Michael Wood on Anglo-Saxon treasures
Earlier this year, two metal detectorists made a dramatic discovery in Somerset. It was a coin hoard that throws fresh light on what happened on the ground in the aftermath of the most traumatic rupture in English history, the Norman conquest. The find was in the valley of the river Chew, which flows down from the Mendips to join the river Avon at the town of Keynsham. The biggest Norman coin hoard for nearly two centuries, it comprises more than 2,500 silver pennies tantalisingly divided almost equally between Harold II Godwinson, who had been killed at Hastings on 14 October 1066, and the victor, William the Conqueror.
Three ‘mule’ coins in the hoard have designs from dies of both reigns on either side, suggesting they were struck soon after Harold’s defeat and death. This perhaps reflects indecision by an English moneyer as to the likely outcome of events, not yet certain that William would hold the throne in the light of English resistance.
William’s coronation as king of England on Christmas Day 1066 was followed by a strange phoney war. But then, in early December 1067, William launched an attack on the South West, “ravaging everywhere he went”, an offensive that culminated in an 18-day siege of Exeter. If we want a context for the hoard, then 1067 surely gives it. In the main towns and cities, the moneyers of the dead King Harold had to carry on with business as usual, using new dies showing William’s head. Any delays and they would use the old die, ensuring that the supply of money continued smoothly. The hoard, then, perfectly
illustrates this transitional moment. Buried just off the Fosse Way south of Bath, it was most likely hidden during the Norman army’s violent advance towards Exeter.
The find is also a reminder of how numismatics, the study of coins, can give remarkable insights into history, especially in the Anglo-Saxon period. One of the most fascinating aspects of the later Old English state is its sophisticated coinage. The chronicler Roger of Wendover tells how, in around AD 973, King Edgar “ordered a new coinage to be made throughout the whole of England because the old was so debased by the crime of clipping that a penny weighed hardly a half penny on the scales”. Numismatists now think that later 10th-century kings may have tried to recoin every six years, adjusting silver content to inflation. Certainly, the system was more advanced than anywhere in western Europe.
Our ability to date coins with ever increasing accuracy is giving us fresh insights into other important but hitherto shadowy events. Among eight major Viking hoards found since 2003, the Watlington Hoard – discovered just south of the M40 in Oxfordshire – was buried in the immediate aftermath of Alfred the Great’s victory at Edington in 878. Thirteen of its coins show Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf, king of the Mercians, seated side by side. This is surely evidence of an alliance, one that was subsequently covered up by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which dismissed Ceolwulf as “a foolish king’s thegn”.
Then there is the Harrogate hoard, discovered in 2007. Dating from the time of AEthelstan’s creation of the kingdom of all England in summer 927, this find contains dirhams minted in Samarkand (modern-day Uzbekistan), a wonderful glimpse of the trade routes of the Viking Age.
Both of these discoveries were made by metal detectorists. Indeed, factor in the exquisite Staffordshire Hoard – the largest cache of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found – and it’s hard to overstate the importance of detectorists to the huge growth in knowledge of Anglo-Saxon England over the past 20 or so years. With discoveries properly recorded and shared immediately, metal detecting has become an indispensable part of information-gathering about our medieval past.
All of these discoveries are recorded in the invaluable Portable Antiquities Scheme (https://finds.org.uk), run by the British Museum and the National Museum of Wales, which records all chance finds made in England and Wales. It’s an ongoing project that gives the public access to information on finds that have been unearthed at any given location across the two nations – a fantastic resource for all local historians.