An updated view of early (6th and 7th century) Saxon [1] England (more accurately called Englisc) is one of a growing economy, improving communications, new understandings of religion, managed tribal projects and battles, a developing legal system, knowledge of where in the social hierarchy an individual stood and pledged loyalties to a warlord. Licetfelda (later changed to Lichfield) would contain a mixture of ethnicities, but this would be of little consequence. The terms Anglo-Saxon, Middle Angles (from Bede, book 1, chapter 15), Mercian or people of Licetfelda would be inconsequential. There was only recognition of their family and some loyalty to their ancestors and warlord. Reynolds expressed it as the natives in the time of Bede were not ‘English people,’ but an admixture of small to large polities, all with different origin-myths.[2]
The area contained a very small group of hamlets until medieval times. In the “Great Survey” of 1086 in the book known as The Domesday Book, Staffordshire had an annual value of a mere 8 shillings per square mile; only two other counties were poorer. This despite having a relatively high number of settlements (342). Lichfield had a recorded population of 9.9 households. This amounted to 42 villagers, 2 smallholders,10 slaves and 5 priests. There were 78 ploughlands.,10 lord's plough teams and 24 men's plough teams working in an area with 35 acres of meadow, 10 acres of worked land, some woodland and much marsh with two water mills.
Imagined view of what early Licetfelda looked like. |
Inhabitants managed the trees for timber, burnt heather for fuel and planted crops, such as wheat, barley or oat (oat and wheat seeds were found in the archaeological study south of the cathedral[3]). Flax might have been planted in the wetter areas. Fields in Mercia were open and could be large; some were divided into strips if they served a community. They were measured in hides, but this was a loose and variable unit and simply meant acreage which could support a family (estimated to be somewhere between 60 and 120 acres). Bread wheat was their staple food, but there was also dark rye bread. Vegetables included garlic, leeks, onions, parsnips, radishes, shallots and turnips. For planting crops an ard or scratch plough would be needed. They would need a long scythe for clearing away bracken and heather. Intensive manuring of the soil was important and crop rotation was understood. Very few people in England ate large amounts of meat before the Vikings settled, and there is no evidence that elites ate more meat than other people, a recent bioarchaeological study has found.[4] Ownership of land might be with the churl. They would most likely have owned a few animals, particularly one or two oxen for ploughing, hens, geese and ducks, and perhaps a cat or dog. It is also possible pigs, sheep and goats were kept. If so, these animals would have been moved from wood to fields with the changing seasons. The Old English feld in the name of Lichfield might be an indicator of pig pasturing.[5] This was a time when crop sowers were becoming interested in animal husbandry. They would occasionally see horsemen on pony sized horses (data from 171 archaeological sites suggest medieval warhorses were small).
The family might have had to
provide a food for a feast (honey, loaves, ales, cheese, birds, hams) to an
overlord, held outside near to their hamlet. It has recently been shown peasants
didn't give kings food as exploitative tax instead they hosted feasts. Food
lists for these feasts which have survived show an estimated 1kg of meat and
4,000 Calories in total, per person.[6] An
examination of ten feasts has shown each guest (possibly more than 300) had a
modest amount of bread, a huge amount of meat, a decent but not excessive
quantity of ale and there was no mention of vegetables, although some probably
were served. The feasts were exceptional; there is no evidence of people eating
anything like this much animal protein on a regular basis.
For a long time, it has been
thought peasants had to pay a food tax, a form of tribute called feorm and the people producing it were
called feormers, a word which later
became farmers. It is now thought the giving of food for feasts was a one-off
event and served to connect farmers to the elite rulers. It was not an obligation
but gave a sense of communal connection.
The first Mercian King ruled from c589 and probably lived well away from most
communities, but on rare occasions turned up for a feast.
A variety of languages were used.
Chad, other priests and scribes writing the Gospels would know Latin. The
Anglo-Saxons would speak Old English (Ænglisc)
with a Mercian dialect. A few might have spoken in Brittonic, an insular Celtic
language. Indeed, Chad with his priestly training in Northern Ireland might
have understood this language.
Any habitation would have resembled the excavated settlement at Catholme (7.8 miles, 12,5 km north-east of Lichfield) in the Trent valley. This settlement is thought to have been established in the 7th century and consisted of a series of farmsteads and trackways. Enclosure ditches surrounded the houses and they probably demarcated family groups.
Catholme today.Ditches and three early graves
were found in the archaeological investigation immediately south of the
cathedral.[2] The south choir aisle archaeology revealed early
Anglo-Saxon graves.
The people would have access to a simple legal system organised from a Mercian stronghold somewhere in the Trent or Tame River valley area. It would be a rudimentary family law with the beginnings of human rights. The idea that others could be asked to give a judgement on someone’s wrongdoing had started. Miscreants could do penance by working for a church. Sickly and disabled children might also be cared for in the church community. Women enjoyed many freedoms and some ran estates and nunneries. Women exercised ownership of their household and intervened to help other households. There are several accounts of kings listening to their wife and being guided by her advice. Women were often equal in law to their husbands and her sons.Everyone would know about the warlord, claiming to be descended from Woden. Recognition of an elite ruling family in the area was relatively new; their ancestry was often contrived. Separation between the privileged and the poor was now beginning.
Boys would be trained in fighting skills from the age of 7 and then receive their first weapons on reaching 14. The most likely weapon would be a spear. He could then be called on to fight for the warlord as a mercenary. If he received a sword it would be accompanied by oaths of fidelity and this would mark the attainment of manhood. The sword would be special to the individual and might even receive a name.
There would be a path to
Lichfield and access to the church to hear the daily Divine Office of sung
prayers and chanted psalms with readings from the Bible given by a senior
cleric. The psalms sung by a precentor might have been accompanied by a psaltery
which was a 10 stringed, harp shaped instrument with a hollow, triangular
sounding box. Lyres have also been found that could have been used. The church
day was divided into 7 times for worship and if bells were rung each time this
gave nearby people an idea of the time in the day. No early Saxon service book
has survived, so it is unclear the order of a service. Maybe, there was a
diversity of services and it was not as rigid and regular as is often supposed.
A local pool or stream would be used for baptism and there were many that were
suitable.
The climate was much colder that
it is today, but it started to get warmer after the 7th century.
Their rectangular timber framed dwelling perhaps had a heather brush roof; very
thick and strong to bear the weight of snow. At West Stow Saxon village,
Suffolk, a ‘stuffed thatched’ roof with a base layer of gorse into which straw was
stuffed has been found to give a sturdy roof and might have been used. The
floor was probably raised up to be above the damp ground, but how this was generally
done is still unsettled. Most ornaments would be fashioned from wood, but the churl
probably knew of a smith in the area to obtain forged goods. Goods would be
bartered and so a sense of relative values would be known. Some might have been
able to afford glass bowls for eating and drinking; the glass most likely being
recycled Roman glass. There might have been some trading with travellers. One
particular item that would be sought was a quern stone for grinding seeds.
Another would be flint for cutting. Other extras could be bought at wics or trading centres and for Mercia
they are not identifiable. All the 30 plus productive trading wics known were
spread across eastern England. Traded goods would have travelled along the
river Trent from the wics in Lincolnshire, but where they were offloaded is
unclear; Tamworth is a guess, Burton another.
[1] There is a problem with naming the people Saxon or Anglo-Saxon (the preferred title in academic publications). Based on surviving texts, early inhabitants of the region were commonly called englisc and angelcynn. From 410 A.D. when the Romans left to shortly after 1066, the term only appears three times in legal charters in the entire corpus of Old English literature and all in the tenth century.
[2] S. Reynolds, ‘What do we mean by Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Saxons?’ Journal of British Studies (1985), 24, 395–414.
[5] D. Turner and R. Briggs, ‘Testing transhumance: Ango-Saxon swine pastures and seasonal grazing in the Surrey Weald, Surrey Archaeological Collections, (2016), 189.
[7] K. Brush, Adorning the dead. The social significance of early Anglo-Saxon funerary dress in England (Fifth to Seventh centuries A. D.), Unpub. PH. D. dissertation, University of Cambridge