Published: Manchester University Press 1985. ISBN 071901736. 270pp £30
This book sets out to reconstruct the Anglo-Saxon landscape of much of the former kingdom of the Hwicce covering the modern counties of Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire.
Use is made of place-names, contemporary documents (charters) and archaeological evidence. Commerce and trade, agriculture, including woodland resources, the economy, settlement patterns and the pattern of route ways are all explored. The Anglo-Saxon landscape determined the territorial patterns that were to form the basis of future administrative organisation. The book quotes Englisc, with translations, and is well illustrated with appropriate maps.
The origin of the Hwiccan kingdom is ascribed to the actions of King Penda of Mercia around 628 and reference is made to the exiled Northumbrian dynasties as noted in Emma Mason’s “St Wulfstan of Worcester”. The creation of the Diocese of Worcester is also discussed. An intriguing possibility is introduced concerning the donation of an estate for the purposes of the foundation of a minster church at Hanbury in North Worcestershire. This donation occurred sometime between 657 and 674 and involved an abbot whose name was Colman. Just possibly, this abbot might be one of the same as Colman, Bishop of Lindisfarne in Northumberland, who it is recorded, returned to Ireland after the decision of the church in 663 to follow the teachings of the Roman rather than the Celtic church. Did Bishop Colman come to Worcestershire before finally settling in Ireland?
Pagan cemeteries, ranging in size from one to over one hundred graves reveal a mainly Anglian presence in the sixth century, although the village of Pensax, the hill of the Saxons, indicate a distinctive group of non-Anglian settlers. The cemeteries lie upon good agricultural land indicating the Anglo-Saxons were not in a subordinate position in relation to any other (surviving) peoples in the area.
The elements important in the formation of English place names during 430 to 730 are discussed. The first of these elements, and most obvious, are typographical names, for example, burna for a brook or stream; dun for a hill; feld for open country and so on. Habitation names, including the element “tun” representing a farming community, were common after 730, often compounded with a personal name and the genitive ing, e.g., “Tredington”, from the thegn Tyrdda who held the estate prior to its donation to the church of Worcester in 757. (Tredington church, now in Warwickshire, contains Anglo-Saxon material.) Names are used to denote territorial groups or associations of peoples – the “ingas”. For example, the Stoppingas, which is either a personnel name of “Stoppa” or, “a bucket” in the sense of a hollow in the typographical context. In a description dating from 716, it is stated Wootton Wawen in Warwickshire, “lies in the territory of the Stoppingas”. (The present church incorporates an Anglo-Saxon tower.) In 736 Æthelbald of Mercia refers to Husmeræ, the people by the ice pool, whose name survives today as “Ismere” and “Ismere Grange” in Worcestershire. The present rural deanery of Kidderminster corresponds to the territory of the Husmeræ. “Worcester” means the city of the tribe called Wigoran or Weogoran. Fladbury in Worcestershire is “Flæde’s burh, Flæde’s stronghold.
The point is made that place names survive because they are noted as a landmark along the boundaries of estates and are recorded in boundary clauses in charters. Some features were deliberately erected to make or mark a boundary, for example, dykes were made to link the heads of two streams and stone markers were set up. The features described in the boundary clauses give an idea of the general character of the area of the landscape often following major natural features but equally often referring to particular hills, springs and streams. However, many clauses go into far more interesting detail, referring to sedge marsh, foul marsh, a yew ridge, a fenced enclosure, wolf ridge, wolf pit, hill of the hawk, roe deer’s lair, hart’s wallowing place, wood frequented by wolves, broad wagon way, even furrows, furlongs and headlands in fields with personal names.
Sites revealing Anglo-Saxon habitation range from sunken floored buildings at Baginton in Warwickshire, to substantial mid-tenth century timber-framed buildings at Fladbury, Worcestershire, and through to town houses of wattle and daub in Gloucester.
The charters record active stone, sand, and gravel and limestone quarries. With this material so readily available, a number of churches in the area retain Anglo-Saxon fabric and sculpture. Odda’s Chapel and St Mary’s Church in Deerhurst in Gloucestershire being among the most important examples, and the complete ninth century crosshead at Cropthorne in Worcestershire being among the most impressive.
The late seventh century Tribal Hidage identifies the Hwicce as a large group comprising some seven thousand hides. A hide of land was notionally the amount of land that would support one family. Hundred units were formed and regrouped to act as the means of defence and fiscal assessment, each ideally containing one hundred hides. The most common name for a hundred was a typographical name, although the use of the name of the chief manor was common. The meeting places of the hundreds, usually accessible and reasonably central, are commemorated in places such as “Moot Hill” in Lighthorne, Warwickshire.
Place names are discussed at length and the Red Horse at Tysoe in Warwickshire (commemorating the god Tiw), carved out on the slopes of Edge Hill overlooking the Tysoe estate, inevitably gets a mention. I recall a few years ago someone had thought they had found the site of the horse, does anyone know whether this was in fact the case, is the site now marked?
Kings recognised that revenue could be obtained from the control of trade, and efforts were made to prohibit trade outside the controlled environment of a port (burgh). As part of this control mechanism the development of currency began in earnest in the reign of King Offa of Mercia (757-96) with the establishment of mints in borough centres. The minting of coins in the area may have been stimulated by the salt trade emanating from Droitwich in Worcestershire. Indeed so important was Droitwich that early eighth century charters refer to salt works and salt ways, and the continued use of the Roman network of roads and routes beyond the Hwiccan frontiers.
The author observes that the church of Worcester’s estates appear to have been more heavily taxed than those of the king. This might be a conscious political decision, but it might mean that the royal and lay estates were in the more wooded and less well stocked north and west areas of Worcestershire. It could also indicate that the church may have been a more efficient and competent landlord.
The greatest revenue from cultivated land came from the south and southeastern regions of the West Midlands. These regions stand out as the prime agricultural areas in Anglo-Saxon times just as they did in Roman times and still do today. Early charters refer to loam pits suggesting the practice of marling the fields to improve fertility. The author discusses the soil conditions, the underlying rock type, and the effects these had on land use.
Although large areas of the Hwiccan kingdom were heavily wooded and little developed, few areas were devoid of any settlement and few habitations were that far distant from another. Route ways often utilised old pre-Roman or Roman roads. English “stræt” indicated a Roman road or a high road; “weg” indicated a path or lane, a road or a way of older than Roman origin; a “stig” indicated a narrow path, an unsurfaced track; “herepađ” or “fyrdstæt” indicated the army road, “cynges ferdstræte” indicated the king’s military road. These military roads had to be sufficiently wide and well surfaced for armies to march in defence of the region.
Woodland was considered a valuable asset placed in value alongside fields, pastures, meadows and so on. They were managed as closely and carefully as in the later medieval period. The author concludes that the value of woodland is under represented in Domesday Book where arable cultivation is emphasised. The seventh century laws of King Ine of Wessex protected woodland from indiscriminate felling and burning and the presumption is that such laws were common throughout the country. Woodlands provided sustenance for large herds of domesticated pigs and the numerous charter references to “honey” bournes, indicate honey was gathered from wild bees that frequented the riverbanks. Wood was used for all types of buildings and for fuel for domestic and industrial use – the Droitwich saltpans. Deer were hunted in the woods along with wolves and wild boar.
The charters refer to mill weirs specifically for the capture of fish. There seem to be two basic types of weir. The basket weirs, comprising rows of tapering baskets arranged in groups of six or nine, between upright stakes, and “hackle” weirs, comprising a barrier of wattle set across the current to produce an eddy in the river in which fish would be forced and then caught from a boat.
The last recorded King of the Hwicce was Ealdred, who, by 778, was described by King Offa of Mercia, as “my under-king, ealdorman of his own people of the Hwicce”. After 800 the Hwicce were governed by an ealdorman.
Inevitably, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians 911-18, is rightly mentioned, and we are reminded that she and her husband, Æthelred of Mercia, first fortified Gloucester and made it their chief residence. They developed Gloucester both as a town and as an administrative centre. It is possible that her tomb has been found in the recent excavations, does anyone know if this is correct, and where the evidence is now displayed?
Place names also refer to the Hwicce outside their known boundaries, for example, Wychwood in Oxfordshire, an extensive wooded region, means “the woodland of the Hwicce”, recorded in a charter of 862. Nennius, when writing in the ninth century, listed among his wonders of Britain, “the Hot Lake where the baths of Badon are, in the country of the Hwicce” – clearly a reference to Bath.
Charter evidence suggests that dispersed hamlets and farmsteads away from any manorial nucleus were more numerous in Anglo-Saxon than in later medieval times. The concentration of population in villages centres did occur in later Anglo-Saxon times, precipitated by improved agricultural techniques requiring a convenient local workforce, but the enforced “planning” post 1066, speeded up the process. We are reminded that the majority of charters that are accompanied by detailed boundary clauses compiled at the beginning of the tenth century and that these charters provide a snapshot at that particular time, the charters do not describe the prevailing situation throughout the Anglo-Saxon period.
Whilst this book is essential reading for anyone familiar with the area, and one wishes there were similar books on all the tribal territories, I would have appreciated more detail on the political dimension of the Hwicce and their relationship with neighbouring territories.
June 21st, 2010
