An overview by Will Swales
Attempts to paint a picture of life and events in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale during the Early Medieval period c.400 to 1066, are difficult because evidence is sparse. Some insights might be gained from the short reports on this page. To jump to any one report, click the relevant link:
Domesday Book
A speculation overturned
A simple timeline
Languages and place-names
Domesday Book
The most important evidence, and a good starting point for any research, is a record dated shortly after the period – the Domesday Book of 1086. It records the reported status of the places surveyed, as they were just before the conquest of 1066. In Swaledale, the survey covers the vills, or townships, of Hindrelac (Richmond), Hudreswelle (Hudswell), Dune (Downholme), Mange (Marrick), Elreton (Ellerton), Grinton (Grinton), Fremington (Fremington), and Rie (Reeth). Arkengarthdale and the remainder of upper Swaledale were not surveyed, possibly because they contained no significant amount of cultivatable (taxable) land. An image of the Swaledale entries together with translations and interpretations can be seen here: Original folio of Yorkshire, page 27 in Domesday Book | Domesday Book (opendomesday.org)
A speculation overturned
Landscape Archaeologist Andrew Fleming, who spent a decade of summers studying Swaledale in the 1980s and 90s, speculated that the four cross-dale Grinton-Fremington Dykes, previously thought to be of Iron Age construction, could be shown to be post-Roman and that they were therefore plausibly built by native Britons as defences against invading Angles from the east, sometime around 600 AD. He further speculated that these Britons were defending a local upper-dale kingdom, which, based on the modern upper-dale pronunciation of Swaledale as Swardull, he named as the Kingdom of Swar. By 1997, under pressure from a leading expert in the study of language development, Fleming abandoned the notion of a place called Swar, but in his subsequent book, Swaledale: Valley of the Wild River (Edinburgh, 1998), he maintained his assertion that the dykes were built to defend and upper-dale British kingdom. However, in 2015, after a new study by three leading archaeologists who disputed Fleming’s post-Roman dating of the Grinton-Fremington Dykes, Fleming accepting them as Iron Age constructions.
These corrections were not picked up by popular historian Max Adams, who, in his book about the period, The First Kingdom (2021), repeated Fleming’s original assertions about the dykes and the Kingdom of Swar. Following a review of The First Kingdom by the writer of this piece, Max Adams and his publishers inserted a footnote in the later paperback edition, beginning ‘It has been pointed out to me that more recent study has cast serious doubt on Fleming’s interpretation …’ The short note concluded with the URL of this writer’s review, at Swaledale Museum | Review | The First Kingdom, by Max Adams. The same review can also be seen here: The First Kingdom | Swaledale history (wordpress.com).
A contrary view, suggesting that Andrew Fleming’s first assertions should not be dismissed, that the existence of an upper-dale kingdom is plausible, and that the four cross-dale dykes could have been constructed as late as 800 AD, has been expressed by SWAAG members Alan and Judith Mills in a detailed article about these and the other three Swaledale dykes, which can be read here: The Swaledale dykes revisted, by Alan and Judith Mills, in CBA (Council for British Archaeology) Yorkshire, Forum Plus, 2020, vol. 3.
A simple timeline
While most of the Early Medieval period in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale remains a blank space, there are some small fragments of insight that might be deduced from what little is known of the bigger picture of the wider region. We can at least position a few edge-pieces of the jigsaw from the following simple timeline:
500 – by this time it can be assumed that Anglian settlers, some of whose ancestors were probably here during the end of the Roman occupation, had established settlements in the eastern lowlands of Yorkshire, but probably not much farther west than the fertile lowlands in the vales of York and Mowbray. Anglian kingdoms were established of Deira (roughly modern Yorkshire) and of Bernicia (covering the north-east north of the River Tees).
654 – by this time, friction between Angles and native Britons in the north had been resolved by a series of Anglian victories in battle, including at Catterick (c.600) and soon afterwards leading to conquest of the British kingdoms of Elmet and Craven. In 627, Edwin, the Anglian king of Deira and Bernicia combined, was converted to Christianity, by his baptism at York. By 654, Edwin’s successors had expanded their power and created the kingdom of Northumbria, covering the whole of northern England and a big chunk of southern Scotland.
750 – by this time, elite Northumbrians started making grants of land to cement loyalty among their most-favoured underlings. These new estates started being named by the Old English word tūn ‘farmstead, estate’. Examples are Grinton and Fremington, which were probably established between 750 and 866.
876 – after more than 70 years of raids on the east coast of England, and the conquest of York in 866, Danish invaders began to create new settlements for themselves, creating the new Viking Kingdom of York. The locations of surviving settlement-names ending -by, from the Old Danish word bý ‘farm’ indicate the extent westwards of the Viking settlement at that time. There are some in mid-Wensleydale, such as Carperby, Thoresby, and Thoralby, but the farthest-west along or near the River Swale are Easby and Kirby Hill, both near Richmond.
915 – in this year, different Vikings, of Norwegian origin, seized control of the kingdom of York. They had come, over the previous 10 to 15 years, from earlier Viking settlements in Ireland, settling first in north-west England and then crossing the Pennines to create new settlements, including in the upper Yorkshire Dales. This explains the prevalence of specifically Norwegian words like scar, fell, and gill being attached to the dales landscape, and the Norse settlement-names in upper Swaledale, such as Muker and Gunnerside.
954 – in this year, Eric Bloodaxe, King of York, was killed on Stainmore, apparently by enemies from within, while attempting to escape westwards into exile. His kingdom of York fell and was absorbed into the new united kingdom of England, under Wessex-man, King Eadred. However, in the old kingdom of York, local power remained firmly in the hands of a then well-assimilated hierarchy of landowners with joint Anglo-Scandinavian heritage.
1016 – in this year, after a new Danish invasion, in the south, the English crown was taken by a Dane, Cnut, shortly afterwards to become also king of Denmark and of Norway. His reign, and after him, that of his two sons in succession, extended Danish rule in England until 1042. The Anglo-Scandinavian elite of Yorkshire were untroubled by the Danish kings of England.
1066 – the year of the Norman invasion and occupation, and the beginning of great resistance by the Anglo-Scandinavians of Yorkshire, who this time were indeed deeply troubled.
Languages and place-names
One of the great puzzles of this Early Medieval period is the extent to which the language of the native Britons together with the names they gave to places were almost completely erased from the new England. Consequently, almost all places that existed in this period and survive today have names that were coined in this period, with roots in Old English, Old Danish, and Old Norwegian. Place-names with surviving elements from what are known as the indigenous Brythonic and Goidelic languages are rare.
The writer of this article, Will Swales, has an amateur interest in the place-names of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, and some of the results of his research can be seen here: Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Place-names | by Will Swales (wordpress.com)
