NATURE COLUMN: Bill Cawley
ONE of my foibles is to put a random year into Google and see what interesting nugget I can find.
I put 774 into search engine and got the following results.
One fact concerned the Bulgarian ruler Telerig who contacted his enemy the Byzantine Emperor Constantine V asking for sanctuary, saying that he feared for his life.
Telerig enquired as to whom he could trust, and Constantine foolishly revealed the identities of his spies.
The named agents were then promptly eliminated.
The Byzantine emperor was out byzantined by the Bulgar. More close to home Offa was ruling Mercia from Tamworth. It was also the time of the Staffordshire Hoard.
Of more immediate concern to people living in England was the strange sights mentioned in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles who refer to “red dragons” “making for a spectacle in the night sky.
Modern research through examining core ice from Antarctica and ancient trees have discovered that a massive solar storm of proton particles hit the Earth, the greatest burst of energy in over 15,000 years then.
Trace elements of Carbon 14 and other radioactive elements were found which indicate that the planet experienced near mass extinction event. Had it happened in modern times, it might have produced catastrophic damage to modern technology, particularly to communication and space-borne navigation systems.
It made me think of what animals would exist in the area in the 8th century while locals were gazing in wonder at the skies.
Part of the answer lies in the place names in Staffordshire; Wolfescote
Dale, Wildboarclough indicate that both boar and wolves were about
Leek in 774 would have been a small community of probably 20 households surrounded by forest. The only thing that remains is the fragmentary Saxon cross.
The woods were home to deer, wild boar, foxes, badgers and various small woodland creatures such as hedgehogs, martens and red squirrels.
Forest birds included pigeons, jays, wood-peckers, sparrow hawks and goshawks. The woods were alive with the buzzing of bees.
Heathland supported populations of wild horses and cattle, hares, and smaller creatures like voles, snakes and lizards.
Birds such as, crows, quail, partridge, nightjars, cuckoos, shrikes, larks, pipits, merlins, harriers, kestrels and buzzards were common.
Ravens and eagles nested in the hills along with peregrine falcons.
The moors were also abode to wolves, wild goats, wildcats and wild sheep. Birds associated with the north such as the black grouse and ptarmigan were present.
The Churnet brimmed with trout. Otters and a few beavers swam in its waters, all being very wary of being trapped by man.
It was about this time that the last bears were hunted to extinction.
They were certainly present as the existence of a skull of a bear was found, probably used for ceremonial purposes, in a cave on High Wheeldon, near Longnor, testifies.