The Viking Conquest, Anglo-Saxon Britain and the Earliest Signs

Chapter 7: The Viking Conquest, Anglo-Saxon Britain and the Earliest Signs

Anglo-Saxon Britain had emerged from the so-called Dark Ages; the four hundred or so years following the departure of the Romans, and this civilisation showed great sophistication. It resulted after the Saxons had completed their conquests and merged with the native Britons to form a mix of the two cultures. They began to clear areas in the forests, to start up farming communities - and yet to produce gold artefacts for their wealthy chieftains which craftsmen today would find it difficult to match. Some of the greatest examples of what they could achieve were in the archaeological finds at Sutton Hoo.

It was quite likely that they were the true pioneers who started up the small community which, much later, with its given name distorted by usage and by foreign tongues - or replaced after the Viking invasion - became Skillington. If the Anglo-Saxons had a name for this early village, however, it is forever lost to us. What would have attracted them to this site?

It is known that the Kesteven area in these far off times was well-forested so, there would have been an abundance of natural game, both birds and deer or wild boar. They needed water and there, running through a shallow valley in the forest was a stream – perhaps at that time more of a river – fed by local springs. They cleared a site there and began to farm. And the same fertile soil has supported their descendants for the past twelve hundred or so years, perhaps longer!

It would have been a Christian community but the early villagers were undoubtedly fearful of the dark spirits and demons of the night. These they would have warded off with magic talismen, the most powerful of which would have been the cross, symbol of their Christian beliefs.

The local chief and therefore ' his ' people would have eventually owed allegiance to a more powerful chief, a king of the region. The region that Skillington nestled in was that which historians have called Mercia and the most powerful king was Offa.

The early coins of the ninth century bore designs that are not fully understood, and these were used before those bearing the king's likeness. Made of silver, they usually had a strange symbol on one side, sometimes called a porcupine design, and the obverse might bear what appears to be the banner of a Roman legion. This early money was probably cast from memories of the Roman coinage, which had been in wide circulation 400 years before but which must have lingered on long after the Roman legions left.

This expanding and prospering civilisation was ripe for the taking …. Or so it must have seemed to the first raiding Norsemen who drove their long boats ashore along the north-east coastline of Britain . Silver and gold items existed aplenty in religious houses, the first monasteries. Also, in the large huts, found in most communities, wherein lived the chiefs. Potential slaves were in abundance. Plunder was not the only reason for these incursions, however; later invaders pushed well inland and many decided to settle here. But the natives were not the pushovers they appeared. Eventually a Wessex king defeated the mighty army of the invaders. He was, of course, Alfred (or Aelfred) the Great and the year of his triumph over the ferocious Scandinavian invaders was 878.

Unfortunately for the Skillington villagers, if they really wanted to be free of the Viking yoke (and if, indeed, it was a yoke!), Alfred was a southerner and quite content to make a peace with the beaten heathens ....provided they stopped being heathens, of course, and became Christians. Also, provided they halted their incursions at the line he drew. And that line left the Vikings in control of Lincolnshire and most of Leicestershire and, therefore, of Skillington. Perhaps the Viking chief who had come across this small community had already taken it under his lordship, for it is believed that the name Skillington was derived from Sciella's village, Sciella being a Viking name (from English Place Names by Kenneth Cameron). The Sc was pronounced Sh by Scandinavians, however, but before the Norman conquest, it was used in its Old English form as Scillintun (c1067). Tun (later spelt ton) was a common ending originally meaning an enclosed piece of land, then a farm or farmyard, later ' village ', though it is not so ancient as ham, which has a similar meaning. Ing or inga meant of or belonging to.

Although the conquered native British would have been slaves initially, the record of the Doomsday Book, which we have already examined, shows that the number of slaves in Lincolnshire was surprisingly low. This pays a tribute to the will of the Viking settlers to integrate with the native population rather than remain overlords. Of course, the matter did not end with Alfred's terms of surrender. Later years saw the Vikings being appeased with money – the Danegeld – and, eventually, in 1016 the first king of all England became the Dane, Cnut or Canute as he is usually called. Cnut is known to have minted coinage at Grantham!

The Viking legacy came full circle in 1066 when William of Normandy conquered the British, for he himself was a descendant of the Vikings, led by Rollo, who had conquered Normandy !

And before the dark ages and, perhaps, the founding of Skillington. What peoples roamed across our parish? What evidence is there of Roman occupation up to or even beyond two millennia ago? Well, in Skillington itself, none that I have discovered, but the Romans were certainly very close ........….

At Stoke Rochford, the remains of a Roman Bath House and a Villa have been found; also, skeletons and pottery, etc. Further south along The Great North Road, the ironstone quarrying at Colsterworth led to more Roman (and Romano-British) finds …a pottery furnace or kiln and a well, plus more skeletons, brooches, etc. Obviously there was a considerable Roman presence in this area, which is, perhaps, to be expected so close to their main London – North road. This was originally constructed to get their legions to the north. And, all over Lincolnshire there are signs of Roman occupation. An O/S map of the Skillington area shows on it where a hoard of Roman silver coins was found in a pot just south of Saltby. The Romans, like later conquerors, interbred with the native Britons …. If some of those Romano-British lived so close, why not here, in Skillington itself, before the possible Anglo-Saxon settlement? I think it quite likely that a Romano-British settlement or at least an outlying farm was in existence long before a Viking or, even, a Saxon foot crossed the Cringle Brook. To anyone digging out soil – or possessing a metal-detector – I would urge that they look hard for these early signs within our parish.

And before the Romans?

There was a defended Iron-age settlement at Colsterworth. Jim McPherson's article, previously considered, speculated as to the early people who may have travelled along the Viking Way , along the edge of Skillington's lands.

But is there any firm evidence …… ?

A flint arrowhead was found in a field off the Grantham Road almost on the edge of our parish boundary!!!

END

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