Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - III. The Norse Settlements - 2. Cheshire and Lancashire
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
other than those of Saxon England. South Lancashire
formed a part of Cheshire after the break-up of
the Danish kingdom of York; in 1002 the will of
Wulfric Spot, founder of the abbey of Burton-upon-Trent,
mentions his great possessions in Wirral and
the land between Mersey and Kibble; so that the
bœndr here held by Mercian rules, although, as
noticed on p. 122, it is possible that the hides and
hundreds of this district really replaced a previous
system of division analogous to that of the Danelaw.
The Winwick crosshead is remarkable evidence of
imported Celtic art of the late tenth century, probably
indicating the presence of a sculptor from the Hebrides,
if not a family of Hebridean origin. As the chroniclers
tell us that in 980 Northern or Hebridean pirates
invaded Cheshire, it is possible that this gives the
occasion for the introduction of the person who
carved this work ; but by the analogy of Viking
settlements elsewhere it is evident that there was
continual movement. It was part of every young
man’s education, so to speak, to travel either as a
pirate or a merchant, or both ; and intercourse with
distant Scandinavian lands was the normal order of
life. The Barton fragment seems to be a tenth
century work with Viking ring-plaits ; and these
monuments of South Lancashire and West Cheshire
contrast strongly with the group of Mercian round-shafted
crosses in the east of Cheshire, and no less
strongly with the Northumbrian pre-Viking crosses of
Bolton, Whalley and in North Lancashire. The
distribution of monuments adds to the force of the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
