On Some Ancient Battle-Fields in Lancashire: And Their Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations.Hardwick, Charles
History
On Some Ancient Battle-Fields in Lancashire: And Their Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations.
Hardwick, Charles
Battles -- England; Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066; Lancashire (England) -- History
Dr. Robson discusses at some length the presumed date of these
interments, and contends that such nomenclature as "stone and bronze
periods" only mislead. He says--"In some graves are coins which carry a
date with them, and in others Roman remains which belong to the first
four centuries of our era. But in tumuli such as those at Winwick, there
is nothing to show whether it was raised six centuries before or six
centuries after that period." From the drawings which accompany Dr.
Robson's paper, there appears nothing to vitiate the hypothesis that
these mounds were raised on the battle-field of 642. The stone hammer is
highly finished and polished. The form of the spear-head agrees with
some of the examples figured by Mr. Thomas Wright and Mr. L. Jewitt, as
pertaining to the earlier Anglo-Saxon period. It presents a kind of
transition from between the shorter Roman bronze and the more elongated
iron of the later Anglo-Saxon time. The "feathery pattern" scored on
the pottery resembles the rude "herring-bone," or zig-zag ornamentation
of late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon masonry.
Another and much larger tumulus until recently was situated opposite to
the parish church at Warrington, and contiguous to the ancient
Latchford, by which the British trackway and the great Roman road
crossed the Mersey. For some miles both on the east and west, in early
times, no other route was practicable; the mosses on the one hand and
the tidal estuary on the other presenting insuperable obstacles,
especially to heavy traffic. The tumulus at Warrington, named the "Mote
Hill," was entirely removed in 1852. Pennant had conjectured it to be
Roman; Ormerod, Norman; and John Whitaker, Saxon. In a paper read before
the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society, on November, 1852, Dr.
Kendrick gave a detailed account of the excavation, and exhibited the
discovered remains. Some of the pottery was rude (apparently
Romano-British), and cremated human remains were present, as well as an
immense quantity of the remains of animals. Referring to Whitaker's
conjecture of the Saxon origin of the mound, or of that race having
utilised it, Dr. Kendrick says--"to this opinion I think all the
appearances detailed this evening afford strong support." Mr. Sibson,
likewise, who was present at the examination of the hill in 1832, and
again in 1841, coincides in this view, and suggests that it originally
constituted a _tumulus_, or burial place, raised after the battle fought
at Winwick. Dr. Kendrick thought that as the church was dedicated to
St. Elphin, slain in 679, the mound might have covered his remains; but
the Pagan character of the interment or interments negatives this view.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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