Coddenham and West Heslerton archaeology - an alternative theory

 Some time ago I published a blog in which I suggested that the Coddenham bed burial might be suggestive of an early Christian double monastery.

 I have been reading Francis Pryor’s book Britain AD in which he explores the evidence from the site at West Heslerton and I have drawn the conclusion that this is perhaps another such site. 

 West Heslerton is in the Vale of Pickering in Yorkshire.  The Vale of Pickering was once occupied by a huge body of water forty miles long known to archaeologists as ‘Lake Pickering’.  At a later date it became a series of smaller lakes and marshes, not the sort of area that a marauding army would choose to settle.  The site has been extensively excavated by a team led by Dominic Powlesland from 1977 onwards. 

 Points to note about the Anglian village, which is my period, are

 ·         The post Roman village is close to an Iron Age settlement with Iron Age/Druidical religious associations.  This repeats the pattern found at Coddenham further north.  Pryor suggests this is a deliberate choice as barrows and earthworks would have been clearly visible in Saxon times.  I agree with him but it begs the question  as to why Saxon migrants would want to associate themselves with an early British sacred site? Pryor suggests this is a form of validation and that it might be the church rather than the civil authority that wishes to make this validation.  Again I think he is right but it is not the Roman church that would wish to make such a validation but the ‘Celtic’ Christian Monastic/ Druid Church

·         Stable isotope analysis of 24 bodies found in the cemetery show 4 Scandinavian (3 adult women and a juvenile female), 10 local people and 10 from the other side of the Pennines.  Francis Pryor suggests this result is ‘unexpected’ but I would suggest it is only unexpected if you are looking for evidence of Saxon raiders and a male-dominated community.  If you are looking for a Celtic double monastery then this result is precisely what you would expect.  

·         The examination of the cemetery also suggested poverty to the archaeologists, no grave-goods such as you normally find in an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, but again it would be what you would expect from an early Christian community which has taken vows of poverty.

·         As with the Coddenham site we have a service village alongside to house the tenants and servants of the monastery.  The presence of Grubenhauser (a type of rectangular dwelling associated with Saxon settlements which have a level below ground for storage/protection of livestock in winter) suggests a rural community.

·         It’s interesting to note that here the monastery seems to have adopted the local building style and that the model of dry-stone beehive huts found on the west coast where there are few trees is not repeated here).  Given the lakeside setting it is probable that the monastery was in fact a crannog.  The important monastery at Bangor in Northern Ireland was constructed in this style with the monastic huts extending out into Strangford Lough.

·         Most excitingly this is an early settlement dating from roughly 450 AD (when the merger between the Christian Monastic movement and the Druid Church took place) and is evidence that the combined church which we call Celtic spread very quickly across the whole country suggesting that the Christians were able to avail themselves of the infrastructure the Druids already had in place.  The cemetery both here and at Coddenham ceased to be used after about the middle of the seventh century (650 AD).

These sites are important not because they show evidence of a Saxon invasion, which they don’t, but because they confirm what we can learn from the historical documents. In the mid-seventh century the Synod of Whitby saw a shift in religious power.  Oswiu, the king of the North East, backed the Roman Church represented by Wilfred. 

What the archaeology tells us is that after the Synod of Whitby several Celtic monasteries, especially it seems those double monasteries run by women, were disbanded, the communities segregated and resited on sites more conducive to Roman control, probably to existing Roman churches were the Roman church owned the land and the Metropolitan bishops had more authority.

Both Coddenham and West Heslerton are in the area controlled by Oswiu and within the diocese of York of which Wilfred became Archbishop.  There is evidence of the same process happening elsewhere in the country.


At St Albans there is a 7^th/8^th century cemetery in King Harry Lane on the opposite side of the valley to the present Abbey which records show was founded in the very late 8^th century.  The present Abbey is on a site between the Roman Town of Verlamium at the foot of the hill and what would have been the Roman fort on the summit.  It is probably  therefore on the site of a then existing Roman church.

Many of our mediaeval cathedrals date their earliest phase of building from the late seventh/early eighth centuries when Wilfred’s influence and power were at their height. 

The sites at Coddenham and West Heslerton are therefore I believe of great importance not as evidence or the lack of it of Saxon invasion but indicating a significant shift in the religious balance of power and with it a change in the dominant ideology which had very practical social and political consequences for the rest of the early mediaeval period which deserves further investigation.

I am on the case! 

Sherlock - taking fiction too seriously?

The Daily Mail today complains of left-wing bias in the BBC drama series Sherlock on the grounds that the archvillain in last night's episode is a press baron and (inferred because we don't know this) a capitalist.  He is, or rather was as Sherlock shoots him at the end, also Johnny Foreigner in keeping with the mindset of the original. 

Archvillains of course need to be outrageously wealthy in order to carry out their dastardly schemes and are pretty much bound to be capitalists.  I thought it a little more worrying that there was an assumption that a press baron would be innately cavalier with the truth.

However I feel that the DM is getting its knickers in a twist about nothing.  One could equally argue the opposite view.  The eponymous hero and indeed everyone at the FCO and MI6 who represent the British Establishment are distinctly posh.  Not too many dropped consonants there.  The only chap with a glottal stop is a drug addict.

Sherlock is an adventure story and one should beware of reading too much into fiction.  It is what it says on the tin and there is that awfully good story about tilting at windmills.  There is no point in starting at shadows. 

2014 Films to catch up on

Three very different films I can recommend.

Star Trek: Into Darkness  Latest in the franchise with spectacular special effects.  The Starship Enterprise is now so big it must take light years to walk round it. As an old Trekkie who has been watching this series since its start in the 1960s I have to say the new cast is very good.  I did not find myself hankering after the original.  Benedict Cumberbatch very effective as the villain - he will be back!

Chicago  Snazzy jazzy musical.  Stellar cast do justice to hit stage show.  It betrays its stage origins a bit but inventively transferred to the screen.  Great dancing, great songs.  Worth two hours of your time.

Culloden 1746 This was on a channel called movies for men but don't let that put you off.  It's a 1970s film which had somehow passed me by but a good historical film, very accurate in its depiction of a rather difficult event to dramatize.  I thought they had a good go.  The cinematography is beautiful, lovely subdued rich colours of a Scottish landscape in winter and carefully composed interiors to imitate 18th century paintings.  Lovely to look at and a fine performance by Brian Blessed.  I don't know why it isn't shown more often.  It ends badly but of course you knew that.

London Comedy Film Festival 2014

More dates for the diary.  As I was at one time a comedy writer I will be looking forward to the LOCO London Comedy Film Festival 2014 which runs from 23rd - 26th January and will be spread across various venues in London including BFI Southbank, Hackney Picturehouse, Ritzy Picturehouse, Greenwich Picturehous, Institut Francais and the Lexi Cinema amongst others.  This year's programme boasts the biggest line-up of venues yet. Tickets go on sale this week.

I am particularly looking forward to the World Premiere of Jamie Adams's film Benny and Jolene which is being held on 24th January.  This film starring Craig Roberts and Charlotte Ritchie as a hapless indie folk due trying to compromise between their credibility as musicians and commercial interests and possible falling in love is right up my street as I was also once a folk singer.  The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the director, producer Jon Rennie and Charlotte Ritchie.

Looks like fun.

King Arthur was an Englishman

On Monday 6 January 2014 comedian Griff Rhys Jones is presenting a programme A Great Welsh Adventure showing on ITV at 8 p.m. in which he explores the notion that King Arthur was from mid-Wales.  I have not yet seen the programme but from the trailer it seems he has made the cardinal error of conflating the two King Arthurs.

The legend

The first King Arthur - the legendary one associated with the Holy Grail - was a Celtic God.  The origins of his story certainly have close connections with South Wales - see my book The Wonderful History of the Sword in the Stone (www.amazon.com) for details and previous blogs on the subject.

The history

However, there was a real High King called Arthur wo reigned from around 500 AD to 543 AD making him one of our longest reigning monarchs.  It is often claimed there is no evidence for his existence but this inaccurate.  There are numerous perfectly respectable documentary references to him, more than for any other High King of the period, so no reason to suppose he didn't exist. He is mentioned in the lives of four contemporary saints, St Brynach, St Carantoc, St Illtud and St Dyfrig (Dubricius) as well as by historians Nennius and Gildas. 

Nenniius is regarded as slightly suspect but Gildas was writing shortly before 560 AD (he mentions Maelgwn Fawr as still alive and he died of the yellow plague in 560 AD) and was probably writing within about ten years of Arthur's death, the exact date of which is recorded in the chronicle Book 14 in Malory's Mort D'Arthur.  This date fits comfortably with all the other references so it is reasonable to accept it as accurate. 

The claim for his non-existence rests largely on the fact that he is not mentioned at all in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle but the Saxons only mentioned their victories and we know they suffered numerous defeats at the hands of Arthur which explains their silence on the subject.

Where does Arthur come from?

We first meet Arthur in the life of St Brynach when he is around eighteen years old.  He is accompanied by his friend and companion Cato, indicating that these are Romano-British boys.  Arthur is at this time not a king but a prince of Dumnonia, the old British kingdom roughtly corresponding to Somerset, Devon and parts of Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire - thus he is 'English' rather than 'Welsh'. 

It was one of the wealthiest kingdoms of post-Roman Britain with a thriving villa society attested to by the archaeology of the area.  That Arthur is a prince we know from the fact that he makes a grant of land to SS Brynach, Carantoc and Illtud to allow them to found their monasteries.  The lives of early saints are not always reliable but they are usually pretty sound when it comes to land grants as they were often used in the Middle Ages to support the legal claim of the monastery to its foundation lands. 

Arthur is of the Aurelian dynasty, the hereditary kings of Dumnonia, and successor to Ambrosius Aurelianus.  We know this because his successors, Constantine and Conanus both bear the family name Aurelianus.  He was therefore Artorius Aurelianus.  The Aurelians regarded themselves as the descendants of the Emperor Constantine whose mother Helen was British.  Whether Arthur is the son or nephew of Ambrosius is not clear.  Gildas describes his mother, clearly a formidable woman, as a 'she-dragon' meaning a female warlord, but he does not give us her name or say whether she is the wife or sister of Ambrosius.  In the life of St Carantoc, before he is king, Arthur is described as 'lord of the west' but this does not extend far into Wales.  The Liber Landavensis gives him a connection to the Silurian Kings.  His grandfather is said to be Cystennyn Gorneu who is said to have founded churches in Erging (Hereford, Gloucester and Gwent) and his father's sister was married to Pebiau ab Urb ab Erbin, King of Gwent and Erging.  St Dubricius was of the same family which accounts for the fact that he is said to have crowned Arthur High King circa 500 AD.

Dunster Archaeology

What is particularly exciting about these early saints' lives is that they connect Arthur with Dunster in Somerset as his home base.  Recent aerial photography has shown the outline of the Roman fort at Dunster at the foot of the bluff, not under the mediaeval castle on top of the hill.  Dunster was the principal port on the south side of the Bristol Channel in the fifth century.  It silted up in the 12th century and trade moved up the channel to Bridgwater and then later to Bristol.  Dunster is now about two miles inland.  Arthur would have been based at the fort and when excavations begin there is a fair chance that some physical evidence of his reign may emerge.

I am of course teasing when I say that Arthur was an Englishman.  There were neither Welsh nor English in the sixth century.  He was a Briton who regarded himself as a Roman.

In the meantime you can check out the references:

The Life of St Brynach can be found in Thomas Wakeman's Lives of the Cambro-British Saints which can be downloaded free from http://www,arcguve.org/streamlivesof thecambrobritishsaintsThomasWakeman

Gildas and Nennius are both available free on the internet and the archaeology can be found by searching 'Dunsterarchaeology'.

UK Literary Festivals 2014 January - March

It's that time of year when you start filling in your new diary so here are some useful dates for bibliophiles.

The first literary event of the 2014 season is also the first Purbeck Literary Festival which will take place between February 17 and March 2 at Purbeck in Dorset.  It will feature romantic novelist Katie Fforde, Andrew Lane, the author of Young Sherlock Holmes and local writer Tricia Walker.

Designed with me in mind (social anthropologist/political scientist amongst other things) is the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival Reflections 2014 which will explore the distinctive qualities  social science and literature bring to our understanding of the world around us and our place within it.  The festival will focus on reflections on war and peace, embracing the centenary of WW1 using language and metaphor as well as exploring the contemporary world as it appears to a new generation.  This festival runs from 25 February to 1 March 2014 at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE.

One of the UK's most beautiful cities and one I never mind visiting will host the York Literary Festival, the seventh to date, which will include author events, storytellings, theatre and cinema plus a guided tour of York's sites of literary merit.  As a star turn poet Roger McGough, host of BBC Radio's poetry please, is booked to appear on 28th March. The Festival will run from 20th to 24th March 2014 in the lovely city of York.

Not far away Huddersfield will be hosting its own literary festival between March 6th and March 16th 2014 so plenty to enjoy.