The withdrawal of the Romans from Britain in 410 was followed by a period for which we have fewer historical accounts to draw on. Reading and writing declined and, once again, we rely heavily on the contribution of archaeology for an interpretation of events and how people lived. Fortunately, Norfolk is rich in evidence for these otherwise ‘Dark Ages’. The culture associated with the Roman world eventually fell away and was subsumed by new practices. The old political structure declined and town life, together with the daily comforts associated with the Classical world, such as plumbing and bathing, disappeared. Roman trading networks broke down and the supply of luxury goods to Britain ceased.
Norfolk’s attention now switches eastwards, across the North Sea. Its history again became heavily associated with events on the European mainland. The region was to absorb new cultural influences, along with physical migration of foreign peoples, which in turn introduced significant developments. During the half century following the disappearance of Roman authority there were migrations of Angles and Saxons from Germany and Scandinavia and Jutes from Denmark and Germany, who began to occupy Britain, with the east receiving the main impact of the invasions. As Norfolk and East Anglia absorbed these migrations its population became more diverse, as did its language and religious beliefs.
It is likely that there would have been a gradual period of transition from the Roman way of life, perhaps lasting for several generations. During this time there would have been a steady integration of the new settlers with the native population. The traditional narrative of these times tells of a series of kings and warlords rising to prominence as the fifth century progressed. By around AD 500 the Anglo-Saxon areas of Norfolk and Suffolk were attaining their own identity. The native British people appear to have been absorbed into the culture and pagan religion of the new settlers. Their old established Latin and Celtic languages disappeared and were replaced by a new Germanic-derived Anglo-Saxon language.
The most important aspect of Norfolk’s Anglo-Saxon archaeology is the large number of their cemeteries found here. Although they have been discovered right across East Anglia, Norfolk is especially rich in these sites. In recent years, this evidence has been supplemented by a series of exceptional finds, made by metal detectorists. The study of the cemeteries is now key to any understanding of the Anglo-Saxons in England. This form of evidence alone does not fully reflect the nature of everyday domestic life, although, in the absence of other forms of evidence, it does provide an idea of where their settlements were located. Relatively little structural evidence for buildings at this time survives above ground level, partly because people did not build houses in stone and because subsequent intense arable land use has removed traces of their flimsy wooden structures.
During the fifth century the area of Norfolk was populated by many small tribal groupings, for which we have little detail. These groups eventually came together as the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia, which was formed in the first half of the sixth century, at the start of what has been called the Heroic Age. Norfolk at this time became part of a much larger entity, as the kingdom embraced both Norfolk and Suffolk, whose histories became entwined, and established the emergence of the East Angles.
The kingdom was initially ruled by the Wuffingas, who are thought to have been descended from Scandinavian invaders, who settled in the region around the year 500. King Wehha was the first ruler of East Anglia, probably from around 550. It was his son Wuffa who gave his name to the royal line. Wuffa was succeeded by his son Tyttla, who was subsequently followed by his son Raedwald, in 599. It is Raedwald who we associate with the famous and spectacular ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. We know that he died in 624, which closely aligns with the archaeological evidence at the site. The Wuffingas continued to rule through the seventh and eighth centuries.
Beonna became King of East Anglia in 749 and ruled until c.760. Little is known of his reign although in recent years we have been able to learn more about him through a study of his coins. Beonna was the first ruler of East Anglia whose coinage included both his name and title.
When King Aethelberht was killed by the Mercians in 794, East Anglia fell to the power of Mercia. The kingdom was able to briefly reassert its independence again for a while under Eadwald in 796.
Very occasionally, archaeology is able to provide deeper insight into the lives of individuals from these distant times. In 1999 a discovery in a field situated a few miles to the east of Norwich provided just such an opportunity. The find in question was an unusual but clearly high status and valuable gold seal matrix of the Middle Anglo-Saxon period. Astonishingly, this has been found to have belonged to an important historical figure, Queen Balthild (626/7–680), who was the wife and queen of Clovis II, King of Burgundy and Neustria (r. 639–658). Balthild is known to have been an Anglo-Saxon of elite birth, perhaps a relative of King Ricberht of East Anglia (r. 627–30) and a native of this part of Britain before her marriage. After the death of her husband she retired to a convent, where she dedicated her remaining years to the service of the poor. Balthild was made a saint following her death in eastern France in 680. Exactly why her personal seal matrix was found in Norfolk and not France remains a puzzle. It is possible that this intimate item may have been returned to her birth family, who were still living in East Anglia, after her death.
The departure of the Romans had eventually led to a cessation of urban life in Britain. Their towns and fortifications fell into decay and the settlement pattern associated with Roman administration broke down. The major Roman town in the region at Caistor St Edmund went out of use and people moved away to locations in the vicinity, beyond its walls.
Settlements in the fifth and sixth centuries were dispersed in the landscape. They favoured the lighter, well-drained soils within river valleys. Their cemeteries were located close to the settlements. New forms of cremation cemetery were used by the Anglo-Saxons. This development is significant because it provides evidence about the Anglo-Saxon population and their pagan practices. These cemeteries, which contain decorative cremation urns, are found right across what had been the old Icenian territory, covering Norfolk and beyond.
In the absence of other forms of evidence, these burial grounds provide an indication where early villages and the main foci of occupation were situated. Major cemeteries are known at Markshall and Illington, with others known at Morningthorpe, Brooke, Kenninghall and Sporle. At Spong Hill, in central Norfolk, the largest of the region’s known Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, fieldwork between 1972 and 1981 revealed 2,259 cremations and fifty-seven inhumation burials. The cemetery was in use for 150 years and is thought to have served a number of communities in the vicinity.
Another cemetery has been excavated at Caistor St Edmund, immediately adjacent to the walls of the old Roman town. Archaeological finds, including coins, indicate the presence of communities living around, but outside, the former town, with continued presence across the surrounding area through the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries. It appears that the walled area provided a focus in the landscape but it is uncertain what role it played at that time. Somewhat later, it may have been part of a monastic foundation associated with an early church on the site, perhaps beneath the eleventh-century church of St Edmund, which is located within the town walls.
These cemeteries were no longer used from the period when Christianity became established during the seventh century. At this same time, it is apparent that settlements were becoming more nucleated in form and were established across more varied locations.
The Anglo-Saxons lived basic lives as simple farmers. Their houses were built in timber and thatch and formed small settlements. There were no towns through the fifth and sixth centuries but we can date the establishment of villages in Norfolk to the years between c.600 and c.800. It is perhaps surprising to realise that so many of today’s villages were founded during those years. It was only in the later Anglo-Saxon period that the first towns emerged, together with a related growth of markets for trade, which were also associated with the increasing agricultural prosperity across the area.
Norfolk’s population grew steadily from the seventh century onwards. As it developed, Anglo-Saxon settlement was not static. Once founded, villages expanded, sometimes contracted, and frequently shifted site. The most common form of domestic dwelling of the period was the grubenhaus, or sunken hut, in which rectangular hollows were dug, above which a suspended floor was sometimes inserted.
The main towns of Anglo-Saxon Norfolk were Thetford and Norwich. In the eighth century both consisted of just a few small dispersed settlements. They both saw Viking activity from the ninth century. Together with Yarmouth, they had established thriving merchant communities by the time of the Norman Conquest in the mid-eleventh century. None of them were planned towns but developed as thriving commercial and fishing centres respectively.
Norwich was already Norfolk’s most important town. Its earliest evidence comes from around the eighth–ninth centuries. New Danish settlement in the area during the ninth century was a boost for the town’s early development and it quickly became a significant regional focus. These early Scandinavian influences survive in the form of today’s street names, notably those ending in –gate (street), such as Finkelgate and Fishergate. The earliest reference to the town’s name is found on a coin of Aethelstan (r. 924–39), inscribed as Norvic.
Thetford was one of the largest and most important towns in the whole country from the ninth to the eleventh century. It was a bustling, busy centre of production and crafts. Excavation has shown how its roads were gravelled and its wooden houses were separated by individual fenced plots. In 1066 it had a population of over 4,000, placing it in the same league as York and Lincoln, as well as Norwich.
Norfolk’s foremost early towns were to have contrasting futures. Norwich went on to have an enduring importance while Thetford was to suffer a decline after just a couple of centuries, despite its strategic location as an entry point to the county.
At the east coast, a sandbank had emerged within the mouth of the Great Estuary, providing new land that was soon occupied. The first settlement at what was to become Yarmouth was a seasonal one. Fishermen stayed there as they followed the herring down the east coast of Britain and needed protection from the sea. Their huts and homes grew into the first town on the spot. The settlers originally built on the highest part of the sandbank; an area now called Fullers Hill. It subsequently remained at the heart of the medieval town.
Yarmouth developed rapidly on the part of the growing sandbank that offered most protection from the sea, as the importance of the fishing industry expanded. The small fishing village quickly became a town and spread southwards following the course of the River Yare. Goods were loaded and unloaded from quays built into the riverside.
There was a steady growth of settlement throughout Norfolk during the eighth century, which was coupled with an increased Scandinavian and more general European presence, especially at Norwich. The economic prosperity of the region and the construction of timber buildings reflected more associations with the Low Countries and Scandinavia than with other parts of England at the time.
The spread of Anglo-Saxon settlement is indicated by the distribution of archaeological objects, especially pottery, right across the county. Evidence for specific sites is also indicated in over seventy place names ending in –ham. Those with such names often developed into later medieval market towns. By 1066 small markets, many of which were precursors to today’s towns, were appearing, including Holt, Dunham and Litcham, all of which are mentioned in Domesday Book.
We have only slight evidence for what happened to the Christian religion after the Romans withdrew from Britain at the start of the fifth century. We do know that it was nearly 200 years later that it was reintroduced to England with the mission of Augustine in 597. It spread from Kent to other parts of the country during the sixth and early seventh centuries. Eorpwald became King of East Anglia on the death of Raedwald in 624 and he was converted to Christianity in 627. It was under Sigeberht (d. 641) that the region was brought permanently to Christianity and under whom the Burgundian missionary Felix became the first bishop of the East Angles.
The Irish monks Fursa and Foillan came to East Anglia from Ireland in the 630s. They established a monastery at a place called Cnobheresburgh, which is thought to be the site of Burgh Castle in Norfolk, adjacent to the earlier Late Roman fortification. What is thought to be a Christian cemetery of seventh- to tenth-century date was discovered there during excavations in the 1950s and ’60s. Post-Roman clay floors may possibly be the remains of a Middle Saxon church; part of the monastery established by Fursa and Foillan and given the name Cnobheresburgh.
In the late eighth century the East Anglian diocese was divided into two and a bishopric was created at North Elmham, in the north of Breckland. An Anglo-Saxon timber cathedral, the seat of the bishops of Elmham from c.672, was constructed on the spot now occupied by the remains of a Norman chapel and small castle.
Twenty or so of Norfolk’s churches pre-date the ninth-century Viking invasions, including Loddon, Holy Trinity. Their early dates are indicated by dedications to saints such as Ethelbert, Withburga and Botolph. Situated near the east coast, the village of Reedham has one of the earliest known churches, founded in the seventh century by St Felix, who was the first Bishop of East Anglia. That period also saw the construction of other religious sites.
By the end of the seventh century monasteries were being founded, although physical evidence for them was largely removed during the period of the later Danish Conquest. Withburga (d. 743) founded a monastery at East Dereham. Another was St Benet’s, located on the River Bure, in 800. Elsewhere, a house for Benedictine nuns was founded in the parish of Outwell, at Molycourt Priory.
It was in the tenth century that the system of religious parishes originated. The ecclesiastical order established by the Anglo-Saxons centred around the establishment of minsters, or mother churches, with their own ecclesiastical territories, or parochia, which were based on earlier royal estates.
The return of Christianity also served to reintroduce literacy to England. Writing was to thrive from this time onwards, largely through the agency of the Church.
The small independent tribal kingdoms of the Middle Anglo-Saxon years steadily merged and had developed into large estates by the Late Anglo-Saxon period. The parish of Wymondham, which is the second largest in the county, is thought to be a rare example of a preserved large Anglo-Saxon estate. Most other such entities were subsequently broken down into smaller units and became parishes in their own right, with their own churches built by local lords.
Throughout those years there was steady and relentless clearance of native woodland. Some carefully managed islands of trees were maintained as a resource as wood was of primary importance for buildings in Norfolk in the absence of stone, as well as its many other uses.
Most of the population were engaged in subsistence farming. Cattle, sheep, pigs and goats were most commonly kept. Oxen were used for ploughing and pulling carts. Sheep farming increased in importance in the Late Anglo-Saxon period. The population grew wheat, barley and rye, together with peas, cabbages, parsnips and carrots. Agricultural innovation was driven by the developing system of lordship and centred around aristocratic and monastic sites. Careful land management resulted in improved farming methods and an increase in yields, which served to underpin the growing economic strength of the country.
In the far west, the Fenland formed a watery borderland, separating and protecting Norfolk and East Anglia from Mercia to the west. The land embracing the fen islands of the peat and silt fens had been occupied from early prehistoric times. Its population adapted most effectively to changing environmental and climatic conditions, with a lifestyle based on an understanding and control of the rich natural resources, especially the water meadows, which were most suitable for cattle grazing.
The departure of the Romans in the early fifth century had caused disruption and a breakdown in commercial life. There was a cessation in the money supply and the use of coin for daily transactions was to cease for nearly another two centuries. It was not until the late sixth century that cultural and trading links were properly re-established with Europe and the Merovingian Franks, leading to the reintroduction of coins, with Merovingian gold issues, known as tremisses. The first English gold thrymsas were struck from around the 630s.
The earliest English silver pennies, today known as sceattas, were a development from gold coinage struck in northern Europe from the seventh century. As gold became increasingly scarce, more silver was used; a process that eventually resulted in an all-silver coinage, from about 660. The first East Anglian sceattas were probably minted in the reign of King Aldwulf (r. c.663–713). Sceattas are now being found in increasing numbers across Norfolk, indicating their importance in far-reaching trade and exchange networks. Far more common than later Anglo-Saxon coins, they circulated in greater volume and were probably used for everyday commercial transactions.
An extremely rare silver coin discovered at West Harling from the earliest issue of King Athelstan I of East Anglia (r.c.825–c.840) carries a rare depiction of a ship and reflects the region’s international maritime contacts. It is evidence for trade with the Carolingian Empire and especially with Dorestadt (in the Netherlands), which was an important city connected with many international trade routes.
A mint was established in Norwich during the reign of King Aethelstan, King of England (r. 924–39). Coins are able to provide a record of some named people of that time, carrying the names of the moneyers engaged in their production. Those striking coin at Norwich at this time include people named as Bardel, Eadgar, Giongbald and Hrodgar.
The wealth of the area developed steadily, based on its agriculture, especially from sheep farming. Norfolk was an important centre for the production of wool even before the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. Other commodities were manufactured and traded, which included metalwork, glass and pottery. Pottery imports at Norwich indicate trade with the Midlands, the Rhineland and northern France.
Although most of the population was illiterate, the Anglo-Saxons did have an alphabet. It comprised symbols known as runes, which were used from the fifth century onwards and until as late as the eleventh century in Norfolk. As well as forming a script, these symbols were believed to have a magical significance. An increasing number of objects inscribed with runic letters are being discovered in Norfolk.
One such item is a gaming piece formed from an ankle bone of a deer, discovered during excavations at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Caistor St Edmund in the 1930s, dating to around AD 400. It is inscribed with six runes, which spell railhan, meaning ‘roe deer’. This is thought to be the earliest runic-inscribed object from England.
Some astonishing works of art survive that provide us with insights into Anglo-Saxon society. One such object is a figurine known as Spong Man, which was found during the excavations at Spong Hill. It is a unique ceramic sculpture that depicts a figure seated on a chair in a pensive attitude. Spong Man is the earliest Anglo-Saxon three-dimensional figure ever found.
Excavations on the route of the Norwich southern bypass between 1989 and 1991 revealed another Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Harford Farm. One of the graves contained an elaborate disc brooch of the early seventh century, which had been battered and subsequently repaired before burial. It had been made from gold plate on a silver backing. The front is decorated with glass, ivory, shell, gold wire and garnets. In the centre of the backplate is a runic inscription that reads, ‘Ludica repaired this brooch’. Through this personal inscription, Ludica has become the first Anglo-Saxon craftsperson whose name is known to us.
Another of the great discoveries of the period is a remarkable hoard of silver brooches, which was found in the churchyard at Pentney, west Norfolk, in 1977. They are some of the finest surviving pieces of Anglo-Saxon jewellery and clearly demonstrate both the wealth then available to aristocratic families in Norfolk and their access to silversmiths and craftworkers of the highest calibre. The hoard’s burial date, thought to have been in the 840s, ties in with the first documented Viking raids on East Anglia, providing a reason for their burial.
It was in the mid-to-late eighth century that the Vikings began to menace the north-eastern seaboard of Britain, in pursuit of loot and slaves. There was considerable impact on the native peasant population across the east of England, who were continually under threat of sudden violence and enslavement.
A ‘Great Viking Army’ arrived in 865 and took control of the major kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia. Under Ubba, they attacked Norfolk in 865 and established a base before moving on to attack York. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 866 tells how, ‘A great heathen army came into England and took up winter quarters in East Anglia. And there they were supplied with horses and the East Angles made peace with them.’
East Anglia had essentially remained independent to this point, under the rule of King Edmund (r. 855–69), the last independent Anglo-Saxon king of the East Angles. When they returned in 869, the Vikings took winter quarters in Thetford. Edmund fought the Danes in the vicinity of the town but was defeated, captured and killed. He is remembered today as Edmund the Martyr.
Following King Alfred’s victory over the Viking chieftain Guthrum at the Battle of Edington in 878, the Danelaw was established and East Anglia became settled by the Vikings, coming fully under Scandinavian control. In the same year King Alfred made a treaty that formally gave East Anglia to Guthrum, who was subsequently baptised and christened with the name of Aethelstan. East Anglia remained a Viking kingdom, ruled over by Aethelstan until his death in 890.
When Danish settlers arrived in East Anglia, they adopted the native language. Archaeological evidence for Viking settlement in Norfolk is difficult to detect as their buildings have not survived. The extent of Scandinavian presence can be gauged to some extent by the use of their place names, specifically those coupling a Scandinavian name with an ending –by (meaning farm or village). Such names are most prevalent in east Norfolk. They are especially common in the far east, centred around Flegg and the hinterland of Great Yarmouth, such as Ormsby, Filby, Hemsby, Scratby and Thrigby.
There are also places that coupled Scandinavian personal names with the old English ending –ton (meaning village), as at Grimston. There is another group of Scandinavian-derived names ending in –thorpe. These are more widespread across Norfolk, although there is a concentration in the Tas Valley, south of Norwich.
It was during the tenth century, when Viking raids reached their height, that Thetford’s role as a regional production centre developed at the expense of Ipswich, which was being affected by seaborne raids. Thetford became the main centre of pottery manufacture for the East Anglian Kingdom. The production of the ceramic known as Thetford ware, together with similar pottery types from Norwich, are indicators of the growing economic wealth and status of Norfolk at this time.
Buried hoards of Viking silver, usually containing metal ingots and ‘hacksilver’, have most often been found in the north and north-west of England, associated with intense Viking activity there in the tenth century. Now ingots of a similar type are being recognised in Norfolk, largely as single finds, demonstrating their widespread use in financial transactions in this area of the Danelaw. A hoard from Hindringham, in north-west Norfolk, is the first example of such hoarding activity in England outside of the North West and reiterates the continuation of Scandinavian practices in the county at this date.
There has been much controversy over the nature of Viking presence in Norfolk during the years following the death of King Edmund. The Vikings were undoubtedly a violent presence across much of Britain but in East Anglia they did also show a keenness to integrate with the local population. Evidence from Norfolk suggests that the Danish warriors settled peacefully here. The invaders converted to Christianity and also adopted the native language. Archaeological discoveries have provided evidence in the form of metalwork items that reflect their lifestyle. Their material objects do not suggest much wealth or ostentation; mainly comprising household equipment and horse trappings that reveal the population had become one of mainly modest farmers.
The Vikings were enthusiastic traders and some of the coins that they used are evidence for their contacts with peoples right across the Viking world. Dirhams, which are Islamic coins, are known from across Norfolk and were used in currency across the Mediterranean world and the Byzantine Empire between the tenth and twelfth centuries. They reflect the region’s role within a wider trading system.
It is perhaps ironic that by the end of the ninth century, just thirty years after putting him to death, the Viking settlers were using coins struck in memory of the deceased King Edmund, which are known as St Edmund Memorial Pennies. These may have been struck at Thetford, where there was a known mint at the time.
The first generation of Viking settlers were pagan. Burials of the period often contained personal possessions of the deceased, as revealed in a ninth-century double grave excavated at nearby Santon Downham (Suffolk) and in a single male burial at Harling.
Evidence for their pre-Christian beliefs comes in the form of Scandinavian-type objects, including a form of amulet known as the ‘Thor’s hammer’. These miniature charms were fashioned in the shape of the hammer used by the Norse god Thor and worn around the neck for good luck. More Thor’s hammers have been found in Norfolk than anywhere else in the country and comprise another form of evidence that reflects the extent of the early Viking presence in the county.
In 918, the kingdom became absorbed into the West Saxon ‘English’ state under the descendants of King Alfred the Great. The resulting conversion of the Vikings to Christianity led to a Christian renaissance. Bishops of East Anglia were appointed during the tenth century and many new churches were built during the tenth and early eleventh centuries.
In 903 the East Anglian Danes waged war on Edward the Elder (r. 899–924), son of Alfred the Great and King of Wessex. Following a series of military defeats, East Anglia submitted to Edward in 918. In 927 Aethelstan united the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy into the Kingdom of England. In the late tenth century Viking raiding along the east coast of England began once again. Records tell that both Norwich and Thetford were attacked and burned in 1004 by the Viking King Swein Forkbeard. After defeating the Anglo-Saxon ealdorman Ulfketel in battle at Ringmere, near Thetford, Swein ravaged the town once again. In 1016 Cnut of Denmark became King of all England. In 1017 Norfolk and Suffolk became the earldom of East Anglia under Thorkell.
Despite these political and military events, English agriculture and trade prospered. Economic activity thrived and an export trade in wool was developing with the Continent, which was to become so significant in Norfolk’s medieval prosperity. By 1066, Norfolk had become England’s most populous county, with a population of around 150,000.
In 1066 the Norse army under Harald Hardrada was defeated at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, near York. The same year then saw another foreign invasion that would have a profound influence on the development of Norfolk and its population. The impact is still to be seen today through its legacy of new buildings, art, towns and villages that created the fabric of medieval Norfolk.