Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 101, October 4, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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VOL. IV.—No. 101.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4. 1851.
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It is remarkable that the site of this great battle, the effects of which were so important to the Anglo-Saxon power, remains to this day undetermined.
The several chroniclers who describe it give various names to the locality, though modern authors generally adopt the name of Brunanburgh or Town of the Fountains. Not however to insist on such variations in the name as Brunandune, Bruneberik, Bruneford, and Brumby, Simeon of Durham describes the battle as occurring at a place named Wendune, otherwise Weondune, to which moreover he assigns the further name of Ethrunnanwerch. The locality has been sought for in most improbable places,—in Northumberland and Cheshire. There can, however, be little or no doubt that this Waterloo of the Anglo-Saxons, as it has been called, is really to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of the Humber; though, whether on the northern or southern bank of that river seems quite uncertain: so far at least as the evidence hitherto adduced affords us the means of judging. In the Winchester volume of the British Archæological Association, MR. HESLEDEN states his belief that he has traced the site of this battle on the south of the Humber, near Barton in Lincolnshire; but the evidence on which he grounds this opinion, whilst demanding for this locality further consideration, seems to me far from conclusive. MR. HESLEDEN describes some curious earth-works in this situation, and thinks he has discovered the site of Anlaff's camp at Barrow, and that of Athelstan at Burnham (formerly, as he informs us, written Brunnum ), where is an eminence called Black Hold, which he thinks was the actual seat of the battle. At Barrow are places called Barrow Bogs and Blow Wells . Does MR. HESLEDEN think we have here any reference to the fountains giving their name to Brunanburgh?