Pecsaetna

People of the Anglo-Saxon Peak District

Phil Sidebottom

• Publisher: Windgather Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781911188698
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is intended to pull together our current knowledge of the 'lost' group of people called the Pecsaetna (literally, meaning the 'Peak Sitters') by synthesising more recent historical and archaeological research towards a better understanding of their activities, territory and identity. This group of people is shrouded in the mists of the so-called 'Dark Ages' and are only known to us by the chance survival of less than a handful of documents. Since the mid-20th century, valuable work has been done to identify former Anglo-Saxon estates in the Peak from the analysis of charters and from the Domesday survey, together with recent wider historical analysis. In addition, some have also attempted reconstructions of geographical territories from the Tribal Hidage, the document, which first mentions the Pecsaetna. To this historical analysis can be added further archaeological evidence which ranges from Anglo-Saxon barrow investigation in the limestone Peak District, to studies into the geographical distributions of free-standing stone monuments of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian periods. It is this latter study that has prompted the writer to attempt this study.

CHAPTER ONE

The Topography of the Peak

The Peak District is home to Britain’s first National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty at the southern end of the Pennines. Most of it can be divided into two ecological and geological areas, known as the Dark Peak and the White Peak. The White Peak is so-called because the overlying Carboniferous sandstones have been eroded away to expose a plateau of Carboniferous Limestone, often known as the ‘Limestone Dome’. This is surrounded to the north, east and west by Millstone Grit outcrops incorporating the famous Derbyshire ‘edges’, set in relatively barren moorland and known as the Dark Peak. Although much of the Peak District lies in the county of Derbyshire, some of it also extends into neighbouring counties including Staffordshire.

To the south of the limestone, the Pennine anticline dips sharply into more recent Triassic geology through which flows the River Trent and many of its tributaries. A simplified geological map for the Peak District and its surrounding region is given in Figure 2.

The Millstone Grit areas of the Dark Peak are ill-drained with depleted thin soils and, today, much of this area is given over to moorland with tentative new growth of sward and saplings being consumed by grazing animals. Wellpreserved evidence of prehistoric settlement still abounds these moors where there has been little agricultural upheaval during the last 2,500 years or so. In the so-called Dark Peak, some of the river valleys have attracted limited farming activities, especially where relatively wider alluvial plains are found. Typical of such settlements include those in the upper Derwent valley, at Rowsley, Calver and Derwent, or those in the valley of the River Noe, for example, at Edale and Hope.

In contrast, the Carboniferous Limestone areas of the Peak have relatively light and well-drained soils which, according to Millward and Robinson, once included rich pockets of wind-blown loess (Millward and Robinson 1975, 148). At one time, the region contained considerable arable farming but today most of the White Peak is under pasture with grazing sheep and cattle. It is bounded in the north by the River Noe which flows through Hope and joins the River Derwent near Hathersage. To the east of the Limestone Dome flows the River Derwent which cuts through a small area of the limestone south of Matlock, producing the famous gorge at Matlock Bath. Similarly, the rivers Manifold and Dove have carved their way through the limestone to the south-west of the limestone and drain into the Trent valley. The principal river which cuts through the Limestone Dome is the Wye, joining the Derwent at Rowsley (Fig. 3). Although there are many small valleys in the limestone Peak, most of these are ‘dry valleys’ with their respective water tables below the valley floor. Accessible water supplies were, therefore, at a premium in many areas of the White Peak and the numerous ‘well’ place-name components (for example, at Tideswell, Bradwell or Blackwell) suggest how this paucity of fresh water had been overcome.

FIGURE 2. Simplified geological map of the Peak area

The landscape to the south of the Peak is of gently undulating fields with small outcrops of Sherwood sandstone which give the characteristic red colouring to the soils. It is a fertile area with much of the land under arable cultivation and, when travelling southwards out of the Peak, one is aware of stepping into an entirely different ‘ecozone’. It is the comparison between the landscape of the Peak and that of the Trent valley that leads to the appreciation that the two areas are really separate zones of economic activity and were always likely to have been so regarded. The White Peak may be considered to be agriculturally-marginal when compared with the Trent valley but, in contrast with much of the Pennines and, for that matter, many areas of northern England, it is comparatively fertile.

FIGURE 3. The principal rivers of Derbyshire and the limestone Peak

All of the evidence indicates that the activities of the Pecsaetna were focused on the ‘White Peak’, the Carboniferous Limestone of the southern Pennines. It is an area compatible with a community following a common agricultural regime which was, most likely, predominantly pastoral (Hodges 1991a, 17), at least to begin with. Since the Peak is likely to have remained essentially clear of woodland since the Bronze Age, these traditions may well be ancient. Pollen sequences from in, and around, the Peak indicate that the date of the first major woodland clearance of the region was not until c. 2,300 years ago – i.e. during the Iron Age (Day 1993, 14). However, due to wind dispersal, pollen counts do not always record former vegetation strictly from the point of retrieval, but that of the region in general. In addition, the palaeo-environmental samples referred to here were taken from the Millstone Grit fringes of the Peak, at Leash Fen and at Featherbed Moss (Day 1993, 14) where waterlogged conditions are more prevalent. As such, there is no good record for the ‘White Peak’ in insularity from the rest of north Derbyshire. This particular clearance phase at c. 300 BC may well represent the encroachment into more marginal areas, such as those in and to the east of the Derwent valley and the north-eastern Staffordshire moorlands, but it is likely that the White Peak itself was relatively clear of woodland for a long time beforehand. The hint of a Bronze Age to Dark Ages continuum of a pastoral landscape is also suggested by the barrow burials, the majority set high on hillsides with the intention of dominating an open landscape such as they do today and as they did during the Bronze Age. Ozanne’s view was that, although the Limestone Dome was devoid of dense woodland, it was probably surrounded by heavily wooded valleys by the 7th century, the result of regeneration after the collapse of the Roman economy, and that it therefore formed an insular land unit (1962/3, 36). This view of a tribal unit occupying a distinct ecozone is also echoed by Davies and Vierck in their study of the document known as the Tribal Hidage and its socio-economic implications (1974).

CHAPTER TWO

Early Anglo-Saxon Settlement in a Post-Roman Context

The Anglo-Saxon period grew from circumstances which followed the collapse of the Roman economy in Britain. It is not entirely certain how and when Germanic people began to take control of the various provinces or how incoming groups integrated with the native populous. What seems to be evident, especially from its archaeology, is that the Germanic settlement was not wholesale but selective. Some areas, for example, much of Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, the east Midlands and East Anglia, appear to have been target areas for the Germanics, taking control of the richer agricultural lands of the island where the relatively light soils provided good farmland. Conversely, other areas, such as much of the Pennines and western England in general, show little or no early evidence for direct Germanic settlement.

The historic sources also indicate that Anglo-Saxon settlement favoured the English eastern counties. The writings of Bede in the 8th century frequently described the people and places of eastern England but remain silent when it comes to western areas. The Pennine regions are also poorly documented by Bede, mentioning little more than the ‘forest of Loidis’ and that there was a British king in Elmet surviving at least until the 7th century. The latter is particularly interesting in that it correlates with a lack of Anglo-Saxon material evidence discovered in this region, indicating a continuing native control with no physical Germanic infiltration. Instead, it is almost certain that Ceretic, the British leader of Elmet, paid tribute to the Northumbrian Saxons (if that is what they were), perhaps with a levy of cattle, sheep or wood, as the condition of his continued control over the region and its native populous. We are less fortunate for the Peak as there is no mention of any person or place there by Bede and little in the way of early Germanic settlement evidence. However, archaeology perhaps compensates for this lack of historical evidence, as will be described in this study.

Mason and Williamson considered social identity of the period as being contained by landscape geography. Their studies regarding East Anglian chalklands led them to suggest that communities were focused on particular valleys, or valley systems, developing identities distinct from those dwelling on the other side of a watershed (2017, 85). In the case of the Peak, such an idea of topographical-determinism has some merit. Although part of the Pennines, the ‘White’ Peak allows itself to be neatly detached from the rest of the upland range at its interface with the hostile and rugged terrain of the so-called ‘Dark’ Peak to the north, the latter presenting a natural curtailment to almost all economic activities. This degree of ecological and even physical insularity suggests that the Peak could easily have long been regarded as a composite socio-economic unit in its own right, rather than an integral part of a larger Pennine landscape. Its agricultural potential differs from that of its neighbouring lands, those which were either richer, in an agricultural sense, or more marginal. As such, the nature of the farming activities of the limestone Peak would have fomented a sense of natural cohesion to those occupying this landscape.

Nevertheless, despite the relative insularity of the White Peak, its inhabitants most likely felt a greater affinity with other upland pastoral communities of the Pennines than with the farmers in the Trent valley lowlands which surround the Peak on three sides. Moreover, those settling in the more arable lowlands may have been equally content that the upland pastoral communities retained a semi-autonomous, but possibly tribute-paying, existence at the western extremities of Anglo-Saxon settlement. In this respect the Peak shares with Elmet the same lack of material evidence for early Germanic occupation and it is clear that neither of these regions were prime targets for settlement by the incomers. Roberts (2018, 191) concludes that there is some evidence to indicate that this archaeological dearth may be a consequence of late Roman cultural continuity and possibly one also born of underlying older British traditions, as seen in certain burial rites. It is also hypothesised that by the time of its annexation by Northumbria in the early 7th century, the people of Elmet may already have begun to adopt subtle Anglo-Saxon cultural traits, possibly as a consequence of detachment from the British west.

These two small units most likely survived long into the nominal Saxon period as British administrative regions, perhaps in federation with others of similar character. Indeed, Higham has suggested that the British kings of Elmet, one of whom survived long enough to be recorded by Bede, acted as local overlords over several smaller tribes of the southern Pennines (1993a, 87); maybe the Pecsaetna was one of them. However, the trappings of the Peak barrow burials of the period argue for some Anglo-Saxon infiltration, at least at face value.

The Roman Background to the Peak

From the 4th century AD until the 7th century, the Peak District remains archaeologically and historically obscure. The 7th century was a period which saw the Roman economic way of life diminish and eventually the coming of a new order. The nature of society in this part of England in the post-Roman period is largely unknown, earning its popular nomenclature of the Dark Ages. Continuity of settlement sites from the Roman period into the post-Roman is poorly understood. It is likely that a Roman style of local government survived in certain parts, in one form or another, after the collapse of the Roman economy and withdrawal of the military, but to what extent and where, is unknown. The Roman legacy given to the Anglo-Saxon period takes several forms. It is true to say that late Roman art and architecture was certainly adopted into the pantheon of insular Anglo-Saxon art and the reuse of Roman dressed stone certainly provided a direct legacy for early church-builders. Some of the major Roman communication routes continued through the Anglo-Saxon period and beyond. The Roman agricultural estates probably survived into the post-Roman period and minerals, mined and quarried throughout the Roman period, resumed in importance to their Germanic successors, as will be discussed later.

The Peak District appears to have been in a region known as Britannia Secunda by the 3rd century (Higham 1993a, 50), an area where militarisation took precedence over urbanisation. This apparent lesser state of Roman society is probably why contemporary documentation is lacking for Derbyshire and Staffordshire (see Wardle 2002, 2; Taylor 2006, 143). Although we know little about Roman-period tribal boundaries, contemporary sources suggest that the very northern parts of the counties of Derbyshire and Staffordshire may have been included in the territorial jurisdiction of the Brigantes (Dearne 1990, 22; Wardle 2002, 3), a tribal unit which offered particular resistance to Roman advances in Britain and accentuated military tensions in northern England. Dearne suggests that most of southern Derbyshire was within the territory of the Cornovii which also extended through part of Staffordshire (1990, 23), although the Coritani may also have held some territory in the east of the region (Hart 1981, 81). These were, however, Roman administrative tribal units and may have included smaller groups of which we know nothing. To what extent these tribal units influenced post-Roman divisions, for example, those expressed in a document known as the Tribal Hidage, is unknown, but it is likely that, when the Roman administration collapsed, some reversion to former tribalism was inevitable.

Our knowledge of the Roman principal centres in the region is variable. Some, like the fort and vicus at Little Chester (Derventio) in Derby to the south of the Peak District, became swallowed by the expansion of the city with the inevitable loss of valuable archaeological information. Conversely, the fort at Brough-on-Noe (Navio), for example, escaped extensive settlement to become a ‘green-field’ monument. In Derbyshire, principal military foci were on the forts at Melandra (Ardotalia), near Glossop, Brough-on-Noe (Navio), near Hope and Chesterfield, Pentrich and Derby (Derventio) in the south and east of the county. Fortlets are now known at Sawley on the River Trent (Dearne 1990, 22) and at Highstones, just north of Melandra (Taylor 2006, 141). In Staffordshire, forts existed at Chesterton, near Stoke-on-Trent, Rocester, and locations further south, for example, at Wall (Letocetum) on Watling Street (Wardle 2002, 7–8). Excavations at Carsington in the limestone Peak, preceding the construction of a reservoir, suggested that a fort, villa, or major settlement existed here too (Dearne 1990, 99; Taylor 2006, 144), although the evidence is sketchy. Most of the forts had vici attached to them, some developing into civilian centres which outlived the garrisons of the forts (Dearne 1990, 96–113).

One major centre in the region was that at Buxton (Arnemetia) in the White Peak, a focal point in the road network, but with very little now known about it. It is thought that a for...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List Of Figuers
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Topography of the Peak
• Chapter 2. Early Anglo-Saxon Settlement in a Post-Roman Context
• Chapter 3. Historical Sources for the Pecsaetna
• Chapter 4. Place-names in the Peak and the Hiberno-Norse
• Chapter 5. The Archaeology of the Pecsaetna
• Chapter 6. Changes in the Countryside: The Demise of Great Peak Estates and Later Saxon Settlement
• Chapter 7. The Pecsaetna, Religion and the Church
• Chapter 8. The Pecsaetna and Lead
• Chapter 9. The Pecsaetna of the Peak District: Piecing it Together
• Biblography
• Appendix