Images courtesy of:Cheshire County Council

Chester City Council Archaeological Service English Heritage Photographic Library

The Grosvenor Museum, Chester City CouncilThe Portable Antiquities Scheme/

National Museums LiverpoolWarrington Library, Museum and Archive Service

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this mapping should contact Ordnance SurveyCopyright for advice where they wish to

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3

Invasion andSettlementInvasion andSettlement

Saxons

In the late 4th century AD,Britain was threatened withinvasion from across the NorthSea. An appeal to Rome forhelp was unsuccessful asBarbarians were attacking theother frontiers of the Empire.Rome withdrew administrativeand military support fromBritain and the Anglo-Saxonsinvaded and settled, creatingnew kingdoms.

Cheshire became a frontier zone, at times part of the Welsh kingdomof Powys then later part of theAnglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.

Vikings from Denmark and Norway then invaded Britain; the first attacks were in the late 8th century AD.

Part of Mercia was controlled byDanish Vikings but a series ofdefended sites was established toprotect the Cheshire plain byAethelflaed, “Lady of theMercians”. Mercia returned toEnglish rule and a succession ofpowerful earls governed Cheshireuntil the Norman Conquest.

The Anglo-Saxons came toBritain from North Germany andSouthern Scandinavia in the 5thcentury. They crossed the NorthSea in search of new land andprosperity.

At first, they colonised easternEngland and created newkingdoms. They brought withthem distinctive objects, evidentfrom the elaborate grave goodsfound in pagan burial sites suchas Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Theygradually moved westwards andby the 7th century Cheshire waspart of the Mercian Kingdom.

We know little about life inCheshire before the Anglo-Saxons arrived, though we knowthe land was being farmed, asthere is evidence of post-Romanploughing outside the oldRoman fortress at Chester.

10th century strap-endfrom Bruen Stapleford

Self-sufficientfarmsteads wouldhave been the mostcommon settlements

as people moved awayfrom the once

prosperous Roman forts andtowns.

In Middlewich, salt productioncontinued after the Roman armyleft and was possibly controlledby the early Christian church, assuggested by the inscription on alead salt-pan.

The Domesday Bookrecords saltworking in the 11th century atNantwich,Northwich andMiddlewich.

Possible Christian inscription on alead salt-pan

There is evidence that Christianitywas well established in the regionbefore the arrival of the Saxons.Place name evidence points to apossible pre-Saxon church at

Eccleston, near Chesterand there was a

monastery at Bangoron Dee, Wales.

Saxon swordpommel fromMouldsworth

Early Saxon buckle

PennanularBrooch fromShavington

5th century 6th century 7th century 8th century 9th century 10th century 11th century

Chester mint coinof Edward theElder (899-924)

Who Lived Here?

CoinsIn times of trouble, people would sometimesbury their valuables for safekeeping. If theyfailed to retrieve them, or forgot where theywere buried, they can be found hundreds ofyears later.

Viking silver hoard found in Chester. The hoardconsists of over 500 Saxon silver pennies, silveringots of varying sizes and over 100 pieces of hacksilver. It may have belonged to a Viking trader.

PotteryPottery production after the end of the Romanperiod was small scale, with people makingtheir own pottery for domesticuse. By the 9th century, potterswere producing wheel thrownpottery, which was traded widely.A hard sandy brown pottery knownas “Chester ware” has been foundmostly in Chester, but also atTatton, Poulton and GrangeCow Worth, Ellesmere Port, thesite of a medieval farm.

These wheel thrown potshave sagging bases andwould have been used forcooking over an open fire.They often have a repeatedimpressed decoration aroundthe shoulder. Despite its name,“Chester ware” was made inStafford, where a kiln has beenfound. It dates to the 10th and11th centuries and has been foundacross Mercia as far south as Hereford.Chester ware has also been identified inDublin. There were active trade linksbetween Cheshire and Ireland in late Anglo-Saxon times.

Saxon Life

A fine example of Chester ware

Viking Influence Danish Vikings settled permanently in the northand east of Britain, controlling an area knownas the Danelaw.

In Cheshire there is evidence that NorwegianVikings, expelled from Ireland, settledon the Wirral. There aremany place nameswith Scandinavianorigins such as Irby,“the Irishmans’svillage” andThingwall, “Fieldwhere theassembly meets”.

The decorative patternsintroduced to Britain bythe Vikings can be seenon a number of objectsfound in Cheshire.

10th century bone beltplaque with “tree of life”decoration

This rare brooch (above) is one of only a fewfound in Britain. The intricate pattern of an

intertwined animal is a distinctive style ofViking art.

Fragments of 5 late Saxoncrosses (left) were found atthe church of St Mary andSt Helen in Neston when itwas rebuilt in 1874. Thestyle of carving is similarto Viking sculpture fromBritain, Ireland and theIsle of Man and datesbetween 930 and 1020AD.

Saxon Life continued

Ring headed pins have been found in Chester and at thetrading settlement of Meols on the Wirral. They areidentical to ones found in Viking Age Ireland.

Jet game pieces fromWarrington.Used forHnefatafl, a Scandinavianboard game.

© Crown copyright. All rights reserved.

Cheshire County Council Licence No. 100019582. 2004

Warrington

Macclesfield

Congleton

NorthwichEllesmere Port

Chester – 907

Nantwich

Winwick✛

Prestbury ✛

✛

✛✛

✛

✛✛

✛✛ ✛

✛✛

✛✛

✛

✛ ✛

✛ Neston

Sandbach

Thelwall – 918

Eddisbury – 914

Runcorn – 912

Poulton

Grange Cow Worth

Tatton Old Hall

Key● Burhs● Saxon/Viking stone crosses● Findspots of Chester ware✛

Saxon Cheshire

We know the locations of a number of Saxonsettlements, through both physical anddocumentary evidence.

Archaeological evidence of Saxon buildings israre, though excavation at Tatton Park showsa period of late Saxon occupation.

People were also living among the ruins ofthe old Roman fort at Chester. Excavation hasfound evidence of a rectangular sunken hut,which dates to the 9th century and was builtbefore Chester was refortified in 907. This isshown in the reconstruction above. Thesesunken huts were probably workshops.

Some settlements can also be identified by their place names. The name Frodsham(Frotes-ham) is Saxon with ~ham being OldEnglish for homestead or village.

BurhsDefensive enclosures were not a commonfeature of Saxon settlements until the Vikinginvasion when King Alfred of Wessex builtburhs (fortified towns) to protect hiskingdom.

Cheshire suffered a number of Viking attacksin the 10th century. Aethelflaed (wife of the

Mercian ruler Ethelred I) and her brotherEdward the Elder, built a string of fortifiedsettlements to protect Mercia’s northernfrontier. The founding of some of these isrecorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Reconstruction of a sunken hut in Chester. They were workshops rather than livingaccommodation.

Where They Lived

The Domesday Book is useful for the study of Anglo-Saxon England as it records theowner and assets of an area of land at thetime of the Norman conquest in 1066 andagain in 1086.

It records a range of settlements , from tinyrural homesteads to villages and importantmanors.

In Cheshire a number of large estates wereheld by the Saxon Earl Edwin, including themanors of Macclesfield and Malpas.

Rectangular Saxon graves dug into a circularBronze Age burial mound at Croft, Warrington.This is a possible Christian burial site.

Domesday

The early Christian Church is also a valuablesource of information about Anglo-SaxonCheshire.

No pagan Saxon cemeteries have yet beenfound in Cheshire, suggesting that they had adopted Christianity by the time Cheshire became part of Mercia.

Saxon Stone Crosses The decorated stone crosses foundthroughout Cheshire have some of the finest Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Britain.

The Sandbach Crosses These 9th century stone crosses stand in themarket square in Sandbach. They were takenfrom their original site and broken up in the17th century, possibly by Puritans. Kept in anumber of different places, the fragmentswere eventually restored in 1816. Both crossesare decorated on all faces with carved figures,animals and vine scrolls. The taller cross hasbiblical scenes, including the Annunciation,Nativity, Crucifixion and Transfiguration ofChrist.

The style and themes of the sculpture indicatecontact with the wider Anglo-Saxon world,

suggesting Sandbach was a significant centreof pre-Viking sculpture in the 9th century.

Saxon Churches in Cheshire Minsters were centres of the earliest Saxonreligious communities and a number ofCheshire churches have early Saxon origins.

The well populated settlement at Chester was home to the minsters of St John theBaptist and St Werburgh. St Werburgh was a 6th century abbess and daughter of a Mercian King.

In Farndon, the church is dedicated to St Chad, a 7th century bishop. Though itdoes not have any remains of Saxon building,it does have an irregular circular churchyard, ashape associated with early Saxon churches.

Religion

Reconstruction ofSandbach Crosses. Inset shows detail

visible today.

Anglo-Saxon ChronicleA compilation of a number of different writtenworks that record, year by year, events inAnglo-Saxon and Norman England.

Domesday BookA survey carried out in 1086 on the orders ofWilliam I. It records the owners, tenants andvalue of land in Norman England.

HacksilverHacksilver is the name given to fragments ofsilver, cut from much larger pieces, includingbracelets and ingots. These pieces could betraded by weight or melted and reused.

Glossary

Silver ingots and ingotmould from Chester

Market Place, SandbachDecorated Anglo-Saxon stone crosses.

St Mary's Churchyard, SandbachThree fragments of stone cross of similar sizeand date to the Sandbach crosses. Also twopre-Viking fragments of decorated tomb slabs.

St Mary’s & St Helen’s Church, NestonDecorated stone cross shafts showing Vikinginfluence, inside the Church.

St Peter's Church, Prestbury Fragments of a Saxon cross were found builtinto the church wall in 1841.They have sincebeen restored and can be seen in thechurchyard (right).

West Park, Macclesfield 3 Saxon circular pillar crosses can be seen inthe playground at West Park, Macclesfield (farright). Previously used as gateposts at RidgeHall, Sutton.

Wirral Museum, BirkenheadThe Saxons had their own form of writingknown as Runes. A runic inscription fromOverchurch, Wirral is on display.

Sites to Visit

www.cheshire.gov.uk/archaeology