Thursday 19th July, 2007
Vikings
The year 793 was not a good one for Northumbria.
This is the entry in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles for that year:
"In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of Northumbria, and wretchedly terrified the people. There were excessive whirlwinds, lightening storms, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and shortly after in the same year, on January 8th, the ravaging of the heathen men destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne through brutal robbery and slaughter..."
This is the first documented attack on this country by a group of people history remembers as the " Vikings".
The Vikings were not unknown to the Anglo-Saxons before the time of the Lindisfarne atrocity. There is evidence to show that trading links existed between the two nations. But the attack by the "heathen men" on one of England's finest Christian institutions began an age of bitter struggle between the Christian Anglo-Saxons and the "heathen" Scandinavian invaders.
In 850 the raiders changed to invaders when a Danish army overwintered in Kent. Eventually the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia and Wessex came under attack and a strong Danish presence was established in the north and east of England.
The Wigan Area
So how did the invasion affect the Wigan area?
The answer is not straightforward. It seems the Danish invaders and settlers stopped short of Wigan. There was, however, an influx of Norwegian (Norse) settlers from Ireland and the Isle of Man in the early years of the 10th century.
Norwegian Vikings had established themselves in the Orkneys and Shetlands in the eighth century. From there they formed trading links with the Isle of Man and the east coast of Ireland. They later formed settlements in these areas - Dublin is a Norse name.
Early in the tenth century the Scandinavians were driven out of Dublin. From that time, settlers began to appear in western coastal areas from Cumbria to Wales, including the west Lancashire plain between the Mersey and the Ribble.
Our very own Scholes was at the eastern edge of this occupation. The name derives from the Old Norse word skali, meaning hut.
Settlement in the south-east Lancashire area appears to have been peaceful. This was because the area was largely unoccupied at the time of the incursions. Also, by this time the Norse settlers were Christians and so able to integrate more easily with their Anglo-Saxon neighbours.
Norse Settlement in South-west Lancashire
Norse place-names are similar to those of a Danish origin, but there are some place-names elements which are thought to be distinctly Norse. "Brekka", meaning "hill" or "slope", as in Scarisbrick - meaning "Skar's slope", is one example. "Skali", as in Scholes, meaning "hut", is another.
There are enough Norse place-names in south-west Lancashire to be able to state, with some certainty, that the Scandinavian settlement in this area was mainly of Norse settlers from Ireland and Man.