Chapter 6

The Dark Ages

The Romans left Britain in AD 410. For the last quarter of the fourth century they had been training tribal leaders north of the Wall to protect the territory between it and the former Antonine Wall.[l] This policy led to the setting up in that area of the two kingdoms of Strathclyde in the west (based on Dumbarton Rock) and Manau Gododdin in the east (based possibly on Edinburgh). When the Romans left Papcastle the civilians who had worked for the occupying forces, indeed made the occupation feasible, found that everything was theirs.

No more taxes, but no longer the demand of the military for their products or for the service of their sons in the army. They naturally stayed on, for this was their home and it was pointless to move elsewhere.

Eric Birley (Professor of Roman History at Durham University) wrote

• “.. the late occupation of Papcastle need not have been specifically military; we cannot exclude the possibility that here, as elsewhere, a paramilitary or purely civilian population maintained itself for many years after the withdrawal of a regular garrison. How long the site remained occupied, there is no direct evidence to show, but significant continuity of occupation seems excluded in view of the Place-Name Society’s verdict that the first element in the modem name can hardly be other than Old Norse papi, ‘hermit’; that seems a clear enough indication that when Norse settlers first penetrated into the district there was only a solitary hermit living among the ruins of the Roman fort. By the same token, it also serves to discredit the popular tradition that Papcastle takes its name from Gilbert Pipard. Yet it is noteworthy that the Normans chose Papcastle, perhaps because of its plentiful supply of Roman stone, as the caput of the barony of Allerdale, only moving the lord’s residence to Cockermouth when troubled times made it necessary for them to build a castle on a more easily defensible site.”[2]

Of the drift of events after this first period of freedom R.G. Collingwood says:

• “descendants of Romanised Britons lingered on, impoverished by Pictish and Scotic raids, deprived of their larger settlements and richer lands, not by conquest but by devastation, sinking lower in the scale of civilisation, … keenly conscious of their pedigree, nursing in song and legend the tradition of a greatness that had long passed away”. [3]

For hundreds of years following the departure of the Romans there are no written records specifically relating to our part of Cumbria. Not until the Normans came and the various rolls and monastic records began to be kept was there any contemporary written history. In this respect the Derwent and Cocker valleys were indeed in the Dark Ages.

Yet this was not a time of inactivity. The l;!rea around present-day Cockermouth was frequently changed from one political grouping to another, from one overlord to another, in a most confusing manner. We will give only an outline of the complex of strife, invasions and alliances of this period.

When the Romans left it is likely that many of the soldiers were just abandoned, rather than the authorities incur the expense of organising their return to their country of origin, even if they had wanted to go. [4] Many would settle down to family life, supporting themselves from the land or by some trade. It seems natural that Papcastle would have continued to be the centre of the economic and social life for the people around and that the vicus remained a settlement, extended now into the abandoned buildings of the fort.

At the height of the Roman demand for farm produce some of the hitherto neglected northern slopes and poorer marginal land were brought under cultivation and after the loss of the military market these were the first to be abandoned in the inevitable contraction of farming.

The peace of this period of rundown would be shattered periodically by raids of Scots landing on the coast or Picts coming from the north, plundering the area for cattle and probably taking slaves, but penetration and settlement by the Jutes, Angles and Saxons of northern Europe was slow. Judging from the names left in Roman record there were no occupation forces from this part of the continent, so the invaders found no friends here, only the resistant British, aided by dense forests. Gradually, after battles and spasmodic advances, they drew nearer to Cumbria, then part of the British Kingdom of Rheged which in the 5th century spanned both sides of the Solway. By AD 560 they had set up the kingdom of Deira, consisting of much of Yorkshire and Humberside, with its capital at York, and some ten years earlier the kingdom ofBernicia stretching from the Tyne to the lowlands of Scotland and based on Bamburgh. The latter eventually extended westwards to the Cumbrian coast.

In the north-west evolved the powerful British kingdom of Strathclyde, including Rheged and other minor states, extending southwards from the Clyde, sometimes to the Solway only, at others possibly as far as the Dee. Deira and Bernicia fused into Northumbria in AD 604. Cumbria was sometimes in Strathclyde, sometimes in Northumbria, and the latter’s hold over the west was strengthened when the brother of Oswald, king of Northumbria, married a great-granddaughter of Urien, one of Strathclyde’s greatest leaders. Northumbria remained in the early ninth century very important until the centre of political power shifted to Wessex. The Cumbrian British would be little affected by the various wars being waged, but they were affected by the coming of the Angles from the east. First a large area round Carlisle was taken into Northumbria, then the Angles spread into the Cumbrian plain and the wider valleys, not only conquering but occupying the land by planting colonies of people from elsewhere. The kingdoms of Strathclyde and Rheged sank into oblivion for a time, but in some of the mountainous areas the British almost certainly held out. They were surrounded by Anglian settlement by AD 685, but isolated communities probably remained until the Anglo-Saxons were themselves threatened by the Norse-Irish invasion at the end of the ninth century.

The early inhabitants of southern Scotland, Cumbria, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany were of common origin and it was only when the Anglo-Saxons drove wedges between them in the Chester and Severn areas that their close connection was affected. ‘Cumbria’ and ‘Cymru’ (Wales) are of common Celtic origin and many river names are Celtic or pre-Celtic, including in West Cumbria Cocker, Derwent, Ehen, Esk, Irt and Mite. The ‘pen’ in Torpenhow, Penrith, etc., is Welsh, as are ‘blaen’ for summit or peak in Blencathra; ‘glen’ for wooded valley in Lamplugh (once Glanploug), 6lenderamakin, etc.; and ‘cil’ for chapel in Gilcrux. (see Appendix 21)

While under the Anglo-Saxons eastern Northumbria became the foremost centre of learning in Europe, farming continued quietly in Cumbria. Then came new invaders. At the end of the 8th century the Vikings landed on many of the coasts and islands of western Europe, first raiding for plunder in the summer but becoming progressively more permanent -. it has been suggested AD 787 855 for plundering, 855-954 for settling and 980-1016 for political conquest. [7] Danes predominated in the east, the Norse in the Scottish islands, with roughly equal numbers in Ireland. It was from Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man that they mostly entered Cumbria, from about AD 910. By then there had already been a fusion of Norse culture and race with those of the Irish, so that the invaders were really Norse-Irish.

Evidence for this is seen in church dedication at this time to Celtic saints Patrick, Bridget, Columba; in the Celtic practice of inverting place-names – Aspatria, Patrick’ s ashtree; in a Celtic element in sculptures; and in language, such as the use of the Norse suffix -erg derived from the Gaelic -airge for a summer pasture.

Their conquest of the Anglo-Saxons was probably easy, for the latter had settled down from being invaders to the peaceful role of farmers. ‘Conquest’ may hardly have been necessary, for the frequent proximity of Norse-Irish settlements to those of the Anglo Saxons, which were not destroyed, suggests that they lived amicably. The invasion may have been a peaceful infiltration of farmers. The very name ‘Viking’ may mean the place of the people or people of the farms, although it seems more likely to have come from ‘vik’, the Norse for creek or inlet.

The arrival was not entirely peaceful for Carlisle was badly damaged about AD 915 by forces sailing up the Solway. It had suffered earlier destruction late in the previous century by the Dane Healfdene who had devastated Northumbria and was interested in the wealth of the monasteries and churches further west. It was Healfdene who set off the monks of Carlisle on their travels through Cumbria carrying the remains of St. Cuthbert. Names suggest they rested at ten (possibly 13) places, including Embleton and Lorton. (8] The invasion of east Cumbria via Stainmore and the Tyne-Irthing gap is attested by Danish names and by the rectangular greens of Villages.

During the tenth century the Norse settled in the valleys, right up into the mountains. They cleared much of the forest from the low land and the lower hill sides, established new farms and brought to the fells something of the bare look now regarded mistakenly as the true lakeland landscape. They introduced better ploughs and harrows. They intermarried and added yet another strain to the Cumbrian race.

Norse remains are few, but place-names very numerous.

Beck (Norse bekkr), dale (N dair), fell (N fjoll). fitz (N fit river meadows), force (N foss), gate (N gata. way, path), how (N heugrmound or hillock), knot (N knottr rocky outcrop), ness (N nes nose, promontory), scale (N skali hut, shelter), side, seat and satter (N saetr . high grazing ground), slack (N slakki depression between two hills), tarn (N tjom), wath (N vath ford), wyke (N vik . creek, inlet) and others are all slight adaptations of the Norse and are liberally spread throughout the Cockermouth area, as are the actual Norse words thwaite (clearing), gill (ravine), garth (enclosure), rigg (long, steep-sided hill), buth (booth or temporary shelter), etc. The villages and locations, including some street names still used, are too numerous to list, but a few of particular interest may be noted.

Bassenthwaite (Middle English Bastenethwaite or Bastingwait) uses the Icelandic bast of which ropes and baskets are made. (Alternatively it may be from an Anglo-French surname, as a spelling of 1220 suggests -Basrunwater, the lake of Basrun. There are often two or more possible derivations of a name, as again in Buttermere, given above as Celtic for scree, but possibly from the Norse buth).

Mosser is the shieling or pasture on the moss; Ullock (ME Ulvelayk or Ullayk) uses the Norse leikr (to play or be idle, cf the Yorkshire laikin) and ulfa (wolf) and is a place frequented by wolves; Rowrah has the Norse rug (rye) with Norse vra (remote corner of land); Bridekirk is eleventh or twelfth century Scandinavian for the church of S1. Bride; Setmurthy (Satmerdoc in 1250) is the seat of Murdoch; Stanger the Norse stong-ra (a boundary post); and Wamscale at the head of the Buttermere valley is probably Norse varna (protect) with scale (a safe shelter or hiding place).

Allerdale (Alnerdale c 1060) combines the Norse possessive -ar with a British river name, to describe the dale of the River Ellen.

Many mountain names also contain Norse, showing that the new settlers penetrated right to the heart of the district. Scafell, for example, uses skalli, meaning bald.

As with the Angles, some Norse terms were absorbed into the Cumbrian vocabulary and continued to be used, so that they tend to lose their value for dating.

The first farm in a valley was often the ‘thwaite’ at the entrance, [9] then later outlying booths and huts originally used in summer would be permanently settled as farms. Most dales had a pannage area for pigs, i.e. a wood where pigs could forage, so we get Swinside incorporating the Norse svine (swine) and Grisdale, etc., using griss (Pig). Incidentally, pollen analysis shows that at this time the pigs’ liking for oak and beech mast prevented full regeneration of these trees, coupled of course with the clearing that was done.

The Danish -by for a farm or village occurs along an arc from Appleby to Allonby then down the coast (Moresby, etc.) – about 60 examples in the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. This again was used later by the Normans and others, so precise dating is difficult. A modem use is in by-law, i.e. a town law.

Some farming terms are common to West Cumbria and lceland. Twinter for a two year old sheep and trinter for a three year-old are examples. The Cumbrian for a female lamb, gimmer-Iamb, is equivalent to the lcelandic lamb-gymber and the Danish gimmerlam. The identification mark cut on a sheep’s ear, the lug-mark, is in Iceland the logg-mark, log meaning law. [10]

Norman Nicholson refers to the lasting impression which the Norwegian language left on the Cumbrian dialect, with its “clicking, cracking, harshly melodious tune” [11]

As stated at the beginning of this chapter, the whole political set-up was very confused. Dating, even of specific events, is often difficult. The successive invasions stretched over considerable periods and it is impossible to clearly divide what was Celtic, Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian. The various cultures lived on side-by-side or mingled with each other, leaving their evidence in place-names and in the type of settlement -the dispersed hamlets of the Celts; the villages of the Anglo-Saxons, often around large rectangular greens; and the small units of colonisation by the Vikings. By the end of the eleventh century Cumbria had a population descended from British, Romans and other south and west Europeans, Anglo-Saxons, Irish, Norse and Danes. Similarly the language of England from the mid eleventh century to the end of the fourteenth, Middle English, was a fusion of many basic elements.

Scotland was always keen to possess Cumbria. From the late ninth century Strathclyde began to rise from its period of minor importance. About AD 880 a Strathclyde prince became King of Scotland. Cumbria too was becoming more important in its own right.

Cumbria’s importance lay in its position between the Norse of Ireland and Galloway and the . Danes of Northumbria. In AD 945 the Cumbrian king Dunmail had displeased Saxon Aethelstan’s successor, Eadmund, who according to the Saxon chronicle

• “harried all Cumberland, and gave it to Malcolm I, King of Scots, and successor to Constantine, on condition that he should become his midwyrhta (ally) by land and sea against the Danes.”

1. S. Ferguson comments, that since the land was given to Malcolm as tenure for military service, it became

• “a feudal benefice in the strictest sense. Cumbria thus became a fief of the Crown of England, but not a fief held within the kingdom of England. Cumbria was not an integral part of England; it was without (outside) that kingdom, and had always been so.”

Cumbria was now in effect part of Scotland, held by the king of Scotland or one of his family. In the year 1000 Athelred asked for tribute from the Scots for this area and when it was refused he marched from York through Appleby into Cumberland “and ravaged it well nigh all”.

Around AD 1000 the border was along the Duddon to Stainmore line. It was shortened about 1032 as the result of a deal between King Cnut and Malcolm II of Scotland, under which the Plain of Lothian north of the Tweed which had been English was exchanged for most of Cumbria. [12] At various times the River Derwent formed the boundary between the two countries, so that the town side was in one country, the Gote and Papcastle area in the other.

Christianity was spreading in western Europe during the later part of Roman rule. Deira and Bernicia became officially Christian in AD 627. The faith reached West Cumbria about the middle of the seventh century, from Ireland and Iona. No churches survive, probably because they were wooden, but a number of stone crosses are to be found, on some 21 sites where the Angles had settled in the lowlands and along the fringes of the hills. [13] At Brigham, which included Cockermouth in its parish, there are six cross fragments in the eleventh century church and a cross-head at the vicarage, all of them of the ninth to eleventh centuries.

Crosses are also found at ancient road intersections, fords, etc., or marking important points on routes. They may survive in name only — Dean Cross, Crossgate, etc. Both Brigham and Clifton churches are near river crossings.

There are in Cumbria a number of hog-back grave-stones in the shape of Norse wooden huts, the nearest to Cockermouth being at Bridekirk, Crosscanonby and Plumb land. In 1864-5 a Viking-type bronze ring-headed pin was found in the foundations of Brigham church tower, probably from a burial in the churchyard. [15] Graves with swords have been found at Aspatria, Seaton and other places, including Eaglesfield. In 1877 Wil1iam Dickinson wrote of “the limestone bluffs at Thornberry and Tendley, where six skeletons and a sword were found” [16] Was this a cemetery? A hoard of Viking coins was discovered at Dean.

The Norse-Irish probably took over such natural hill forts as Castle How and they greatly developed the British site at the foot of Scale Beck. (Fig. 8).

Some of the settlements of the Vikings were used for many centuries. Probably in Cumbria, as happened in the Isle of Man and north-west Scotland, sites were sometimes used until the end of the eighteenth century, shepherds using the shielings – originally a small hut of low dry-stone walling, thatch roofed, with bracken on the floor, big enough to sleep three or four; possibly with an enclosure for cattle and a hut where cheeses could be made by those looking after the stock. The accommodation may have changed little during the long period of use. The Scale Beck site, with its many ruins of huts and enclosures, is a good example of successive occupation in both Celtic and Norse times.

According to Dr. Thurnam the Norse left their mark in other ways than on the language and the pattern of settlement. He wrote that in the population of Cumberland are

• “unequivocal signs of a Scandinavian strain. a tall, light-complexioned, long-faced, handsome, and, in every sense, powerful! people, whether they claim Danish or Norse descent – most probably the latter. The Cumberland peasantry are remarkable for their stature …(Men average 5 feet 9 inches, women 5 feet 5 inches., bones large, the skeleton strong, and the limbs decidedly long.) They are not a very bulky people, nor yet very fleshy; still they are athletic, and they are free in their movements…. The countenance is fair and handsome; the face is long and orthogonous; the forehead of good height and breadth,. the hair is generally of a light shade of brown, or fair, very seldom red, rarely dark, the body is marked by an inferior degree of hairiness, grey and blue eyes preponderate, an acute, shrewd people; active, industrious, vigerous, enterprising, trustworthy Everything about them is clean and respectable, not squalid, mean or paltry. In all these elements they are most unlike the Celtic races.” [17]

Thumam then tempers this praise with the following additional comment:

• “Countenance not very expressive, intellect shrewd and wary, but rather slow, not bright but safe, true and persevering, long in maturing. The mathematical sciences have often been efficiently cultivated. Little communicative, not very excitable. Of great integrity and honesty of purpose, but not very candid or open; far-seeing and acquisitive, but at the same time warm- hearted, kind and ‘clannish’. In the enjoyment of fun, they may be rude, but are not cruel.. -..” [18]