Pecsaetna: People of the Anglo-Saxon Peak District

Introduction

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 historical and archaeological research towards a better understanding of their activities, territory and identity. This is not an easy task, for 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. Many years ago, a paper written by Audrey Ozanne (Ozanne 1962/3), focused on the archaeology of this group, in particular, the grave-goods exhumed by the antiquarians Thomas Bateman and Samuel Carrington during the mid-19th century. Ozanne’s main concern was to try to establish dating horizons for artefacts found in mound burials in the Peak region, concluding that many or most were datable to the 7th century, around a time when Christianity was, historically, introduced into the region. She pointed to the use of symbolism which could be considered Christian, for example, the Latin cross found on the famous Benty Grange helmet, suggesting that its wearer was indeed a Christian, as it was not uncommon for early Christian graves to have grave-goods.

Ozanne’s paper in Medieval Archaeology, contained some important observations. Firstly, she drew attention to the large number of female barrow burials in the Peak District, suggesting that there was a more equal gender reverence than in later times. Some of the relatively prestigious burials, at Galley Low, Stand Low, White Low and Hurdlow, for example, were all presumed female interments (Ozanne 1962/3, 26–28). In terms of identity, Ozanne was quite comfortable to identify the concentration of Anglo-Saxon barrow burials in the Peak as those associated with a people-group mentioned in an obscure Anglo-Saxon document known as the Tribal Hidage. This group was known as the Pecsaetna (sometimes referred to as the Pescsaetan or Pecsaete), a group allocated 1,200 hides and listed alongside other groups in what we came to refer to as Greater Mercia. One assumption made by Ozanne was that the Pecsaetna and, therefore, the Peak District, were firmly part of the kingdom of Mercia, although we should approach this assumption with extreme caution as this may not have always been the case.

Ozanne’s comparison of artefacts in the wider context showed a distinct 7th-century connection with Kent and whilst this might well be due to the Mercian King Wulfhere’s documented association with the latter, it did not explain why there was a concentration in the Peak alone and not elsewhere in the Mercian heartlands to the south. Indeed, Ozanne pointed to the relatively marginal landscape of the Peak at some distance from the known political and ecclesiastical centres of Mercia at Tamworth, Lichfield and Repton and ‘separated from those centres by belts of Triassic sandstones and marls supporting dense wood’ (1962/3, 36). This brought Ozanne to conclude that Anglo-Saxon settlement in the Peak was probably a later expansion into a more marginal landscape; it is perhaps this ‘marginalisation’ that contributed to the Peak’s distinct identity. Fowler, in an earlier paper, raised the question of the identity of the apparent elite interred within the barrows (and, by implication, the rest of the inhabitants of the Peak), ‘Were they Anglo-Saxon, British, or British with an intrusive Anglian ruling element?’ (Fowler 1954, 136). Fowler also highlighted the comparatively large amount of Kentish material found in the Peak District compared with the settlers of the Trent Valley where no similar material had been found and concluded that the Pecsaetna may not have been in direct connection with these relatively early settlers of the lowlands (Fowler 1954, 136–137).

Since Fowler’s and Ozanne’s papers in 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 that 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. It is from the amalgamation of small groups of people, such as the Pecsaetna, that England eventually became a single entity. There is now an ever-increasing culture of internationalism, largely due to the internet and multi-national businesses, but it is important to remember that England, and much of the rest of the world for that matter, was forged from a palimpsest of varied groups each with varied interests. This small contribution will act, perhaps, as a reminder of how the wealth of local character is easily destroyed unless we become more aware of its fragility and celebrate diversity.

FIGURE 1

. The location of the Peak

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,