_The Forest and Vale in Saxon Times_
A.D. 418 to 1066
There seems little doubt that the British remained a barbarous people
throughout the four centuries of their contact with Roman influences, for
had they progressed in this period they would have understood in some
measure the great system by which the Imperial power had held the island
with a few legions and a small class of residential officials. Having
failed to absorb the new military methods, when left to themselves, there
was no unifying idea among the Britons, and they seem to have merely
reverted to some form of their old tribal organisation. The British cities
constituted themselves into a group of independent states generally at war
with one another, but sometimes united under the pressure of some external
danger. Under such circumstances they would select some chieftain whose
period of ascendency could be measured only by the continuance of the
danger.
From Bede's writings we find that the Scots from the west and the Picts
from the north continually harassed the Britons despite occasional help
from Rome, and despite the wall they built across the north of England. In
these straits the British invited help from the Angles and Saxons, who
soon engaged the northern tribesmen and defeated them. The feebleness of
the Britons having become well known among the continental peoples, the
Angles, Saxons and Jutes began to steadily swarm across the North Sea in
powerful, armed bands. Having for a time assisted the Britons they began
to seek excuses for quarrels, and gradually the Britons with brief periods
of success were beaten and dispossessed of their lands until they were
driven into the western parts of the island. The Angles occupied most of
northern England, including the kingdom of Northumbria, of which Yorkshire
formed a large part. These fierce Anglo-Saxon people, with an intermixing
of Danish blood, a few centuries later were the ancestors of a great part
of the present population of the county. Sidonius Apollinaris, a Bishop of
Gaul, who wrote in the fifth century, says, "We have not a more cruel and
more dangerous enemy than the Saxons: they overcome all who have the
courage to oppose them; they surprise all who are so imprudent as not to
be prepared for their attack. When they pursue they infallibly overtake;
when they are pursued their escape is certain. They despise danger; they
are inured to shipwreck; they are eager to purchase booty with the peril
of their lives. Tempests, which to others are so dreadful, to them are
subjects of joy; the storm is their protection when they are pressed by
the enemy, and a cover for their operations when they meditate an attack.
Before they quit their own shores, they devote to the altars of their gods
the tenth part of the principal captives; and when they are on the point
of returning, the lots are cast with an affectation of equity, and the
impious vow is fulfilled."
Gradually these invaders settled down in Britain, which soon ceased to be
called Britain, and assumed the name Angle-land or England. In A.D. 547
Ida founded the kingdom of Northumbria, one of the divisions forming the
Saxon Heptarchy, and among the villages and families that owed allegiance
to him were those of the neighbourhood of Pickering. The first
fortifications by the Anglo-Saxons were known as _buhrs_ or _burgs_. Some
of them were no doubt Roman or British camps adapted to their own needs,
but generally these earth works were required as the fortified home of
some lord and his household, and there can be little doubt that in most
instances new entrenchments were made, large enough to afford a refuge for
the tenants as well as their flocks and herds.
Pickering itself must have been an Anglo-Saxon village of some importance,
and the artificial mound on which the keep of the castle now stands would
probably have been raised during this period if it had not been
constructed at a much earlier date. It would have palisades defending the
top of the mound, and similar defences inside the entrenchments that
formed the basecourt. These may have occupied the position of the present
dry moat that defends the castle on two of its three sides. If Pickering
had been founded by the Anglo-Saxons we should have expected a name ending
with "ton," "ham," "thorpe," or "borough," but its remarkable position at
the mouth of Newton Dale may have led them to choose a name which may
possibly mean an opening by the "ings" or wet lands. It is, however,
impossible at the present time to discover the correct derivation of the
name. It probably has nothing whatever to do with the superficial "pike"
and "ring," and the suggestion that it means "The Maiden's Ring" from the
Scandinavian "pika," a maiden, and "hringr," a circle or ring, may be
equally incorrect. The settlements in the neighbourhood must have occupied
the margin of the marshes in close proximity to one another, and most of
them from the suffix "ton" would appear to have been the "tuns" or
fortified villages named after the family who founded them. Thus we find
between Pickering and Scarborough at the present time a string of eleven
villages bearing the names Thornton, Wilton, Allerston, Ebberston,
Snainton, Brompton, Ruston, Hutton (Buscel of Norman origin), Sawdon,
Ayton and Irton. In the west and south there are Middleton, Cropton,
Wrelton, Sinnington, Appleton, Nawton, Salton, Marton, Edston or Edstone,
Habton, (Kirby) Misperton, Ryton, Rillington, and many others. Other
Anglo-Saxon settlements indicating someone's ham or home would appear to
have been made at Levisham, Yedingham and Lastingham. Riseborough seems to
suggest the existence of some Anglo-Saxon fortress on that very suitable
elevation in the Vale of Pickering. Barugh, a little to the south, can
scarcely be anything else than a corruption of "buhr" or "burg," for the
Anglian invaders, if they found the small Roman camp that appears to have
been established on that slight eminence in the vale would have probably
found it a most convenient site for one of their own fortifications. Names
ending with "thorpe," such as Kingthorpe, near Pickering, also indicate an
Anglo-Saxon origin. Traces of the "by" or "byr," a single dwelling or
single farm of the Danes, are to be found thickly dotted over this part of
England, but in the immediate neighbourhood of Pickering there are only
Blansby, Dalby, Farmanby, Aislaby, Roxby, and Normanby. To the east near
Scarborough there are Osgodby, Killerby, Willerby, Flotmanby, and
Hunmanby, so that it would appear that the strong community of Anglo-Saxon
villages along the margin of the vale kept the Danish settlers at a
distance.
[Illustration: The Tower of Middleton Church near Pickering.
The lower portion, owing to the quoins which somewhat resemble the "long
and short" work of the Saxons, has been thought to be of pre-Norman date.
The blocked doorway appearing in the drawing has every appearance of Saxon
workmanship.]
Goathland, which was often spelt Gothland, has a most suggestive sound,
and the family names of Scoby and Scoresby seem to be of Danish origin.
The "gate" of the streets of Pickering is a modification of the Danish
"gade," meaning a "way," for the town was never walled. The influence of
the Danes on the speech of this part of Yorkshire seems to me apparent in
the slight sing-song modulation so similar to that of the present day
people of Denmark.
In A.D. 597 Augustine commenced his missionary work among the Saxons, and
King Ethelbert of Kent was baptised on June the 2nd of that year.
Twenty-seven years later Edwin, the powerful king of Northumbria, married
Ethelburga, daughter of Ethelbert. When she accompanied her husband to his
northern kingdom she took with her Paulinus, who was ordained bishop of
the Northumbrians. "King Aldwin, therefore," Bede tells us,[1] "together
with all the nobles of his nation, and very many of the common people,
received the faith and washing of sacred regeneration, in the eleventh
year of his reign, which is the year of the Lord's incarnation, 627, and
about the year 180 from the coming of the Angles into Britain. Moreover,
he was baptised at York, on the holy day of Easter, the day before the
Ides of April, in the church of the holy apostle Peter, which he himself
built of wood in that place with expeditious labour, while he was being
catechised and prepared in order to receive baptism." The Northumbrians
from this time forward were at least a nominally Christian people, and the
seventh century certainly witnessed the destruction of many of the idols
and their shrines that had hitherto formed the centre for the religious
rites of the Anglo-Saxons. Woden or Odin, Thor and the other deities did
not lose their adherents in a day, and Bede records the relapses into
idolatry of Northumbria as well as the other parts of England. There can
be no doubt that fairies and elves entered largely into the mythology of
the Anglo-Saxons, and the firmness of the beliefs in beings of that nature
can be easily understood when we realise that it required no fewer than
twelve centuries of Christianity to finally destroy them among the people
of Yorkshire. In Chapter XI. we see something of the form the beliefs and
superstitions had assumed at the time of their disappearance.
[Footnote 1: Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation,"
translated by Gidley, Rev. L., 1870, p. 152.]
In the seventh century most of the churches erected in Yorkshire were
probably of wood, but the example of King Edwin at York, who quickly
replaced the timber structure with a larger one of stone, must soon have
made itself felt in the country. Nothing, however, in the form of
buildings or inscribed stones for which we have any evidence for placing
at such an early date remains in the neighbourhood of Pickering, although
there are numerous crosses and traces of the masonry that may be termed
Saxon or Pre-Conquest.
[Illustration:
The early font in the Chapel of Ease at Levisham, that was serving only
recently as a cattle trough in a farmyard.
The BROKEN CROSS by the ruins of WYKEHAM ABBEY. Scarcely any traces of
carving are visible.
A carved cross built into the wall of the tower (interior) of
Middleton Church. The head is hidden in the angle of the wall.
]
The founding of a monastery at Lastingham is described by Bede, and with
the particulars he gives we can place the date between the years 653 and
655. Bishop Cedd was requested by King Oidilward, who held rule in the
parts of Deira, "to accept some possession of land of him to build a
monastery to which the king himself [Æthelwald] also might frequently come
to pray to the Lord, and to hear the Word, and in which he might be buried
when he died." Further on we are told that Cedd "assenting to the king's
wishes, chose for himself a place to build a monastery among lofty and
remote mountains, in which there appeared to have been more lurking places
of robbers and dens of wild beasts than habitations of men." This account
is of extreme interest, being the only contemporary description of this
part of Yorkshire known to us. "Moreover," says Bede, "the man of God,
studying first by prayers and fastings to purge the place he had received
for a monastery from its former filth of crimes, and so to lay in it the
foundations of the monastery, requested of the king that he would give him
during the whole ensuing time of Lent leave and licence to abide there for
the sake of prayer; on all which days, with the exception of Sunday,
protracting his fast to evening according to custom, he did not even then
take anything except a very little bread and one hen's egg, with a little
milk and water. For he said this was the custom of those of whom he had
learnt the rule of regular discipline, first to consecrate to the Lord by
prayers and fastings the places newly received for building a monastery or
a church. And when ten days of the quadragesimal fast were yet remaining,
there came one to summon him to the king. But he, in order that the
religious work might not be intermitted on account of the king's affairs,
desired his presbyter Cynibill, who was also his brother, to complete the
pious undertaking. The latter willingly assented; and the duty of fasting
and prayer having been fulfilled, he built there a monastery which is now
called Læstingaeu [Lastingham], and instituted rules there, according to
the customs of the monks of Lindisfarne, where he had been educated. And
when for many years he [Cedd] had administered the episcopate in the
aforesaid province, and also had taken charge of this monastery, over
which he set superiors, it happened that coming to this same monastery at
a time of mortality, he was attacked by bodily infirmity and died. At
first, indeed, he was buried outside, but in process of time a church was
built of stone in the same monastery, in honour of the blessed mother of
God, and in that church his body was laid on the right side of the altar."
Cedd's death took place in 664, and Ceadda or Chad, one of his brothers,
succeeded him as he had desired.
[Illustration: Saxon Sundial at Kirkdale. (_From a rubbing by Mr J.
Romilly Allen, F.S.A._)]
Nothing remains of the buildings of this early monastery, and what
happened to them, and what caused their disappearance, is purely a matter
of conjecture. We can only surmise that they were destroyed during the
Danish invasions of the ninth century.
At Kirkdale church, which is situated close to the cave already described,
there was discovered about the year 1771 a sundial bearing the longest
known inscription of the Anglo-Saxon period. The discoverer was the Rev.
William Dade, rector of Barmston, in the East Riding, and a letter of
great length, on the stone, from the pen of Mr J. C. Brooke, F.S.A. of the
Herald's College, was read at the Society of Antiquaries in 1777.
The sundial, without any gnomon, occupies the central portion of the
stone, which is about 7 feet in length, and the inscription is closely
packed in the spaces on either side.
It reads as follows, the lines in brackets having the contractions
expanded:--
[Transcriber's Note: The "|"s below are my best rendition in plain ASCII
of a Saxon ampersand, which is a long vertical bar with a short horizontal
bar at the top, pointing to the left.]
+ ORM · GAMAL · SVNA · BOHTE · SC[=S]
[ + ORM · GAMAL · SUNA · BOHTE · SANCTUS]
GREGORIVS · MINSTER · ÐONNE HIT
[GREGORIUS · MINSTER · THONNE HIT]
PES ÆL TOBROCAN · | TOFALAN · | HE
[WES ÆL TOBROCAN · & TOFALAN · & HE]
HIT IET · MACAN · NEPAN · FROM GRVNDE
[HIT LET · MACAN · NEWAN · FROM GRUNDE]
XPE: | SCS GREGORIVS · IN EADPARD
[CHRISTE: & SANCTUS GREGORIUS · IN EADWARD]
DAGVM C[=N]G | N TOSTI DAGVM EORL +
[DAGUM CYNING & IN TOSTI DAGUM EORL +]
Completed under the dial.
+ | HAPARÐ ME PROHTE · | BRAND P[=RS]
[+ & HAWARTH ME WROHTE · & BRAND {PRÆPOSITUS]
{PRESBYTERS]
The modern rendering is generally accepted as: "Orm, the son of Gamal,
bought St Gregory's minster (or church) when it was all broken and fallen,
and caused it to be made anew from the ground for Christ and St Gregory in
the days of King Edward, and in the days of Earl Tosti, and Hawarth
wrought me and Brand the Prior, (priest or priests)."
Along the top of the dial and round the perimeter the inscription reads:--
+ PIS IS DÆGES SOL MERCA
THIS IS DAY'S SUNMARKER
ÆT ILCVM TIDE
AT EACH TIDE OR HOUR.
It is interesting to know that the antiquaries of a century or more ago
rendered this simple sentence as: "This is a draught exhibiting the time
of day, while the sun is passing to and from the winter-solstice." They
also made a great muddle of the words: "& HE HIT LET MACAN NEWAN," their
rendering being "CHEHITLE AND MAN NEWAN," the translation being supposed
to read: "Chehitle and others renewed it, etc." With Mr Brooke's paper is
given a large steel engraving of the stone, but it is curiously inaccurate
in many details. At Edstone church there is another sundial over the south
doorway as at Kirkdale, and there is every reason to believe that it
belongs to the same period. The inscription above the dial reads:--
OROLOGI VIATORUM.
On the left side is the following:--
LOTHAN ME WROHTE A.
[Illustration: Saxon Sundial at Edstone. (From a rubbing by Mr J. Romilly
Allen, F.S.A.)]
From the drawing given here the inscription is palpably incomplete, as
though the writer had been suddenly stopped in his work. Nothing is known
of Lothan beyond the making of this sundial, so that the fixing of the
date can only be by comparative reasoning. At Kirkdale, on the other hand,
we know that Tosti, Harold's brother, became Earl of Northumbria in 1055,
we know also that the Northumbrians rose against Tosti's misgovernment and
his many crimes, among which must be placed the murder of the Gamal
mentioned in the inscription, and that in 1065 Tosti was outlawed, his
house-carles killed, and his treasures seized. After this we also know
that Tosti was defeated by the Earls Edwin and Morcar, and having fled to
Scotland, submitted himself to Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, who had
arrived in the Tyne with his fleet early in September 1066, that they then
sailed southwards, and having sacked Scarborough defeated Edwin and Morcar
at Fulford near York only eight days before the landing of William the
Norman at Pevensey. Harold having made forced marches reached York on
September the 24th, and defeated his brother and the Norwegian king, both
being slain in the battle which was fought at Stamford Bridge on the
Derwent. Harold was forced to take his wearied army southwards immediately
after the battle to meet the Frenchmen at Hastings, and the great disaster
of Senlac Hill occurred on October the 14th. This stone at Kirkdale is
thus concerned with momentous events in English history, for the murder of
Gamal and the insurrection of Tosti may be considered two of the links in
the chain of events leading to the Norman Conquest.
A great deal of interest has centred round an Anglo-Saxon cross-slab built
into the west wall of Kirkdale church. At the time of its discovery the
late Rev. Daniel H. Haigh[1] tells us that a runic inscription spelling
_Kununc Oithilwalde_, meaning "to King Æthelwald," was quite legible. This
would seem to indicate that the founder of Lastingham monastery was buried
at Kirkdale, or that the site of Bede's, "Læstingaeu" was at Kirkdale if
the stone has not been moved from its original position.
[Footnote 1: _Yorkshire Archæological Journal_, v. 134.]
[Illustration: Saxon or Pre-Norman Remains at and near Pickering.]
The inscription has now perished, but Bishop Browne tells us[1] that when
he had photographs taken of the stone in 1886 "there was only one rune
left, the 'Oi' of the king's name." "I have seen, however," he says, "the
drawing made of the letters when the stone was found, and many of them
were still legible when the Rev. Daniel Haigh worked at the stone." There
seems little doubt that this most valuable inscription might have been
preserved if the stone had been kept from the action of the air and
weather.
[Footnote 1: Browne, Rt. Rev. G.F.: "The Conversion of the Heptarchy," p.
151.]
There are several other pre-Norman sculptured stones at Kirkdale. They are
generally built into the walls on the exterior, and are not very apparent
unless carefully looked for. In the vestry some fragments of stone bearing
interlaced ornament are preserved.
Not only at Kirkdale are these pre-Norman stones built into walls that
appear to belong to a date prior to the Conquest, but also at Middleton
there is a fine cross forming part of the fabric of the church tower. The
west doorway now blocked up is generally considered to be of Saxon work,
but the quoins of the tower, though bearing much resemblance to the pure
"long and short" work that may be seen at Bradford-on-Avon, are composed
of stones that are almost equal in height.
[Illustration: Cross Slab inserted in West Wall of Kirkdale Church.
The runes which gave rise to the belief that this was the gravestone of
King Æthelwald have perished.
Slab with Interlaced Ornament at Kirkdale Church.
(_Both crosses are from the Associated Architectural Societies' Reports_.)
]
The Rev. Reginald Caley has suggested that the original Saxon tower of
Brompton church may have been incorporated into the present structure
whose walls are of unusual thickness, the stone work in some places
showing characteristics of pre-Norman workmanship. At Ellerburne the
curious spiral ornaments of the responds of the chancel arch have also
been attributed to pre-Norman times, but in this case and possibly at
Middleton also, the Saxon features may have appeared in Norman buildings
owing to the employment of Saxon workmen, who did not necessarily for
several years entirely abandon their own methods, despite the fact that
they might be working under Norman masters. There is a very roughly hewn
font in the little chapel of Ease, in the village of Levisham. It bears a
cross and a rope ornamentation, and may possibly be of pre-Norman origin,
although it was being used as a cattle trough in a neighbouring farmyard
before the restoration in 1884. The parish church of Levisham, standing
alone in the valley below the village, has a very narrow and unadorned
chancel arch. This may possibly belong to Saxon or very early Norman
times, but Mr Joseph Morris[1] has pointed out that a similar one occurs
at Scawton, which is known to have been built in 1146, and the evidence of
a Saxon stone built into the south-east corner of the chancel of Levisham
church supports my belief in the later date. On the south wall of the
chancel of Lockton church I have seen a roughly shaped oblong stone
bearing in one corner the markings of a very rude sundial, and I find that
there is another on the wall of a cottage in the same village.[2] I am
unable to give its position, but from a drawing I have examined, it
appears to be of more careful workmanship than the one built into the
church wall. At Sinnington church another of these very crude sundials has
been discovered, and what may be part of a similar one is high up on the
east wall of the chancel of Ellerburne church. At Kirby Moorside a fine
cross with interlaced work is built into the porch of the vicarage. At
Wykeham there is a very plain cross of uncertain age, and Ellerburne,
Lastingham, Sinnington, Kirkdale, Kirby Misperton, and Middleton are all
rich in carved crosses and incised slabs. Pickering church only possesses
one fragment of stone work that we may safely attribute to a date prior to
the Conquest. It seems to be part of the shaft or of an arm of a cross,
and bears one of the usual types of dragon as well as knot or interlaced
ornament. The font, which has been thought by some to be of Saxon origin,
seems to be formed from part of the inverted base of a pillar, and though
composed of old material, probably dates in its present form of a font
from as recent a period as the restoration of Charles II., the original
font having been destroyed in Puritan times (Chapter X.). It would appear
that when it was decided to build a large Norman church at Pickering the
desire to put up a building that would be a great advance on the previous
structure--for we cannot suppose that Pickering was without a church in
Saxon times---led to the destruction of every trace of the earlier
building.
[Footnote 1: Morris, J.E.: "The North Riding of Yorkshire," p. 33.]
[Footnote 2: Illustrated, facing p. 209, "Associated Architectural
Societies' Reports," vol. xii. 1873.]
[Illustration: Two Crossheads at Sinnington Church. The one on the left
shows a Crucifixion.]
Hinderwell mentions a curious legend in connection with the cave in a
small conical hill at Ebberston, that has since been destroyed. The
country people called it Ilfrid's Hole, the tradition being that a Saxon
king of that name took shelter there when wounded after a battle. An
inscription that was formerly placed above the cave said: "Alfrid, King of
Northumberland, was wounded in a bloody battle near this place, and was
removed to Little Driffield, where he lies buried; hard by his
entrenchments may be seen." The roughly built stone hut with a domed roof
that now crowns the hill is within twenty yards of the site of the cave,
and was built by Sir Charles Hotham in 1790 to preserve the memory of
this legendary king. In the period that lay between the conversion of
Northumbria to Christianity in 627, and the ravages of Dane and Northman
in the ninth and tenth centuries, we know by the traces that survive that
the Saxons built a church in each of their villages, and that they placed
beautifully sculptured crosses above the graves of their dead. The
churches were small and quite simple in plan, generally consisting of a
nave and chancel, with perhaps a tower at the west end. Owing to the
importance of Pickering the Saxon church may have been a little in advance
of the rest, and its tower may have been ornamented as much as that of
Earl's Barton, but we are entering the dangerous realms of conjecture, and
must be reconciled to that one fragment of a pre-Norman cross that is now
carefully preserved in the south aisle of the present building.