153–160 in Frodsham and O’Brien (eds). Here then, at Yeavering, was demonstrated the reality of the poet's creation. This allows the Gefrin Trust website to concentrate on reporting news, comments and decisions relevant to the Trust. This passage goes thus: Archaeologist Brian Hope-Taylor believed that it was "beyond reasonable doubt" that Yeavering was indeed Bede's Ad Gefrin.[35]. The then current view (as expressed, for instance, in the final (1971) edition of Sir Frank Stenton's Anglo-Saxon England) was that the early Bernician kings were hemmed into their coastal stronghold at Bamburgh by aggressive British neighbours until Æthelfrith (592–616) succeeded in overcoming the Britons and expanding the kingdom. O’Brien C (2002) The Early Medieval Shires of Yeavering, Bamburgh and Breamish. The burials show a continuity of ritual tradition from the, The Great Enclosure, which in its most developed state took the form of a double palisade, had evolved through a series of palisades constructed according to local traditions. The area was settled during the British Iron Age, when a hill fort was constructed on the Yeavering Bell hill. An alternative explanation since offered is that this was a building dedicated not to worship, but to mortuary preparations. Yeavering is situated at the western end of a valley known as Glendale, Northumberland, where the Cheviots foothills give way to the Tweed Valley, an area of fertile plain. The River Glen cuts through the whaleback, creating a relatively wide but shallow channel that lies 50 metres above sea level. Four buildings in the set (A2, A4, A3a, A3b) had floor areas of up to about 300 square metres. The Great Enclosure, the third element supporting the culture contact idea, has been less closely studied, despite the fact that for Hope-Taylor this was the first feature on the site, beginning when a Romano-British field system went out of use. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}55°34′01″N 2°06′46″W / 55.56694°N 2.11278°W / 55.56694; -2.11278. This fort was the largest of its kind in Northumberland, and had dry stone walls constructed around both of the Bell's peaks. This material is shared to further the study of Old English and the Anglo-Saxons. [3], Strong winds persistently blow through the area from a west or south-westerly direction, often reaching level 8 (gale) and sometimes 12 (hurricane force) on the Beaufort Scale. The archaeological underpinning of this thesis has three elements: No other structure comparable to the auditorium has been observed in post-Roman Britain and Hope-Taylor suggested that its affinities lay with the Roman world; it was a realisation in timber (the normal building material of Germanic Europe) of the architecture of the Roman theatre, with the wedge shape being one segment of the theatre's semi-circular form. [7] The tribal group in the area was, according to later written sources, a group known as the Votadini. A grave on the threshold of the Great Hall A4 contained a goat's skull which might indicate another animal cult associated with the name of the place, the goat's hill. In Building D2a, one of the group of buildings at the west end of the site, cattle bones were piled up alongside one wall in a way which led the excavator to suggest that this was a temple, used in cult practice. 174–184 in Frodsham and O’Brien (eds). The trust have entered a ten-year partnership agreement with DEFRA and now hold a 999-year lease for the site and all management decisions affecting it. Pearson S (1998) Yeavering Bell Hillfort, Northumberland. [21] Building C4 was the largest hall in this group, having seen two structural phases, the former of which had apparently been heavily damaged or destroyed by fire. As cited in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Theodric led a three-day battle against King Uriens of Rheged for the Isle of Winds. Last edited on 25 August 2013, at 18:59. He established a fixed chronology for the scheme by arguing that a fire which destroyed the Great Hall A4, the auditorium and other buildings was the result of an attack following the death of King Edwin in 633. Battle of Yeavering. [1] In 1422, he was a member of the Council of Regency during the minority of King Henry VI. It is held by Eanfrið son of Æðelfrið as a sworn vassal of Edwin and is also home to his sister Æbbe, later famous as the abbess of Coldingham. As an important centre of Anglo-Saxon royalty about which a lot of information is known, Yeavering occurs as a location in several books set in the Early Middle Ages. Tim Gates (2005) has shown that there was no field system but that Hope-Taylor misunderstood some periglacial features which he interpreted as field boundaries. Outdoor route planner. It was a large building, with wall timbers that were 5.5 to 6 inches thick set in trenches that varied from between 36 and 42 inches deep. Also considerable information is to be found on Gefrin.com, maintained and developed voluntarily for the trust by Brian Cosgrove as the main information point for the project. The Latin term villa regia, which Bede used of the site, suggests an estate centre as the functional heart of a territory held in the king's demesne. Its importance for the Northumbrian kings was, perhaps, as the traditional place of local assembly and as a cult centre at which deep-rooted, traditional ideologies could be appropriated. It is not clear why it was abandoned: Bede says that it was replaced by Maelmin. This final building would in time come to rot away where it stood. Yeavering is a very small hamlet in the north-east corner of the civil parish of Kirknewton in the English county of Northumberland. Carolyn Ware (2005) has proposed a similar sort of approach to study of the Great Halls through an examination of openness and seclusion and of sight lines within the buildings. He argued that this was evidenced by the heavily Anglicised place name evidence in that area. In addition to being a prehistoric monument, the Battle Stone has historical connections with an important battle. The Glen, which flows through Yeavering, has a similar name to a river mentioned in the ‘Historia Brittonum’ (‘The History of the Britons’) as the setting for Arthur’s first battle with the “Saxons”. Part of the ancient and possibly multi-phase field system to the south-east of the hillfort. Pope Leo X… Such Mesolithic Britons were hunter-gatherers, moving around the landscape in small family or tribal groups in search of food and other natural resources. The main purpose, in the words of archaeologist Roger Miket, is simply to "create a presence for these two days and be on hand to meet and greet anyone who might wish to come to the site. The palace was attacked and destroyed by Cadwallon, King of the Britons, and again by King Penda of Mercia. Oswald A and Pearson S (2005) Yeavering Bell Hillfort. Building B, associated with the cemetery, was initially interpreted as a church. Critics have noted that there is no confirmation in written records that Yeavering was sacked in 633 or the 650s. Catraeth is Catterick in North Yorkshire 1 and Prydyn is Pictland or Scotland. In a field to the north of Yeavering Bell, to the south of the road as you pass the hill, you will find what is known as the Yeavering Battle Stone. Second, the burials. [20] Building C3 was also a rectangular timber hall, although was larger than C2 and was of "unusual construction", having double rows of external post-holes. The body occupied only half of the grave area, while in the other half was placed a cow's tooth, another hint of cult practice involving cattle. The civil war between the factions of Armagnac and Burgundy showed no sign of ending. Taken together with Yeavering Bell hillfort, the site of Old Yeavering Anglo-Saxon township and Old Yeavering Henge, the Battle Stone forms an important part of a multi-period landscape from the Late Neoltihic through to the medieval period. One of the best sources of information that contemporary historians have about the Anglo-Saxon period of English history are the records made by an Anglo-Saxon monk named Bede (672/673-735) who lived at the monastery in Jarrow. Hope-Taylor interpreted this as a tiered auditorium with a capacity to seat some three hundred people. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Yeavering&oldid=1008511119, Articles with disputed statements from August 2013, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 February 2021, at 17:45. Hope-Taylor's team identified these burials as having undergone five separate phases, indicating that it had been used for a relatively long time.[32]. From its initial meeting in the spring of 2004 the trust has met every four months to discuss progress, planning and the way forward for the site. New gates, kissing gates and paths have been installed to improve access, and information panels have been set up. [30] Further examining the metal objects located in the grave, Hope-Taylor came to the conclusion that one of them, a seven-foot long bronze-bound wooden pole, was most likely a staff or perhaps standard used for ceremonial purposes. The solid, load-bearing walls of his Styles II, III, and IV, he termed ‘Yeavering Style’. This territorial model, known as a multiple estate or shire has been developed in a range of studies and O'Brien, in applying this to Yeavering, has proposed a geographical definition of the wider shire of Yeavering and also a geographical definition of the principal estate whose structures Hope-Taylor excavated. Plate 3. 98–126 in Frodsham and O’Brien. By the 8th century AD, Gefrin was no more, and for over a thousand years the site was lost. The yarn is worsted spun to accentuate the lustrous and luxurious nature of the fibres which dye beautifully. Rather than being destroyed in a fire, it is apparent that the building was intentionally demolished most likely because "in a new phase of construction" at the site, "it had ceased to be useful. Bradley R (1987) Time Regained: the creation of continuity. The Battle of Gwen Ystrat by Taliesin records the victory of the men of Catraeth over the men of Prydyn in the late 6th century. [31], Archaeologists have also identified a series of graves at the eastern end of the site, leading them to refer to this area as the Eastern Cemetery. [17] Building B was another hall, this time with a western annexe. Barnwell has considered how the structure might be used in formal administrative functions and suggests that for these it draws upon practice from the Frankish world. Various oxidised remnants of what were originally metal objects were found with the body, as was the remnants of a goat skull, which had been positioned to face eastward. [2] The Glen made large areas of neighbouring land around the whaleback waterlogged and boggy, and thereby difficult for human habitation, but modern drainage systems have largely removed this problem, simply leaving some marshy areas on the north and east sides of the Yeavering whaleback. For this reason, he suspected that the Bernician rulers, in an attempt to administer both ethnic groups, decided to have two royal seats of government, one of which was at Bamburgh on the coast, and the other which was at Yeavering, which was in the British-dominated central area of their kingdom. In this period, a heavily inhabited hillfort was constructed on Yeavering Bell which appears to have been a major settlement centre at the time. Building A1 was initially a "plain, aisled hall, devoid of annexes" which had a doorway situated on every wall. Hope-Taylor called these Great Halls. Yeavering convinced Hope-Taylor that the Bernician kings had developed interests inland from Bamburgh through peaceful collaboration with the Britons at an earlier date. The 'Battle Stone' at Yeavering. Public access to the palace site has been granted. Excavators found that daub had apparently been used on the walls, being plastered on to the timber. The television programme made by Brian Hope-Taylor as part of The Lost Centuries series in which he describes the site in its wider context is available on the website for viewing, as well as access to a number of PDF downloads on publications about the site, including Brian Hope-Taylor's full excavation report, Yeavering; an Anglo-British Centre of Early Northumbria (1977; available through the kindness of English Heritage), a guide to a recent exhibition on new work undertaken by the Trust, as well as other specialist articles on aspects of the site. [23], Building D2 was designed as "the exact counterpart of Building D1 in size, form and orientation", and the two were positioned in a precise alignment. One example is the well-known site of Yeavering in Northumberland, an important Anglo-Saxon royal palace excavated in the 1950s by the renowned archaeologist Brian Hope-Taylor. This was re-erected and set in concrete in 1925, but is not thought to be far from its original position. Hope-Taylor argued that a standard unit of measurement was employed in the buildings and also in the overall lay-out of the site. Hope-Taylor pushes them back to 550 to accommodate the needs of the building typology which he has constructed, which calls for a Style II (D1a, D1b, D2a) to intervene before Style III which begins with D2b and Æthelfrith's Great Hall A2. Considered to be "the Father of English History", Bede wrote a number of texts dealing with the Anglo-Saxon migration and conversion, most notable the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), completed circa 731 and divided up into various books. [37] Whilst he began to approach government bodies for funding, the site itself came under threat in 1952 from nearby quarrying on its south-western side, but was saved when Sir Walter de L. Aitchison informed St Joseph, who had risen to the position of Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments at the Ministry of Works. O’Brien C and Miket R (1991) The Early Medieval Settlement of Thirlings. As well as the goat heads you can find a carving of the head of a Saxon warrior and representations of the 'Bamburgh Beast'. Colm O'Brien (2005) has analysed the stratigraphic linkages of the Great Enclosure, showing, in the light of the arguments of Scull and Gates, how uncertain is the chronology of this feature. In one comment, Hope-Taylor compared the Great Enclosure to a Scandinavian Thing, or folk meeting place and behind this lies the idea that the Great Enclosure carries forward into the Early Medieval era functions of assembly which had once belonged at the hillfort on Yeavering Bell. Accompanying this was a large pit filled with animal bones, the majority of which were oxen skulls. It is noteworthy as the site of a large Anglo-Saxon settlement that archaeologists have interpreted as being one of the seats of royal power held by the kings of Bernicia in the 7th century CE. [18], Building C1 was a rectangular pit, leading archaeologists to speculate that it was the site of a water tank or cistern, and the presence of a layer of white ash led them to surmise that it had burnt down. The question of how Yeavering functioned in relation to its hinterland has been considered by Colm O'Brien (2002). 263-97 in J C Chapman and H Mytum (eds). A small English force consisting of 440 men led by the Earl of Westmoreland defeated 4000 Scots. A set of nine concentric foundation trenches west of the set of halls, whose outline forms a wedge shape. The Battle of Pinkie, also known as the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. A small English force consisting of 440 men led by the Earl of Westmoreland defeated 4000 Scots. The two prehistoric burial monuments which were already on the site, the Western and Eastern Ring Ditches were brought back into use. The magnificent goat-head gateposts and other carvings you will see today at the site are the work of local Northumbrian artist Eddie Robb. A later fire is attributed to an attack by Penda, King of Mercia, in the 650s. Taken together with Yeavering Bell hillfort, the site of Old Yeavering Anglo-Saxon township and Old Yeavering Henge, the Battle Stone forms an important part of a multi-period landscape from the Late Neoltihic through to the medieval period. In 635 at Heavenfield, pagan banners were unfurled, sword hilts were hammered on shields, and two native war bands faced each other to settle their fate in blood. Between 1966 and 2010 the flow of the Glen, was measured in its lower reaches at a weir near Kirknewton. Numerous inhumation burials occupied the site, and amongst them, the grave of a child, tightly trussed up in foetal position. )"[8], In the Early Mediaeval period, Yeavering was situated in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia. [15] However, Building A5 differed from these Great Halls, being described as "a house or even a cottage" by Hope-Taylor, and it apparently had a door on each of its walls. The Month of Swallows by C.P.R. The Battle of Humbleton Hill was fought near the river in 1402, as was the Battle of Geteryne (Yeavering) in 1415. So, as archaeological studies have developed, the idea that some aspects of Yeavering can be placed within a northern tradition has gained support. [4], Archaeological discoveries have shown that humans were living in the Glen Valley during the Mesolithic period. Return to "Battle of Yeavering" page. This too burned down at some point, following which a third version of Building A1 was erected, containing only one annexe, on the eastern side. [28], There is also a feature referred to as the Great Enclosure by Hope-Taylor, consisting of a circular earthwork with an entrance at the southern end. "[8] Accompanying this symbolic reason for maintaining the seat of power in the vicinity, Hope-Taylor also noted that the area had some of the most easily cultivatable soil in the region, making it ideal for agriculture and the settlement of agricultural communities.[8]. According to Book 2 Chapter 14 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Bede (673–735), in the year 627 Bishop Paulinus of York accompanied the Northumbrian king Edwin and his queen Æthelburg to their royal vill (the Latin term is villa regia), Adgefrin, where Paulinus spent 36 days preaching and baptising converts in the river Glen. The placename Gefrin, which is a Brittonic name meaning 'hill of the goats', survives as the modern Yeavering. The site has been re-fenced and the stone walls have been repaired. Although likely intended to be rectangular, from the post hole evidence it is apparent that the finished result was rhomboidal, and it appears that not long after construction, the building collapsed or was demolished, to be replaced by another hall, which also exhibited various structural problems such as wonky walls. All the buildings were deliberately burnt down in 633 or 634, immediately after Edwin was killed in battle by Penda, king of the Mercians. Typically the halls are rectangular buildings, massive in construction with (in A4, for example) square-section timbers of 140mm placed upright side-by-side along the wall lines; twice as long as their width, arranged as a single large room or, sometimes, with a small space partitioned off at one or both ends. Kathryn Tickell composed an instrumental piece called "Yeavering" inspired by Yeavering Bell, which appears on The Kathryn Tickell Band's 2007 album 'Yeavering'[39], Media related to Yeavering at Wikimedia Commons, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement, "THE MUSIC OF PLACE, THE PLACE OF NATURE", Gefrin.com... Information, maps, diagrams, access routes and more about Yeavering, Gefrin and the hillforts in the north Cheviot hills, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yeavering&oldid=998422183, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. And Miket R ( 1980 ) a Re-statement of evidence from Bernician burials Kirknewton in the later (! Than A5, but had only one partition, located on its eastern end and for over a hundred Age. A reconsideration monuments which were oxen skulls and also in the north-east corner of Cheviot... King of Mercia, in the overall lay-out of the Cheviot Hills by 440 men led by Neville! St Joseph stepped in to protect the site, the majority of which were already the! Brought back into use goats ', survives as the modern imperial unit stages ( A3a and A3b ) appear... Medieval settlement of Thirlings stone, probably originally a Bronze Age standing stone Gefrin.... 14 ] building A4 was similar battle of yeavering A2 in most respects, but is not why! And developed his thoughts in other respects with an important Battle River Glen at site... It stood King Uriens of Rheged for the Isle of Winds Scotland which the... 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