The Organisation of the Mid–Late Anglo-Saxon Borderland with Wales

Abstract

With hardly any written documentation concerning the creation of Offa’s Dyke or for the contemporary communities that it affected, the intricacies of how the Mercian-Welsh frontier was organised during the late eighth and early ninth century and afterwards can seem entirely unknowable. This article addresses the question of the likely variable character of the long and undoubtedly complex frontier in reference to some location-specific existing archaeological evidence and close study of the form of the Dyke and other contemporary features in the landscape. One of the key elements of this attempt at detection of early frontier organisation therefore involves looking at the potential role of the inherited Roman road network especially where it runs parallel with the Dyke. Two examples based upon archaeological excavations in Herefordshire are noted here as providing clues as to the diversity of frontier structuring. The first example is the uncovering of a mid–late Anglo-Saxon fortified enclosure at Breinton just to the west of Hereford in 2018 that has at last added some substance to the possibility of the past existence of sophisticated military infrastructure including fortresses close to the Mercian/Welsh frontier. A key factor in the organisation of the pre-Norman frontier at least from the English side could have been the location of ‘quasi-military personnel’ close to the Dyke and to the inherited routeway system. Certain entries in the county-based Domesday surveys of Circuit V for the border counties are briefly re-examined here to consider the implications of the spatial distribution of a single category of specialised freemen. This highlights the importance of Leintwardine and the Roman road south from Shrewsbury as a key location: a possibility underlined by discoveries made during an excavation in the 1990s.

Treaties, Frontiers and Borderlands:The Making and Unmaking of Mercian Border Traditions

“…. Contributions in this journal support the cumulative effects of border structures channelling and re-shaping these liminal border-spaces, arguing that Offa's and Wat's dykes together formed a reinforcing ninth-century border system(Williams 2021;Ray 2022). Yet despite the symbolic workload of vast earthworks and associated monuments in managing the borderland(Tyler 2011; Murieta-Flores and Williams 2017) and potential use of Wat's Dyke for administrative boundaries(Parsons 2022: 121-125), ninth-century Mercian overlordship over Powys clearly exerted influence across both Wat's and Offa's Dykes (Charles-Edwards 2013; Capper forthcoming a), affirming that they consciously delineated borders for Mercian kingdom and identity rather than limiting Mercian power and relations overall.…”

Rethinking Offa’s Dyke as a Hydraulic Frontier Work

“…Despite a detailed survey and description of its surviving course by Fox (1955) and summaries of its topographical behaviours informed by further fieldwork by Noble (1983) and by Hill and Worthington (2003;see also Tyler 2001;Squatriti 2002Squatriti , 2004Wileman 2003;Malim 2007;Bell 2012;Grigg 2018;Hill 2020;Malim 2020), Offa's Dyke's placement and landscape context have only recently received sustained systematic mapping and critical evaluation. Notable recent work includes the book-length detailed and careful evaluation of Ray and Bapty (2016), which addressed Offa's Dyke's long-distance stances in relation to major uplands, valleys and rivers, as well as its more localised strategic placement and alignment in relation to hills and hillsides, valleys and watercourses (see also now Ray et al 2021;Ray 2022; Figure 1). Building on Ray and Bapty's many insights, Belford (2017), Murrieta-Flores and Williams (2017), Humphreys (2021) and Delaney (2021) have presented original -additional and significant -insights into the monument's placement in relation to specific stretches, views and topography, and thus the monument's impact on movement through the landscape.…”

“…The very fact that the only near-contemporary (late ninth-century) description of Offa's Dyke, that of Bishop Asser writing the biography of King Alfred of Wessex, defines it as running from 'sea to sea' should have garnered more interest in the maritime and riverine associations of both Offa's Dyke and Wat's Dyke (Ray and Bapty 2016: 334). Whether 'accurate' or not, the rhetorical and spatial 'reach' of the monuments stretched out over sea lanes as well as protecting land and water routes to its east (see also Williams 2021;Ray 2022).…”