfdan returned from his campaign against Alfred and the year
after he divided the lands of Northumbria amongst his followers. In
many parts we find groups of Scandinavian place-names so close and
thick, says Mr. W. G. Collingwood in his "Scandinavian Britain," that
we must assume either depopulation by war, or the nearly complete
absence of previous population.
There is no reason to suppose that the earlier Vikings depopulated the
country they ravaged. Spoil was their object and slaughter an incident.
As Canon Atkinson has shown in his "Analysis of the Area of Cleveland
under Cultivation at Domesday Period," very little of the country in
that district was other than moor or forest at the end of the eleventh
century, and that most of the villages then existing had Scandinavian
names. His conclusion is that these districts were a wilderness
since Roman and prehistoric days, and first penetrated by the Danes
and Norse: except for some clearings such as Crathorne, Stokesley,
Stainton, and Easington, and the old monastery at Whitby.
This conclusion receives support, says Mr. Collingwood, from an
analysis of the sculptured stones now to be seen in the old Churches
and sites of Cleveland. It is only at Yarm, Crathorne, Stainton,
Easington, and Whitby, that we find monuments of the pre-Viking age,
and these are the products of the latest Anglian period.
At Osmotherley, Ingleby, Arncliffe, Welbury, Kirklevington, Thornaby,
Ormesby, Skelton, Great Ayton, Kirkdale, and Kirkby-in-Cleveland are
tombstones of the tenth and eleventh centuries. It is thus evident
that the Angles were only beginning to penetrate these northern parts
of Yorkshire when the Vikings invaded and carried on the work of land
settlement much further. Further extension was made by the Norse from
the West Coast, as the place-names show. Monuments of pre-Viking art
work exist at places with Scandinavian names, such as Kirkby-Moorside,
Kirkby-Misperton, and Kirkdale; while in other cases only Viking age
Crosses are found at places with names of Anglian origin, such as
Ellerburn, Levisham, Sinnington, Nunnington.
This would indicate that some Anglian sites were depopulated and
refounded with Danish names, while others had no importance in Anglian
times but soon became flourishing sites under the Danes.
In the west of Yorkshire the great dales were already tenanted by
the Angles, but the moors between them, and the sites higher up the
valleys, were not the sites of Churches until the Danish period. (See
"Anglian and Anglo-Danish Sculpture in the North Riding," by W. G.
Collingwood. _Yorks. Arch. Journal_, 1907.)
Yorkshire at the time of the Domesday survey was carucated and divided
into Ridings and Wapentakes. Thingwall, near Whitby. (Canon Atkinson,
site lost.) Thinghow, near Ginsborough (now lost), and Thinghow, now
Finney Hill, near Northallerton. (Mr. William Brown, F.S.A.) Tingley,
near Wakefield; Thingwall, near Liverpool; Thingwall in Wirral, may
have been Thingsteads. (W. G. Collingwood.)
Names of places ending in -ergh, and -ark are dairy-farms from setr and
saetr. Names with ulls- as prefix, such as Ulpha, Ullscarth, Ullswater,
record the fact that wolves inhabited the hills.
Beacons were kept up in olden days on hills which bear the
names of Warton, Warcop, Warwick and Warthole. Tanshelf, near
Pontefract, is derived from Taddenesscylfe, Blawith and Blowick from
Blakogr--blackwood. Axle, Acle, arcle from öxl, the shoulder.
THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH.
WAS IT FOUGHT IN LANCASHIRE?
"There is one entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which must be
mentioned here as it throws light upon an archæological discovery of
considerable importance. In 911 the Chronicle records that the Danish
army among the Northumbrians broke the peace and overran the land of
Mercia. When the King learned that they were gone out to plunder, he
sent his forces after them, both of the West Saxons and the Mercians;
and they fought against them and put them to flight, and slew many
thousands of them...."
"There is good reason to believe," as Mr. Andrew shows (Brit. Numis.
Jour. i, 9), "that the famous Cuerdale hoard of Silver coins, which
was found in 1840 in a leaden chest buried near a difficult ford of
the Ribble on the river bank about two miles above Preston, represents
the treasure chest of this Danish army, overtaken in its retreat to
Northumbria at this ford and destroyed."
* * * * *
Then follows a process of reasoning in support of the above conclusion,
based upon the place of minting and the dating of the coins.
"The bulk of the coins, however, were Danish, issued by Danish Kings of
Northumbria, many of them from York."
Besides the Cuerdale find of 10,000 silver coins and 1,000 ounces
of silver there are records given of other Danish finds.--From the
Victoria County History of Lancashire, Vol. I., see Coins.
Each historian of this important event has claimed a different site, in
as many parts of England. In Grose's "Antiquities" we find the allied
Scotch, Welsh, Irish, and Danes, the Northumbrian army, under Anlaf
were totally defeated, in 938 at Brunanburgh (Bromridge, Brinkburn),
in Northumberland, when Constantine, King of the Scots, and six petty
Princes of Ireland and Wales, with twelve Earls were slain. This
description is given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The honour of
claiming the Lancashire site on the river Brun near Burnley, belongs
to the late Mr. Thomas Turner Wilkinson, a master of Burnley Grammar
School, who claimed it for Saxifield in 1856.
We are indebted to Mr. Jas. T. Marquis, a member of the Lancashire and
Cheshire Antiquarian Society, for the following summary of evidence
which he placed before the above Society during the winter session of
1908-9, and which will be found recorded in the Transactions of the
Society. He says, "There is overwhelming testimony in favour of the
site on the Lancashire Brun."
The reasons for claiming this site are simply two. An old writer spells
Brinkburn--Brincaburh, and there is an artificial mound proving a fight.
Camden gives Brunford, near Brumbridge in Northumberland, as the place
where "King Athelstane fought a pitched battle against the Danes." This
might easily be, but not the battle we refer to. There is no reason
given except the word "ford."
Gibson suggests that it must have been "somewhere near the Humber,"
although he finds a difficulty in carrying Constantine and the little
King of Cumberland so high into Yorkshire. The other places suggested
are Brumborough in Cheshire, Banbury in Oxfordshire, Burnham and Bourne
in Lincolnshire, Brunton in Northumberland, but no good reason beyond
a name, and an embankment in some cases, but not all. Brownedge in
Lancashire has been suggested, with excellent reasons.
Dr. Giles and others suggest that the name should be Brumby instead
of Brunanburh. Ingram in his map of Saxon England places the
site in Lincolnshire, near the Trent, but without assigning good
reasons. Turner observes that the "Villare" mentions a Brunton in
Northumberland, and Gibson states what may still be seen in maps of a
century old, "that in Cheshire there is a place called Brunburh near
the shores of the Mersey." This last would be a serious competitor if
there was a river Brun, or tumuli, or ford, or battlefield: but nothing
is claimed, only the name suggested.
Brunsford or Brunford. Let us first establish the site of the "burh,"
which is a hill that shields or protects a camp, town, or hamlet.
The question is, where was the "tun" or village on the Brun? It was
in Saxon times usual for the folk to settle near a "burh" for the
protection afforded by an overlord who occupied it.
It was also the custom of the early missionaries to establish a
feldekirk by setting up a Cross near to the hamlet, where they used to
preach Christianity and bury their dead.
Tradition says it was intended to build the Church on the site of the
Cross, but that God willed it otherwise. God-ley Lane would be the lane
which led from the village in Saxon times to God's Lea or God-ley, on
which was the new church and burial ground. Thus the new town would
take its modern name from the ground on which the Church stood, namely
Brun-ley, Bron-ley, and Burn-ley.
The cross, built in Saxon times to mark the spot where Christianity was
first preached, stood at the foot of the "burh" near the Brun, and thus
the early name would be Brunford.
The records of Domesday Book contain no mention of Burnley. To the
east and west would be the vast forest of Boulsworth and Pendle, while
the valleys would be marshes and swamps. The ancient roads went along
the hill sides, and there is an ancient road from Clitheroe by Pendle
passing along the east side of the hill, now almost obliterated,
leading to Barrowford. The ancient road on this east side of the
valley, was on the Boulsworth slope from Brunford, via Haggate and
Shelfield, to Castercliffe, Colne, and Trawden which gave its name to
the forest, and Emmott.
Dr. Whitaker tells us that in his day, "in the fields about Red Lees
are many strange inequalities in the ground, something like obscure
appearances of foundations, or perhaps entrenchments, which the
levelling operations of agriculture have not been able to efface.
Below Walshaw is a dyke stretching across from 'Scrogg Wood' to 'Dark
Wood.'"
The ninth century annalist says, "The Northmen protected themselves
according to custom, 'with wood and a heap of earth,'" A Walshaw
would therefore be a wall of wood. Nothing was safer, when attacked
by bowmen, than a wood. Such was the Brun-burh. This burh at Red Lees
with mounds and ditches, in a half circle on each side of the Causeway,
would have the same appearance on being approached from the east and
south-east as the eleventh century "burh" at Laughton-en-le-Morthen in
Yorkshire.
The ancient way referred to in Dr. Whitaker, from Burnley to Townley,
would be from the Market Cross, along Godley Lane to the Brunford
Cross, up over the ridge to the top of Brunshaw, along the Causeway to
Lodge Farm, through the Deer Park, through the Watch Gate at the foot
of the hill, and up to Castle Hill at Tunlay.
Although Egbert was called the first King of England, his son Alfred
the Great at the height of his power only signed himself "Alfred of the
West Saxons, King."
England was still governed under the three provinces at the time of
Henry I., namely Wessex, Mercia, and Danelagh. The latter province
comprised the whole tract of country north and east of Watling Street.
Mercia included the lands north of the Mersey. Danish Northumbria or
Deira comprised the lands to the west of the Pennines.
Amongst the hills north of the Ribble the hostile nations could meet
in security. Saxon-Mercia north of the Mersey, surrounded by alien
nations, and having been itself conquered from that claimed as the
Danelaw, would be the most likely where those nations could meet in
time of peace, and was the debatable land in time of war.
After the death of Alfred, when Edward the Elder claimed overlordship,
the Danes rose in revolt in the north. It is recorded that he and his
warrior sister "the Lady of the Mercians" abandoned the older strategy
of rapine and raid, for that of siege and fortress building, or the
making and strengthening of burhs.
Edward seems to have recovered the land between the Mersey and the
Ribble, for soon after leaving Manchester, the Britons of Strathclyde,
the King of Scots, Regnold of Bamborough who had taken York at this
period, and the Danish Northumbrians take him to be father and lord.
The place is not mentioned, but must be somewhere between Boulsworth
and Pendle.
[Illustration: Extwistle Hall, near Eamott, marks an ancient boundary.]
The same thing happened when Athelstan claimed his overlordship.
Profiting by following his father's example, he would travel from
burh to burh, and his route would not be difficult to trace, namely,
Thelwall, Manchester, Bacup, Broad Dyke, Long Dyke, Easden Fort, Copy
Nook, Castle Hill, Watch Gate, Brunburh, Broadbank, Castercliffe,
Shelfield, Winewall, Eamot.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that "A.D. 926, Sihtric perished, and
King Athelstan ruled all the Kings in the Island, the Northumbrians,
Constantine King of Scots, Ealdred of Bamborough, and others, which
they confirmed by pledges and oaths at a place Eamot on the 4th of the
ides of July and they renounced idolatry."
Everything points to the fact that Brunanburgh gave its name to this
battle. This part of the Saxon king's dominions being the one place
where all the hostile nations could meet before the attack.
There is no other river Brun in northern Mercia, and the Saxon
Chronicle says the battle was fought near Brunanburh.
Ethelward says Brunandune (river and dale). Simeon gives Wendune
(Swindon). Malmesbury and Tugulf names Brunanburh or Bruford. Florence
of Worcester "near Brunanburh." Henry of Huntingdon gives Brunesburh,
and Gaimar has Brunswerc, which we have in Worsthorne, which is
known to be derived from Wrthston, the town of Wrth. In the _Annales
Cambriae_ it is styled the "Bellum Brun" (the Battles of the Brun).
This would explain the many names.
William of Malmesbury says that the field was "far into England." We
have Brownedge and Brownside. In addition to all this we have "Bishops
Leap," S'Winless Lane, Saxifield, Saxifield Dyke. We have also a
Ruh-ley, a Red Lees, directly opposite to which we have a traditional
battlefield and battlestone, also a High Law Hill, and Horelaw
Pastures, a number of cairns of stones, a small tumuli; all of which
may be said to be near the hillfort Brunburh.
DESCRIPTIONS OF BATTLES FROM THE MAP.
From the two Ordnance maps, "six inch to the mile," one of Briercliffe,
and the other of Worsthorne, it may be seen that the roads from Slack,
near Huddersfield, pass through the Pennine range, one by the long
Causeway, on the south of the position and on the southern side, near
Stipernden, is "Warcock Hill. From here running north, are a series
of ridges, Shedden Edge, Hazel Edge, Hamilton Hill, to the other road
from Slack, passing through the hills at Widdop, and immediately on the
north side at Thursden is another Warcock Hill. From Warcock Hill to
Warcock Hill would stretch the army of Anlaf in their first position.
From the north end of the position a road north to Shelfield and
Castercliffe, by means of which he would be joined by his Welsh allies,
from the Ribble, via Portfield, and his Strathclyde and Cumbrian allies
from the north. From this end of the position there is a road due west
to the Broadbank, where there is the site of a small camp at Haggate.
[Illustration]
From here Anlaf would send his Welsh allies under Adalis, and his
shipmen under Hryngri, for the night attack on the advancing Saxons
as they crossed the Brunford. They fell on them somewhere on the site
of Bishop's House Estate, but were afterwards beaten back across the
estates known as Saxifield. Two days afterwards both sides prepared
for the great struggle near the burh, and Anlaf, taking his cue from
his opponent, advanced his left and took possession of the hill near
Mereclough, afterwards called High Law (Round Hill), and the pastures
behind still known as Battlefield, with a stone called Battlestone in
the centre of it.
Constantine and the Scots were in charge of the hill, and the Pict, and
Orkney men behind. His centre he pushed forward at Brown Edge, to the
"Tun of Wrst." While his right touched S'Winden Water under Adalis with
the Welsh and shipmen.
Two days before the great battle Athelstan marched out of Brunburh at
the north end, and encamped somewhere on the plain called Bishop's
House Estate, his route by the Brunford, and probably S'Winless Lane.
We are told that Anlaf entered the camp as a spy, and ascertaining the
position of Athelstan's tent, formed the night attack for the purpose
of destroying him. Athelstan, however, leaving for another part of his
position on the Brun, gave Wersthan, Bishop of Sherborne, the command.
The Bishop met his death somewhere on the estate, the Pasture being
known as Bishop's Leap, which undoubtedly gave its name to the estate.
Adalis, the Welsh Prince, had done this in the night attack, probably
coming by way of Walshaw, and Darkwood. Alfgier took up the command,
with Thorolf on his right and Eglis in support in front of the wood.
Alfgier was first assaulted by Adalis with the Welsh and driven off
the field, afterwards fleeing the country. Thorolf was assaulted by
Hryngr the Dane, and soon afterwards by Adalis also, flushed with
victory. Thorolf directed his colleague Eglis to assist him, exhorted
by his troops to stand close, and if overpowered to retreat to the
wood. Thorolf or Thorold the Viking was the hero of this day, near the
Netherwood on Thursden Water. He fought his way to Hryngr's standard
and slew him. His success animated his followers, and Adalis, mourning
the death of Hryngr, gave way and retreated, with his followers back
over Saxifield to the Causeway camp at Broadbank.
Whatever took place at Saxifield the enemy left it entirely, and the
decisive battle took place at the other end of Brunburh. In walking
up S'Windene, by S'Winden Water, the district on the right between
that river and the Brun is called in old maps Roo-ley and in older
manuscripts Ruhlie, marked in Thomas Turner Wilkinson's time, with a
cairn and tumulus. Some distance further on we find Heckenhurst. The
roads down from the burh are at Rooley and at Brownside and at Red Lees
by the Long Causeway leading to Mereclough.
Athelstan placed Thorolf on the left of his army, at Roo-ley, to oppose
the Welsh and irregular Irish under Adalis. In front of Brownside
(Burnside) was Eglis with the picked troops, and on Eglis' right
opposite Worsthorne, Athelstane and his Anglo-Saxons.
Across the original Long Causeway on the Red Lees, with the burh
entrenchments immediately at his back, was the valiant Turketul, the
Chancellor, with the warriors of Mercia and London opposite Round Hill
and Mereclough.
Thorolf began by trying to turn the enemy's right flank, but Adalis
darted out from behind the wood, now Hackenhurst, and destroyed
Thorolf, and his foremost friends on Roo-ley or Ruhlie. Eglis came up
to assist his brother Viking, and encouraging the retreating troops by
an effort destroyed the Welsh Prince Adalis, and drove his troops out
of the wood. The memorial of this flight was a cairn and tumulus on
Roo-ley.
Athelstan and Anlaf were fighting in the centre for the possession
of (Bruns) Weston, neither making much progress, when the Chancellor
Turketul, with picked men, including the Worcester men under the
magnanimous Sinfin, made a flank attack at Mereclough, and breaking
through the defence of the Pict and Orkney men, got to the "Back o'
th' Hill." He penetrated to the Cumbrians and Scots, under Constantine,
King of the Grampians. The fight was all round Constantine's son, who
was unhorsed. The Chancellor was nearly lost, and the Prince released,
when Sinfin, with a mighty effort, terminated the fight by slaying the
Prince.
On Round Hill, down to one hundred years ago, stood a cairn called High
Law. When the stones were made use of to mend the roads, a skeleton was
found underneath. That would, I believe, be a memorial of the fight.
At "Back o' th' Hill," a blind road leads through what in an old map,
and in tradition is called "Battlefield," and the first memorial stone
is called "Battlestone." Another similar stone is further on. Following
the blind road through Hurstwood, the Chancellor would find himself at
Brown End, near Brown Edge. At the other end of the position, Eglis
having won the wood, would be in the neighbourhood of Hell Clough,
ready to charge at the same time as Turketul, on the rear of Anlaf's
army.
[Illustration: Old Daneshouse]
At this point of the battle, Athelstan, seeing this, made a successful
effort and pushed back the centre. Then began the carnage, the
memorials of which are still to be seen on Brown Edge, Hamilton
Pasture, Swindene, Twist Hill, Bonfire Hill, and even beyond. Those
who could get through the hills at Widdop would do so: others however
would take their "hoards" from the camps at Warcock Hill and other
places, and burying their "treasures" as they went along, pass in front
of Boulsworth, and over the moor through Trawden Forest, between Emmott
and Wycollar.
If the Saxon description of the battle, in Turner's "History of the
Anglo-Saxons" be read and compared with the Ordnance maps before named,
the reader will see that there is no other place in England which
can show the same circumstantial evidence nor any place, having that
evidence, be other than the place sought for.
Danes House, Burnley, is thus referred to by the late Mr. T. T.
Wilkinson, F.R.A.S.:--"Danes House is now a deserted mansion situated
about half-a-mile to the north of Burnley, on the Colne Road. It has
been conjectured there was a residence on the same site A.D. 937, when
Athelstan, King of the South Saxons, overthrew with great slaughter,
at the famous battle of Brunanburgh, Anlaf, the Dane, and Constantine,
King of the Scots. Tradition states that it was here that Anlaf rested
on his way to the battlefield from Dublin and the Isles, hence the name
Danes House. The present deserted mansion has undergone little change
since it was re-erected about the year 1500." This house has now been
pulled down.
THE DYKE OR DYKES, BROADCLOUGH, BACUP.
This mighty entrenchment is over 600 yards in length and for over 400
yards of the line is 18 yards broad at the bottom. No satisfactory
solution has yet been offered of the cause of this gigantic work or
of the use to which it was put originally. Speaking of it Newbigging
("History of Rossendale") says:--
"The careful investigations of Mr. Wilkinson have invested
this singular work with more of interest than had before been
associated with it, by his having with marked ability and
perseverance, collected together a mass of exhaustive evidence,
enforced by a chain of argument the most conclusive, with
regard to the much debated locality of the great struggle
between the Saxons and the Danes, which he endeavours, and
most successfully, to show is to be found in the immediate
neighbourhood of Burnley, and in connection with which the
earthwork in question constituted, probably, a not unimportant
adjunct."
Again, he says:--
"If Saxonfield (Saxifield) near Burnley, was the scene of the
engagement between the troops of Athelstan and Anlaf, then it
is in the highest degree probable that one or other of the
rival armies, most likely that of the Saxon King, forced, or
attempted to force a passage through the valley of the Irwell
and that there they were encountered by the confederated hosts
intrenched behind the vast earthwork at Broadclough that
commanded the line of their march. Whether this was taken
in flank or rear by the Saxon warriors, or whether it was
successful in arresting their progress, or delaying a portion
of their army, it is impossible to determine; but that it
was constructed for weighty strategical purposes, under the
belief that its position was of the last importance, so much
of the remains of the extraordinary which still exists affords
sufficient evidence."
Place-Names