CHESHIRE Viking hoard

The
Huxley Hoard
runearthed
P
icture a cold and wet November
In 2004, a unique hoard of Sunday morning on the Cheshire
Plain, six miles south of ehester:
unusual Viking silver arm-rings the landscape is dominated by
was found by a metal detectorist pasture and criss-crossed by hedge
lines, stock-proof fencing and the
in a field near ehester. What meandering course of the River Gowy. On this
does this discovery add to our particular morning, in 2004, the grazing cattle
had been replaced by a host of metal detectorists,
understanding of Scandinavian clad in water-proofs, making their systematic
settlement in north-west sweeps up and down the unpromising fields.
At about ll.OOam, Dan Garner, the Senior
England? LisaWestcott Archaeologist for ehester City Council, received
examines the evidence. an excited phone call about ahoardofsilverbeing
excavated that very moment in Huxley. Dan's

November 2010
Sunday morning plans were suspended äs he LEFT Showing the
rushed over to investigate. One of the detectorists locations of the Huxley
had unearthed some large fragments of lead sheet and Cuerdale hoards.
about a foot below turf level, rapidly followed by
the recovery of several large silver items. Further
excavation revealed about three dozen fragments
of lead sheet and 22 pieces of silver, which were
clearly Viking artefacts.
The spectacular Huxley Hoard consists of l. 4kg
of silver, comprising 20 flattened, band-shaped
arm-rings, one ingot and one decorated bracelet
rod that had been deliberately twisted out of
shape. There are also 39 fragments of decayed lead
sheet, presumably from a wrapping or Container.
The Huxley Hoard is coinless and, given that the
arm-rings had been reduced to an unwearable
state before burial, the value of the silver would
have been measured by weight - in other words,
a bullion hoard. Most likely buried in the early
lOth Century, the Huxley Hoard has triggered a
reconsideration of the early years of the Scandi-
navian settlement of north-west England (Cum-
bria, Lancashire, and Cheshire) and the coastal thoroughly trampled. After a bit of prospecting,
areas of North Wales from Clywd to Anglesey. Dan located the recently-excavated hole and
removed enough backfill to expose an undis-
Finding the hoard turbed section edge of Reynoldson's pit.
The entire profile from the turf to the base was
When Dan Garner arrived at the metal detecting 0.4m; it seems likely the hoard was contained
rally, he was met by the hoard's finder, Mr S within a shallow cut at the top of the clay, though
Reynoldson, heading in the opposite direction. it had been disturbed several times by post-Medi-
BELOW AND
Although rally organisers had asked Reynoldson eval ploughing and had narrowly missed being FOLLOWING PAGES The
not to remove anything until archaeologists entirely dislodged and scattered. Once the precise deliberately flattened
arrived on site, he had tired of waiting for Dan location of the hoard had been verified, the only silver armbands,
decorated with punch
and had decided to call it a day. However, he thing left to do under the circumstances was to
designs, and (No. 21)
agreed to head back out with Dan to identify the record the location äs accurately äs possible. Fol- the twisted decorated
find-spot, which unfortunately had by now been lowing Dan Garner's involvement, the hoard © bracelet.

ata
CHESHIRE Viking hoard

was reported to Nick Herepath, The Huxley arm-rings are mostly complete,
at that time the Finds Liaison although four of them have had a small piece
Officer for the North West, cut off one end (numbers 4, 8, 9 and 13). The
who then recorded the hoard flattened shape would have made the arm rings
and arranged for its transfer to much easier to pack into the lead Container -
the British Museum. and thus, much easier to conceal and transport.
The Huxley Hoard was In this form, they also would have been much
declared Treasure on 15 July easier to turn into 'hack silver' (cut-up fragments
2005 by the Coroner for of jewellery and ingots, for use by weight) or to
ehester, and subsequently melt down for re-casting.
valued at £28,000. In 2006, the The decorations show a ränge of designs,
Heritage Lottery Fund funded although a saltire design is populär, (a diagonal
the purchase of the hoard, cross or star pattern) appearing in the central
and it is now jointly owned panel of numbers 1-12. There is one unfinished
by National Museums Liver- ring in the hoard (number 10) which looks like
pool and Cheshire West and the work of an apprentice, where the decorative
ehester Museums. stamping was clearly started in the central field
(the saltire) and worked towards one end; how-
ABOVE Distribution map
Unusual evidence ever, in this case, the stamping was so poorly exe-
of Viking Age hoards and cuted that it was abandoned halfway through
assemblages containing
Hiberno-Scandinavian
The Huxley Hoard was buried sometime around the Job. This ring was never meant to be worn -
broad-band arm-rings AD 900 in an isolated spot close to the clearly destined, from early on, to become
from Britain and Ireiand. River Gowy, which would probably hack-silver.
have been accessible to the Irish Sea Indeed, the fact that all the broad-band
andnavigableviatheMerseyEstuary. arm-rings in the Huxley Hoard have been
Of the 22 objects recovered, 20 are flattened is very unusual. This specific
band-shaped, penannular arm-rings treatment does not occur anywhere
of Hiberno-Scandinavian type, eise in the hoard evidence from
decorated with punched designs Britain and Ireiand, though there is
and flattened in half. Arm-rings of one close parallel in the Vale of York
the Hiberno-Scandinavian type form l\r hoard
2010 - where an annular arm-ring
FUGHT Illustration of a
piece of impressed gold the largest and most impressive group was flattened without bending it in
foil from Sorte Muld, of arm-rings known from Ireland's Viking Age half - and many hack-silver frag-
Bornholm, Denmark,
showing a man wielding
silver-working tradition, and represent the most ments of similar arm-rings were
a sword and wearing distinctive form of arm-ring from Britain and Ire- found in the Cuerdale hoard. It is
arm-rings. iand during the period c.850-c.950. possible that the Huxley arm-rings were never
The Cuerdale Hoard
Discovered on 15 May 1840 on the southern
bank of a bend of the River Ribble near
Preston, Lancashire, the Cuerdale hoard
contains over 8,600 items including silver
coins, English and Carolingian jewellery, hack
silver and ingots. It is larger in both number
of objects and weight than any hoard found
in Scandinavia, or any other western areas
settled by the Vikings.
The coins in the hoard are from three
sources, inciuding the Viking kingdoms of
eastern England, Alfred's Wessex and also
foreign sources, which include Byzantine,
Scandinavian, Islamic, Papal, North Italian
and Carolingian mints. It is believed the
hoard was buried between AD 903 and 910,
soon after the Vikings were expelled from
Dublin in 902.

RtGHT A selection of objects from the

Cuerdale Hoard.

manufactured into ring form, but were instead evidence of nicking (test-marks to fest the quality
bent in half from their flattened state. It seems of the silver and ensure it was not plated), which
unlikely anyone would go to the trouble of flat- is an indication that they never entered into cir-
tening 20 fully-formed, finished arm-rings and culation äs currency rings, at least in a Scandina-
then bend them in half, when there were other, vian culture. It seems likely, then, that they were
easier options; what would have been the point of never finished into complete ring form, which
flattening and bending them, if only to cut them means that this group represents the product of a
up for hack-silver? single workshop rather than a gradual accumula-
This question might partly be answered by the tion of wealth: perhaps the work of a couple of sil-
factthatallbut one of the Huxley arm-bands lacks versmiths and the apprentice - who earned his ©
CHESHIRE Viking hoard

place in history äs the sole result of the botched

The Danelaw decoration on arm-ring number 10.
The Danelaw is the historical name given to northern and eastern England from The Huxley Hoard appears to have been buried
approximately AD 800 to 954, where the laws of the 'Danes' dominated those of the under a lead cover or Container, so it seems
Anglo-Saxons.This included the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia, äs well äs likely that it was concealed with the Intention
the Five Boroughs - of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford and Lincoln. of recovery rather than permanently buried äs
'Danelaw' is also used to describe the legal terms created in the treaties between a ritual offering. Three other early lOth Century
Alfred the Great and the Danish warlord, Guthrum, written following Guthrum's hoards have been found associated with leaden
defeat at the Battle of Ethandun in 878. In 886, theTreaty of Alfred and Guthrum Containers: the Cuerdale Hoard, which was dis-
was formalised, defining the boundaries of their kingdoms, with provisions for covered with lead fragments; the Bossall/Flaxton,
peaceful relations between the English and the Vikings.The prosperity of the which was described äs having been in a leaden
Danelaw, especially Eoforwic (Danish Jörvfk, modern York), led to its targeting by later box; and the recent hoard from the Vale of York
Viking raiders. Conflict with Wessex - under the leadership of Alfred's son Edward the (CA 212), which was either in a lead Container, or
Eider - and Mercia, sapped the strength of the Danelaw, most dramatically in AD 910 under a sheet of lead.
atTettenhall, ultimately leading to its Submission in AD 917 in return for protection.

Hoards of the Danelaw

The Huxley Hoard is an important find in a
growing body of material, and one of a number
of recent hoards from the Viking Age. Of these,
the 2007 Vale of York Hoard (initially called the
Harrogate Hoard) has attracted the most atten-
tion äs the largest and most varied hoard of this
kind to have been found since the famous Cuer-
dale Hoard, was discovered in 1840. Included in
this group are recent hoards from Flusco Pike in
Cumbria, Warton in Lancashire, and a hoard
from North Yorkshire discovered in 2004. This
group in turn forms part of the larger corpus of
18 Viking hoards from the Northern Danelaw
(present-day Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lin-
colnshire and Yorkshire), which are tightly dated
ABOVE Hoards and frontiers of the northern Danelaw: the geographical distribution to the first decades of the lOth Century.
of the hoards reveals many were located either on or very near important east-west
Huxley is unique among the northern hoards
routes within the northern Danelaw. Here, Huxley clearly sits on the route between
ehester and York.
äs the only substantial pure bullion hoard; though
with a total bullion weight of c. l. 4kg, it only rates äs

-j- ^Ä *-/3f.

November 2010 |
medium-sized. Very little is yet known about how study, including the most recent investigations
or why the Huxley Hoard was gathered together, linking the DNA of modern Wirral residents to
or about the social Status of the owner - although their forbears (CA 245); however, evidence is scant
it is likely that he or she came lower down the and the history must be pieced together through
social scale than the owners of the Vale of York interdisciplinary research including archaeology,
and Cuerdale hoards. The Huxley Hoard, how- art history, place-name evidence and compari-
ever, would still have beenveryvaluableindeedat sons with better-documented areas such äs North
the time, equivalent to the annual yield of a small East England, Ireland and Scotland north of the
estate äs recorded in the Domesday Book. Forth-Clyde line. The area rarely appears in texts
There are four main categories of objects in the from the Viking Age (though the Anglo-Saxon
Viking hoards of the northern Danelaw: jewel- Chronide, the main source of Information for this
lery and Ornaments, bullion, imported coinage, period, does record the Viking raid on Lindisf arne
and locally-produced coinage. Taken äs a group, in AD 793) and archaeological evidence has been
these varied Contents contain clues about polit- patchy. It has long been accepted the Vikings set-
ical and economic boundaries in northern Eng- tled in North West England af ter their expulsion
land during the lOth Century, and raise questions from Dublin in AD 902, when much of the popu-
not only about the uses of the items prior to their lation dispersed to various places. The coastline
burial, but also challenge pre-existing ideas about of the north-west would obviously have been an
power centres, communication routes and settle- attractive destination, far from established cen-
ment patterns for this period. Larger hoards such tres of political authority.
äs the Cuerdale and the Vale of York may have During the last decade of the 8th Century
combined items that were brought together (traditionally accepted äs the beginning of the
in burial to preserve different forms of wealth Viking Age in Britain), North West England was
against a perceived threat; or, moving beyond divided between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of
obvious economic reasons for burying wealth, Northumbria and Mercia. During the 860s, these
may have fulfilled social functions such äs ritual kingdoms were devastated by the Vikings, whose
offerings and conspicuous consumption. army gained control of York in 876 and then
carved up the former kingdom of Northumbria.
Turbulent beginnings In 874, Mercia suffered a similar fate. The later
9th and early lOth centuries saw a steep rise in
But what of the world to which the objects in the Strategie significance of the Dee and Mersey
the Huxley Hoard belonged? In order to begin basin, which appears to have begun in AD 893-
to speculate about the possible reasons why the 894 when a group of Danes, recently defeated by
hoard was buried, it is necessary to look at the cir- Alfred's forces at Buttington (Montgomeryshire)
cumstances of the time. The Scandinavian settle- overwintered in what the Anglo-Saxon Chronide
ment of this region has long inspired scholarly called 'a deserted city called ehester'. ©
 Viking hoard

The early-to-mid lOth Century is possible that individual hoards

of the Nort West is characterised Much of the bullion came from (or groups of hoards) might repre-
by the power struggles of Edward sent more localised accumulation
the Eider ofWessex; the ambitions
Ireland, though it also contained of wealth and power. It is hard to
of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs freshly minted coins from York. say which is the case with Huxley.
who were looking north towards What is certain is that, together
the remnants of Northumbrian and British-ruled with ehester and Eccleston, Huxley forms a
areas of Cumbria and northern Lancashire; and concentrated group of hoards in the area in and
the machinations of the Mercian and West Saxon around ehester, at just the period when the bor-
rulers who were expanding their own power into ough of ehester was developing its importance,
the vacuum left by the collapse of Northumbria. having only a few years before been no more than
Clusters of Viking settlements sät uneasily on the a 'deserted Roman fort'. This could reflect Ches-
outer margins, and there is no doubt that bands ter's growing importance äs a power centre, with
of Vikings, some armed and some merely seeking the Huxley Hoard representing local rather than
to turn a profit, were moving around and settling transient wealth. Equally, it is possible that the
in the North West at this tirne. hoard and development of ehester reflect the
Recent research has argued convincingly that importance of this area äs a gateway between the
a group of the Dublin exiles settled on the River Irish Sea and the northern Danelaw.
Ribble, and thus can be associated with the Cuer- At the core of these questions is the importance
dale Hoard, buried on its banks between AD 905- of trade - not only in ehester, but elsewhere in the
910. Much of that bullion came from Ireland, North West region during the Viking Age. Coins
though it also contained freshly minted coins from and bullion provide central clues, äs do paral-
York. What does this mean for the Huxley Hoard? It lels with archaeological material to the west and
is difficult to securely date coinless hoards; however, north. As more is discovered, such äs the graves
it is entirely possible that the cache of arm-rings in at Cumwhitton (CA 204), the settlement site at
the Huxley Hoard was part of the war ehest of the Llanbedgroch in Wales, and the recent hoards,
Vikings who had been driven out of Dublin. the picture of this region grows ever clearer, and a
Was the Huxley hoard banked in the earth for more coherent story of Viking settlement around
retrieval or buried at a time of crisis? This may per- the rim of the Irish Sea emerges. Future research
haps be answered by its suggested burial in the is clearly on track to fill in the gaps of our knowl-
early lOth Century, a period of great political and edge of this fascinating and turbulent period. (a]
social upheaval in North West England. At this
FURTHER INFORMATION
time, the Ribble Valley was an important Viking
route between the Irish Sea and York; an impor- Reap and Tillage Exhibition Until 9 January 2011, Grosvenor
Museum, 27 Crosvenor Street, ehester, CH1 2DD Tel: 01244
tant detail, given that the hoards of ten seem to be
402033, [email protected]
placed along communication routes - although it

November 2010