Prof Steve Harding's Viking Wirral

    Wirral parish map (19 th cent.). The bold line demarks the approximate boundary of the 10 th century Norse enclave, based on baronial manor holdings and place names. Courtesy of Chester and Cheshire Archives & Local Studies. The Wirral peninsula in north-west England was once home to a vibrant colony of Scandinavian settlers, many of whom were Norsemen expelled from Ireland. The arrival of one group was led by Ingimund in 902, but there were others, including Danes. The intensity of the settlement is borne out by the distribution of major or settlement names in Wirral, such as Arrowe, Caldy, Claughton, Gayton, Larton, Lingham, Mollington Torold, Ness, Neston, Storeton, Thingwall, Thurstaston, Tranmere, the -by names (Frankby, Greasby, Helsby, Irby, Kirkby in Wallasey, Pensby, Raby, West Kirby, Whitby and the now lost Haby, Hesby/Eskeby, Warmby, Kiln Walby, Stromby and Syllaby) and the Norse-Irish Liscard and Noctorum. Some further settlement names, such as Birkenh...

A new study examining the chemical makeup of iron artifacts from the Viking age aims to uncover new insights into where they came from that could reveal previously unknown information about historic events. Scientists from the University of Nottingham are leading the study that will examine 90 iron Viking-age artifacts. These are  weapons  that were used in battles at Fulford in North Yorkshire and Bebington Heath on the Wirral. Other material comes from the Viking camp at Torksey in Lincolnshire, and from the former Viking seaport of Meols. Fulford was the location for a battle in AD 1066 between Norse invaders and the Anglo-Saxons, immediately before the better-known battle of Stamford Bridge. The archeological material consists of iron weapons found at a number of short-lived iron recycling sites that were abandoned by the Norse victors at Fulford when they were defeated at Stamford Bridge five days later. The iron material from Bebington Heath was recovered from the possib...

New pub being built behind original Railway Inn, 1938 In 2007 a planning application was made to construct a patio extension at the Railway Inn, Meols. The assessment that routinely followed by the County Archaeology Office revealed a document reporting a vessel of unknown antiquity that had been buried underneath. Potentially an archaeologist’s dream: a major find under a pub! In 1938, when the Railway Inn was being knocked down and rebuilt further from the road, the site of the old pub being made into a car park, workmen had revealed part of a clinker vessel from under the waterlogged blue clay 2-3 metres below the original pub. A clinker has overlapping planks, a style which originated from Scandinavia over 2000 years ago  – mastered by the Angles and Vikings and characteristic of all their shipping – and a style of boatbuilding so successful it has subsequently been used through the ages and is still used today. The foreman on duty ordered the workmen to put all the clay bac...

The Vikings became legendary for their seafaring skills and their navigation methods have long been  a subject for speculation. The following is based on an article Steve wrote in “The Conversation” in  2016. Ancient records tell us that the intrepid Viking seafarers who discovered Iceland,  Greenland  and eventually North America navigated using landmarks, birds and whales, and little else.  There’s little doubt that Viking sailors would also have used the positions of stars at night  and the sun during the daytime, and archaeologists have discovered what appears to be a  kind of Viking navigational sundial. But without magnetic compasses, like all ancient sailors,  they would have struggled to find their way once the clouds came over. However, there are also several reports in Nordic sagas and other sources of a sólarsteinn  “sunstone”. The literature has sparked decades of research examining if this might be a reference to  a more...

To all our followers:  Til árs ok friðar! - may the following year be plentiful and prosperous!   We look forward in 2022 and in particular to perhaps unlocking the secrets of the Meols Boat and making some real progress with the scientific analysis of the Bebington finds.

Click the link to immerse yourself in local history with Wirral’s Viking Trail: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ncmh/documents/dna/wirrals-viking-trail.pdf