Edward Hunt's Forest of Dean Miscellany

Fact, Fiction and Fantasy

577 AD - The Battle of Dyrham

 

It was in the year 577 that the invading English (i.e. the Anglo-Saxons – EH) drove a wedge between the Welsh of Wales and those of Cornwall and the South West, when they defeated the British chiefs of Gloucestershire and pressed on to the Bristol Channel at the Battle of Dyrham. From that date the whole of the county east of Severn was settled by a Saxon tribe called the Hwicci. The Dean, however, was not affected and remained Welsh and must be included in the story of the Celtic kingdoms for another couple of centuries.

 

The above text is from Forest Story by R.J. Mansfield (publisher: the author 1964)

 

Key words:         Anglo-Saxons, Battle of Dyrham, Bristol Channel, British chiefs of Gloucestershire, Celtic kingdoms, Cornwall, Dean Dyrham, English, Hwicci, Saxon, Severn, South West, Wales, Welsh

 

760 AD - The Dean becomes English

 

Time passed, with the Forest as the Eastern border of Christian Wales, a bulwark against the power of Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, whose boundaries included the rest of what is now Gloucestershire. Mercia itself was converted and a Bishop of the Hwicci was placed at Worcester, while a Bishop of the Magasetae ruled from Hereford, but the Dean was still a Celtic country. And so it remained until the mighty Offa became ruler, when in about 760 he made a determined drive westwards, and, at least in the southern part of the border, extended his limits from the Severn to the Wye and thus the Dean became English.

 

 

 

The above text is from Forest Story by R.J. Mansfield (publisher: the author 1964)

 

Key words:         Celtic, Christian, English, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, Hereford, Hwicci, Magasetae,  Mercia, Offa, Penda, Severn, Wales, Worcester, Wye

 

 

780 - 796    Offa's Dyke

 

Offa was born in 750 and reigned over Mercia between 757 and 796. Between 780 and 796 he built the dyke that bears his name. Offa’s Dyke follows the Welsh / English border and stretches from Wrexham to the Wye valley. Offa’s reason for building the dyke is not documented.

 

Offa’s Dyke may be be seen at several locations between Lydbrook and Symonds Yat.

 

Key words:         Lydbrook, Mercia, Offa, Offa’s Dyke, Symonds Yat, Wrexham, Wye

 

 

 

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