Nottinghamshire 1000 : 365 Reasons to celebrate a County's Heritage

Great New webpage provided by Mercian Archaeological Services CIC to support the Nottinghamshire 1000 project in partnership with Sherwood Forest Trust, The Friends of Thynghowe, King John's Palace and the Public Information Research Organisation.

Nottinghamshire 1000 is a group of organisations that have joined together to help celebrate the 1000th anniversary of this great shire.
We are encouraging people to post memories of significant people, places and events that have connections with Nottinghamshire. These events can have happened anytime in the last 1000 years. We would then like to make a timeline, with an event for every day of the year. 365 reasons to celebrate our Nottinghamshire heritage and create a resource for anyone to use.

To achieve these goals we need funding. We'll do that. But we need as much support as possible. The more posts we get, and the more 'likes' for the page, the more evidence we will have to show funders.
We know how much knowledge you have, and we believe in people driving their own heritage and cultural development.
Simply post your suggestion onto facebook.com/Nottinghamshire1000

http://mercian-as.co.uk/notts1000.html

Nottinghamshire Canute and the Danish Warrior Farmers

Nottinghamshire is fortunate in that it has a tangible link to its origins. In this year 2016 we have an opportunity to celebrate 1000 years of history. Our first celebration is to mark 1000 years since the Danish Viking Canute became King of England. Our second celebration is to mark 1000 years since Nottinghamshire was recorded as a Shire in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. This may not be a coincidence as the connections are deeply rooted in the Danelaw and the existence of the Five Boroughs within it. (See previous posts).

These extremely important events will be celebrated at Sherwood Pines Nottinghamshire on 14th and 15th of May. A Viking Spring Thing, using the traditions of our Thynghowe Viking Assembly Site, will provide a perfect setting to tell the story of our important Nottinghamshire heritage.

Fig 1. Event Leaflet Front

Fig 2. Event Leaflet Back

The Seven Boroughs of The Danelaw

Canute1000 The Nottinghamshire Connection

By Stuart Reddish

                                                                                                     Canute and his Empire, G.N. Garmonsway 1963

Canute's Seven Boroughs of the Danelaw 1013 -1016

Interestingly, this account of events in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, leading to the eventual Danish rule of England in the early 11^th century, has a particular significance. It provides a connection between Canute and a possible tactical link to the Viking assembly site at Thynghowe in the boundary forest of Sherwood in Nottinghamshire. This link would have been vital in the strategic preparations for the arrival of a Danish invasion fleet via the river Humber and the river Trent and the subsequent consolidation of territorial gains. For king Svein Forkbeard and his son Canute to ensure their military success they would require the support of a large number of followers already in England with sympathies for a Danish king. This support would come from those very families of the early Viking warrior farmers of the northern Danelaw and their support would make a lasting invasion possible. It is evident that there was a consolidation of Northumbria (York), Lindsey, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Leicester and Stamford which came 'into the charge of Canute' in 1013.

Again the source of the existence of the Seven Boroughs is limited to one document that is mentioned in the book by Sir Frank Stenton Anglo Saxon England. In a footnote to page 388 he refers to a short lived extended confederation of the Danelaw's 'Five Boroughs' between the time of the Danish invasions of 1013 and 1016. In the summer of 1015 Canute returned to England with his fleet. During a great council held at Oxford earlier in that year Eadric of Mercia had procured the murder of Siferth and Morcar, sons of Angrim, the Chronicle describes them as the chief thegns belonging to the 'Seven Boroughs”. The phrase does not occur again and the exact meaning is uncertain but Stenton clearly felt that it included the five Danish boroughs of Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Leicester, and Stamford. The sixth borough was thought to be Torksey (or the larger area of Lindsey of which Torksey was part) on the river Trent. Torksey was strategically placed on the Nottingham Lincoln boundary and had an influential growing population that eventually totaled over 200 burgeeses. The seventh borough being York as under Edward the Confessor many thegns belonging to Danish Mercia also held land in Yorkshire.

This would indicate the confederation of seven boroughs could have formed prior to Svein Forkbeards arrival in 1013. The confederation was then placed into the charge of Canute by his father and this confederation was thus consolidated under Canute and was still in place to support his return in 1015. This supporting confederation being part of two planned preparations for Danish invasion.

The known Viking Assembly site at Thynghowe would provide a central geographic location within this confederation. Torksey, a former Viking winter camp, is on the river Trent, as is Gainsborough Svein Forkbeard's main camp, and is situated close to York, Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester, Derby and Stamford. By having a high topographical border location, this would have made it a perfect assembly site for the confederation of the Seven Boroughs. The tradition of Viking legal assemblies was that their location was on a convergence of boundaries and borders. This geographic position was to strengthen the independence of the court and to ensure its freedom from any one kingdom's 'ownership' or patronage. Thynghowe as an established higher regional Thing site would have been an obvious choice. In any event something happened at Thynghowe that was so significant that the site was still recorded on maps hundreds of years ^{1 .}

1. Community Archaeology at Thynghowe, Birklands, Sherwood Forest Lynda Mallett, Stuart Reddish, John Baker, Stuart Brookes and Andy Gaunt. Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, Volume 116; 2012

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Canute1000 Celebration 2016