Elmet's

Battles of the so called

Dark Ages.

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Whinwead. 7th c.

Edmund Bogg 1893.

"The great fight of Winwoed or Whinwood took place in 655, on Whinmoor high table land, about a mile above the village of Seacroft and near the source of the little river (Cock). The combatants were Oswell, king of Northumbria, and that grim old pagan, Penda, king of Mercia. Long before the conquest of Britain by the English, the old Celtic race had received Christianity; and a native church had risen through the length and breadth of the land. The invaders being heathen, according to the custom of their country, worshipped images of wood and stone, and for a century after their appearance Christianity slumbered, as slowly but surely the old Celtic race were conquered or driven step by step to the hills and vales of the north and west. The first prince of the Saxon race in the north to embrace the Christian religion was Edwine or Eadwina. His power was greater than any English prince who had preceded him. It was during the early years of his reign that the British kingdom of Elmete was crushed. The mound on the outskirts of Barwick-in-Elmet is the place where stood the castle and home of the British king. Some few miles north east, yet to be distinctly traced, ran a line of earth works raised in the first instance by the Celts to stem the tide of Saxon advance.

Three centuries later the same earth works were used by the English, when repelling the furious invasion of the sea kings.

Tradition says that the Edwine who conquered Elmete extended his domain to the Firth of Forth......and took for his wife a Kentish princess who was a Christian, and with her to the court of Northumbria came Paulinus, a missionary of Rome. It appears that Edwine not only promised that his bride should be protected in the free exercise of her religion but would himself embrace the same, if, after careful enquiries it was found to be better than the gods they hitherto had worshipped. Many were the pleadings of his queen and the nissionary before the heathen prejudices and customs of the king gave way. Paulinus being ever on the watch for favourable omens proved more than a match for the semi-barbaric king. By some means he had become aquainted with a story of a vision which had appeared unto Edwine when an outlaw and a wanderer. To this vision he pledged himself that should he ever regain the throne of his fathers he would lead a better life. "Remember your pledge," were the words spoken by the vision as it disappeared. In after years when he had regained his kingdom and returned triumphant from the conquest of Wessex, and the just punishment of its king,soon after that time in conversation with Paulinus was startled to hear the very words spoken by the vision, "Remember your pledge," Edwine trembled with emotion. The Italian said, " you remember a promise made years ago to the vision. All your hopes have been crowned with success, now is the time to 'redeem your pledge' and the God who has led you through so many dangers to ensure an earthly throne will remain steadfast until you reach the glorues of His own eternal Kingdom." After this appeal the king was powerless to resist and felt anxious to redeem his promise.

( Bede tells us that the wise men of Northumbria, with their king, met to deliberate on the new religion. Paulinus having pleaded in favour of Christianity, Coifi, a Druidic high priest, thus addressed the assembly and the king: ' It seems to me. O king, that our paternal gods are worthless, for no man's worship of them has ever been more devout than mine; yet my lot has been far less prosperous than that of many others not half so pious!' A chieftain then spoke: ' The life of man, O king, reminds me of a winter feast around your blazing fire, while the storm howls or the snow drifts abroad. A distressed sparrow darts within the doorway: for a moment it is cheered by warmth and shelter from the blast; then, shooting through the other entrance, it is lost again. Such is man. He comes we know not whence, hastily snatches a scanty share of wordly pleasure, then goes we know not whither. If this new doctrine, therefore, will give us any clearer insight into things of so much interest, my feeling is to follow it.' )

Before such arguments.... Northumbrian paganism fell. Coifi was foremost in making war upon the superstition which had so severly baulked his hopes. His priestly character obliged him to ride a mare, and forbade him to have a weapon. The people, therfore thought him mad when he appeared upon Edwine's charger and with a lance in hand rode furiously to the temple at Godmundham, pierced the idol through and through, shattering it to pieces and ordered the temple to be burned. Soon afterwards, Paulinus kept a most impressive Easter by holding a public baptism at York, in which Edwine, his principal men, and multitudes of inferior people, were solemnly admitted into the Christian Church.

In 633 AD, Penda, the fierce king of Mercia, joining his army with Cadwallon, king of the Welsh, met the Northumbrian army at Heathfield, and in the fearful fight the army of Edwine was defeated, and he was slain in the battle. Nine years later, Oswald, king of Northumbria, whose great fame on the battlefield was only eclipsed by his piety, was the next champion of the Cross who fell on the field of battle. Oswald's great ambition was the conversion of all Britain, but like his predecessor he was slain by the heathen Penda at Maserfeld. After this great victory Penda, the champion of heathenism, reigned supreme, ravaging the kingdom of Northumbria until the new faith seemed doomed to be swept aside by the advancing wave of paganism.

Out of this confusion and anarchy there stood forth another champion of the Cross in the person of Oswin, brother of the brave Oswald. For half a century the now hoary-headed old heathen had been continually harassing the dominion of the Christian, carrying war and desolation through the beautiful vales of York. And generations after youths and maidens shuddered when sat around a blazing fire listening to their grandfathers recounting those dire scenes of misery and war, yet with all his fierce desire to annihilate the Christian, Bede tells us that "Penda utterly despised those who did not act up to the faith they professed." In the year 655, he gathered around his banners a mighty army, consisting of thirty legions of tried soldiers, commanded by generals who had led them to victory on many a battlefield. Once again he felt a desire to shatter the growing power of Northumbria and utterly destroy the Christian faith, which the pagan priests represented to him as tending to overthrow the sacred altars, in the groves where he loved to worship along with his kingdom. Marching in a north-easterly direction towards the old Kingdom of Elmet, crossing the River Aire near Leeds, and taking up his position on Winwoed field, now Whinmoor, awaited the coming of his foes. In vain Oswin tried by every means in his power to conciliate the Mercian king by the offer of gold and silver ornaments and other costly gifts.

Oswin at length, growing impatient, dried, "If the pagans will not accept our gifts let us offer them to one who will." vowing at the same time that if successful he would dedicate his daughter to God and endow twelve monasteries in his realm. The Northumbrian army was only small compared with the hosts of the Mercians, but, putting their trust in God they boldly marched into battle. The dreadful fight took place on 15th November 655. In vain the Mercians tried to penetrate the ranks of Oswin's army.

The power of heathendom was lost for ever when he, who for fifty years had been the cause of so much misery and bloodshed, lay with his generals and thousands of his army, a ghastly and confused heap of slain, their blood changing the waters of the little rivulet to crimson. The wreck of the Mercian army fled southward, and in their frantic rush from the field of battle many fell into the river Cock and were trampled underfoot until their bodies formed a bridge for their flying comrades, who in turn were swept away and drowned when attempting to cross the swollen waters of the River Aire.

"In Winwoed field was amply avenged the blood of Anna, the blood of the kings Egric, Oswald and Edwine." Soon after this great victory Oswin sent his little daughter Ethelfleda to the monastery over which presided the sainted Hilda, whilst the lands and other goods he gave were the means by which the noble abbey was built on the summit of the cliff overlooking Whitby.

Near to Whinmoor is a place known to this day as "Hell's Garth". Tradition says that on this spot thousands of the slain were buried.

Wheater - 1882

SHERBURN has often been the scene of military operations. ~~ Throughout all periods of. our history, but most especially since the overthrow of the Bnton, It has been a strategical centre. Under
the Saxon it seems to have been, like Leeds, a prominent point in his military system. It is a noteworthy circumstance that those two towns practically give the names of two of his wapentakes; and we know that his wapentake was named after the alarm-post where his troops were to assemble from allotted districts in case of war. In Headingley (the Scyre-ac) and Barkston we have his foreposts occupying the roads leading to and enabling him to dominate the line of the Wharfe, and so meet first the British and afterwards the Danish invasions, which both as at these points took place from the north. From these points his rear was covered by a solid occupation of the country whence no danger could arise, and his front was practically established on the great East and West Roman Road, then the only road which clove the intervening wilderness. Along this road he could operate at pleasure, and was always within striking distance of the river, then infinitely more difficult to pass by reason of the since-reclaimed bog and marsh. It is a significant fact that, though his strategy points to the domination of the Roman Road, and by means of it the line of the river, he does not appear to have ceased to occupy the old Roman camps, which must then have had a visible and potential existence. This fact no doubt arises from the different necessities of his warfare. The Roman had to protect his flanks, for he was a conqueror surrounded by the conquered and hostile. The Saxon had but to look to his front, and that was the north, from which only danger could come hence it was not incumbent upon him to maintain the numerous points d'appui which were the necessity of the Roman.
That there has been any serious. fighting in the subjugation of the little kingdom of Elmete is exceedingly improbable. At best the " kingdom" was but a mere handful of territory and incapable of resistance. Its nomenclature proves its history. In Headingley, which has been its frontier line on the north west, we have a settlement of the clan of Hedda; in Swillington we have the settlement of another Saxon clan upon the site of the old Roman Road leading from the Aire through Barrowby, which is Danish, therefore desert, at the time of which we speak, through Scholes, also Danish, and also desert, up to Winmoor, and so in the direction of Pompocali, the Roman Station, near what afterwards became the village of Bardsey. All this was on the line of the Roman, and the fact that the" territory of Elmete" was driven through by four or five roads speaks of its military impotence. The battle at Winmoor took place on the 15th November, 655. It is said that Oswy, King of Bernicia, vowed that if he gained the battle his infant daughter Elfled should be consecrated to religious duties and perpetual virginity and in consequence of the victory was committed to the care of St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, whom she eventually succeeded, and was buried in the church there.
It appears that Winmoor has been the stamping out of a mere local revolt in a territory not occupied in a colonial sense, but dominated to the extreme. There were two tribes settled just to the north and east of it, at Collingham and Sicklinghall, points of domination that prove its insignificance as a great fight. From Swillington, a point in the space approaching the vanishing point, proceeding eastward, we immediately come to Garforth, that is to the" Oeare-weorth," the estate from the next great territorial boundary, where power was not disputed, the " Roman Rig," which Oswy gave to the church in celebration of the victory. What do we find beyond that? Peckfield-the peac-field, years afterwards a cleared spot" on the top of a hill or eminence," which it is, a wilderness six hundred years later, and in 1790, a dominant point where a beacon was put for later war purposes, and whence York Minster and Selby Church can be seen. And from Peckfield, descending the slopes of the hills, what then? Nothing until we get to the Shire-burn, the limit of the wearied Saxon when he came in contact with the" dark water." At Peckfield there is a halting-point in Saxondom  the Dane has to come after him. In the toil of occupation, avoiding the water, the Saxon had advanced, but his front is narrow; to establish his communications he had worked on his flank from the low-lying ground at Swillington, where one of his minor tribes took possession; to that point on the hill top, that the Roman was not bound to occupy,-" if thou bee'st a great soldier, Milo, come down and fight! If thou bee'st a greater soldier make me come down and fight ,. ; the conquered always take to the hills-and where did he come to ?- the Shireburn. And what was beyond him? That place which exists to-day-" the wood," coed,some Britons and the river. As a soldier he was right; he followed the laws of unalterable strategy; as a conqueror he has explained the reasons of his being; he had to oppose the Picts and the Scots he had not yet come to colonise. It is remarkable that the road the Saxon made to secure his" ingastuns " and" weorths" ends at the Roman Rig;" thence to Sherburn in his time-over Peckfield-a part of which is still called Highfield, through what became some hundreds of years later the" New-thorpe" and over the" Castle Hills" at Micklefield and the intrenchment Mr. Burlend discovered a few weeks ago, scarcely a road could be said to exist-the present road is a mere sinuosity. This fact, taken with the existence of the two wapentakes, shews that Sherburn was on a line of operations different from that which led through Leeds, and that the kingdom of Elmete was penetrated and dominated in a manner that could not accord with any independence except that of permission.

Castleford. 9th c.

Killingbeck. - Scotch Corner - Arderydd.  6th c.

Now here do I sit with my wolf and my boar,
Beneath such a great sprawling tree,
Where I think on my past as old men will do,
And all that has happened to me.
For seven long years have I lived in the wilde,
Through seven long Winters of cold,
But I'd a life once that any could ask,
And torc of the finest pure gold...........


The hornful of mead was a warm welcome weight,
The smoke filled Great Hall was a blur,
And I studied the faces of all around,
Until my eyes settled on her.
In a world of her own, she stared at the fire,
Her face all a bright orange glow.
Her golden torc marked her as being high born,
Her spirit undoubtedly low.

Last updated 25/04/06

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