Councillors are set to weigh in as the search for a decisive ancient battlefield continues. While the Battle of Brunanburh is seen by many as the point of origin of English national identity, over 1,000 years later, it remains unknown where the battle actually took place.
Most believe the Battle of Brunanburh was fought in Merseyside
There are various places across Britain where the 937AD battle could have taken place, but the most widely accepted theory is that it was in Merseyside. For over a decade, Wirral Archaeology CIC have been working to track down the elusive battlefield.
In a report, which is set to go before Wirral Council’s Tourism, Communities, Culture & Leisure Committee, Wirral Archaeology CIC (WACIC) explained that in searching for the battlefield, items from a much broader period, spanning millennia, have been found in the borough.
The report says:
We have verified artefacts from the Mesolithic period stretching right through to the modern aera. Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, early Medieval, Medieval and post Medieval artefacts demonstrate, to date, eleven thousand years or so of human activity on the Wirral.
As an example, a significant amount of Roman artefacts may well indicate an as yet unknown settlement or farmhouse. It is a continuing work in progress.
The report says the locations of the find cannot be disclosed due to safeguarding concerns.
Finding the actual spot would be a major tourism boost
If the battlefield could be found in Wirral, it would inevitably be a major boost for the borough’s tourism industry. Various famous battlefield sites across the world attract hundreds of thousands and in some cases, millions of visitors each year. Sites at Hastings, Waterloo, and Gettysburg, each attract visitors from far afield, generating significant income for their local areas in the process.
With hopes for Birkenhead Park to receive UNESCO World Heritage Site status, and Birkenhead’s bid for UK Town of Culture, having a significant battlefield site could add yet another feather to Wirral’s tourism offering cap.
It would be an older battlefield than that of the Battle of Maldon
Currently, the oldest officially registered battlefield in the UK is that of the Battle of Maldon from 991AD, in Essex. Therefore, if the Battle of Brunanburh site is found, it would become the oldest, outdating Maldon by over half a century.
During the committee meeting, councillors will be presented with the report and some of the artefacts found in Wirral.
As the poem ‘Battle of Brunanburh’ says:
Never, before this,
were more men in this island slain
by the sword’s edge – as books and aged sages
confirm – since Angles and Saxons sailed here
from the east, sought the Britons over the wide seas,
since those warsmiths hammered the Welsh,
and earls, eager for glory, overran the land.
After an article by Local Democracy Reporter Andrew Spence.
#/media/File:ASC_MS_A_937.jpg){kind=link}