Wealth, Power and Influence in Anglo-Saxon England

On the EHFA blog this week, I explored the wealth, power and influence of the later Anglo-Saxon Nobility. Boy were these people rich!

Read the article HERE

On the Trail of Dunmail

I recently had an article published in Cumbria Magazine and was given permission to republish it on the EHFA blog:

Read how I found myself halfway up a mountain and discovered Dunmail - twice

HERE

Bingo! The Satisfaction of Research

This story has a sombre beginning, so let me tell you at the outset that she's okay now ...

A few months ago, my youngest daughter came to me and said, "Do you think I should get this checked out?" 'This' was a mole, which looked rather angry and, well, not quite right.

Okay, wrong kind of angry mole

Without wishing to add to her alarm, I said she should maybe see a doctor, just to put her mind at rest. She got badly sunburned during a school trip in her final year of primary school and she wondered if she had the mole at that point.

Well, I'm the first to admit that I'm a terrible mother, but I know she wasn't born with that mole. Did it appear after the sunburn? I couldn't remember.

That evening, I pulled out the old photo albums. Lots of 'em. I have three kids, and I love them. I love taking photos, generally, and especially of my kids. So it took a while. I even played a DVD of the Yr 6 school play - we know she was sunburned then because the feather boa irritated it (she was dressed as a toucan.) But of course, the feathers covered the area in question. 

I pored over the photos until I found a picture, taken a few weeks later, of her wearing a pretty skimpy t-shirt. The burn lines were clear, and so was the area of skin - and there was no mole. Bingo! Now all I had to do was find a photo of the mole. 

Given our weather, and lack of finances when the kids were young, there weren't too many photos of her in a t-shirt. But an hour later, I found a shot of her on the beach at Wicklow, two years after the sunburn incident, and the mole was just visible. Bingo again!

The sunny day in Co Wicklow

Now, I can't prove for certain when that mole appeared. All I can say is that it definitely wasn't there in summer 2008, and that it most definitely was there in 2010. And, despite the worrying reason for this mission, I derived a great deal of satisfaction from it.

My husband came home and I told him, "I missed my calling; I should have been a detective." And he simply looked at me and said, "Isn't that what you do anyway, when you research your history stuff?"

And of course he's right. A Bingo! moment is fantastic, but when you can add a Bingo again! to it, it's even more wonderful. Because even if it's not too narrow a time-frame, to have a proven point A and a proven point B is incredibly useful, for historians, and, especially, for historical novelists. Because then they are free to fill in the gap. Plausibly.

I would love to hear from any novelists out there who've had a Bingo! moment, especially if you've had a Bingo again! to go with it.

The Fight for Grimeshaw Lane

It is fair to say that, at the moment, the outskirts of Lancaster do not look very pretty. The hillsides have fresh scars slashed across them as construction work continues on the M6-Heysham link road.

But, just a very short distance from there, I met a friend, who took me along one of her favourite walks.

Sometimes, history is not visible. Castles, stately homes, archaeological remains - all give us a link to the past which we can see, and hope to understand. At other times, we can only get a sense of what has gone before, and interpret as best we can what is left in our modern world. This makes such places much harder to protect, but it is no less important that we attempt to do so.

A determined group of people just outside Lancaster are trying, at the moment, to do just that, and to save Grimeshaw Lane and Denny Beck Lane from development. The future of Denny Beck Lane, is I suspect, more secure, given that it was victim to atrocious flooding last winter. But what of Grimeshaw? And how can we assess its historical significance?

It is believed that there might be a 'plague stone' on the lane - could this be it?

I began by trying to decipher the name itself:

Shaw (sceaga) - copse, small wood

Grim/e - devil
So Grimeshaw = Devil's wood?

This seemed a bit simplistic, so I delved deeper.

Margaret Gelling, in her book Signposts to the Past, says:  "It has been established that Grim meaning the masked one is a nickname for Woden, alluding to the god’s habit of going about in disguise; and the numerous earthworks called Grims Ditch, Grimsdyke, in many parts of the country are believed to contain this nickname, either because they were believed to be the work of the god, or as a vague expression of superstitious awe concerning their origin.

The use of disguise by Woden is inferred from the many instances in which the corresponding Old Norse god Othin behaved in this way. We do not have narratives concerning the Old English gods of the sort which have survived for the ON deities, and there are many dangers in transferring ON information of a much later date to our own relatively brief pagan period. But a major characteristic like this one seems likely to belong to both traditions.

Not all English place names in Grims- are of this origin. Grimr was a common ON personal name and in the areas of England where Danes and Norwegians settled in the 9th and 10th centuries there are such names as Grimsby, Grimethorpe and Grimscoat, which contain this personal name and are of no special archaeological significance. Even in the Danelaw, however, a Grims- name referring to an earthwork is likely to allude to the god."

From the top of the ridge, the proximity to the M6 is visible

A quick internet search told me (grimshaworigin.org) that "The Grimshaw surname originated in Lancashire in the northern part of England, apparently around 1000 A.D. There appear to be few records of Grimshaw family lines for the first 200 to 250 years. However, it is highly probable that the family’s roots are connected to the town of Grimsargh, which is a short distance northeast of Preston. The earliest recorded Grimshaw was Gilbert, father of William Grimshaw, who held the Manor of Grimsargh in thenage in 1242."

I looked for more information on the placename Grimsargh but could only find this, in Wikipedia: "The name Grimsargh is said to derive from an Old Norse name Grímr. One reference lists it as coming from the Domesday Book's Grimesarge, "at the temple of Grímr (a name for Odin.)" I had come full circle.

So what of the place itself? In Ancient Roads and Trackways in Quernmore/Lancaster Phil Hudson says: "There seems no doubt that in the pre-Conquest period there were some well used trackways which would have been part of the communications network for the many small, often defended circular ring-dyke farmsteads found in the area. Butler (l921)* makes reference to a "ridgeway" that passed through Quernmore on a north-south line, following the high scarp via Grimshaw Lane and across the River Lune ford to Halton.

An extension of this ran through Quernmore from Castle O'Trim up to High Cross Moor. This was probably the route, parts of which are still in use, taken by the Earlsgate, recorded in the medieval period. This route, which could be prehistoric in origin, was possibly the basis for the one which was in place during the Roman period when, it is assumed, there was a main road system in the north west created and maintained by the Romans. It is also assumed that the Romans had a network of minor roads or trackways to give access to their industrial sites and potteries on the eastern side of the valley."

From the top of the ridge, one can walk into Lancaster, and I was told the the witches of Pendle walked this way from the prison to their place of execution. From this high ridgeway, they would have known that they were walking in the direction of home, but never to return.

Although it is possible to 'name-check' these witches, overall this is a new facet to historical investigation for me. We do not know who else walked this route, where they lived, where they were going. I am used to having names as a starting point, even if they are only mentioned once or twice in primary sources. I research people, not places. To walk along that track, following the footsteps of countless  unnamed people, was a new experience. This place is most definitely historical, but it is not going to give up its secrets any time soon.

Or at all.

The campaigners are highlighting the route with ribbons

It is under potential threat of development, and a small but determined group of people is fighting to stop that happening.
If you would like to know more about the campaign, look at the group's Facebook Page 

If anyone has any evidence which they think is relevant they can write to Paul Hatch on planningpolicy@lancaster.gov.uk 

and if you live locally you can sign the Petition

The plan and information on the process so far can be found Here

Denny Beck

*Butler, M.E. A Survey of the Geographical Factors that have Controlled the History of Lonsdale. Unpublished M.A. University or Liverpool 1921, 3O-4O.

B.R.A.G. Interview with Colleen Turner

This week I was honoured and thrilled to be interviewed by Colleen Turner on her blog

A Literary Vacation

Because my book To Be A Queen has been awarded an IndieBRAG gold medallion.

Find the interview and more about Colleen HERE