The Danes in Lancashire and Yorkshire

by S. W. Partington

Descriptions of Battles from the Map.

From the two Ordnance maps, "six inch to the mile," one of Briercliffe, and the other of Worsthorne, it may be seen that the roads from Slack, near Huddersfield, pass through the Pennine range, one by the long Causeway, on the south of the position and on the southern side, near Stipernden, is "Warcock Hill. From here running north, are a series of ridges, Shedden Edge, Hazel Edge, Hamilton Hill, to the other road from Slack, passing through the hills at Widdop, and immediately on the north side at Thursden is another Warcock Hill. From Warcock Hill to Warcock Hill would stretch the army of Anlaf in their first position. From the north end of the position a road north to Shelfield and Castercliffe, by means of which he would be joined by his Welsh allies, from the Ribble, via Portfield, and his Strathclyde and Cumbrian allies from the north. From this end of the position there is a road due west to the Broadbank, where there is the site of a small camp at Haggate.

From here Anlaf would send his Welsh allies under Adalis, and his shipmen under Hryngri, for the night attack on the advancing Saxons as they crossed the Brunford. They fell on them somewhere on the site of Bishop's House Estate, but were afterwards beaten back across the estates known as Saxifield. Two days afterwards both sides prepared for the great struggle near the burh, and Anlaf, taking his cue from his opponent, advanced his left and took possession of the hill near Mereclough, afterwards called High Law (Round Hill), and the pastures behind still known as Battlefield, with a stone called Battlestone in the centre of it.

Constantine and the Scots were in charge of the hill, and the Pict, and Orkney men behind. His centre he pushed forward at Brown Edge, to the "Tun of Wrst." While his right touched S'Winden Water under Adalis with the Welsh and shipmen.

Two days before the great battle Athelstan marched out of Brunburh at the north end, and encamped somewhere on the plain called Bishop's House Estate, his route by the Brunford, and probably S'Winless Lane.

We are told that Anlaf entered the camp as a spy, and ascertaining the position of Athelstan's tent, formed the night attack for the purpose of destroying him. Athelstan, however, leaving for another part of his position on the Brun, gave Wersthan, Bishop of Sherborne, the command.

The Bishop met his death somewhere on the estate, the Pasture being known as Bishop's Leap, which undoubtedly gave its name to the estate.

Adalis, the Welsh Prince, had done this in the night attack, probably coming by way of Walshaw, and Darkwood. Alfgier took up the command, with Thorolf on his right and Eglis in support in front of the wood. Alfgier was first assaulted by Adalis with the Welsh and driven off the field, afterwards fleeing the country. Thorolf was assaulted by Hryngr the Dane, and soon afterwards by Adalis also, flushed with victory. Thorolf directed his colleague Eglis to assist him, exhorted by his troops to stand close, and if overpowered to retreat to the wood. Thorolf or Thorold the Viking was the hero of this day, near the Netherwood on Thursden Water. He fought his way to Hryngr's standard and slew him. His success animated his followers, and Adalis, mourning the death of Hryngr, gave way and retreated, with his followers back over Saxifield to the Causeway camp at Broadbank.

Whatever took place at Saxifield the enemy left it entirely, and the decisive battle took place at the other end of Brunburh. In walking up S'Windene, by S'Winden Water, the district on the right between that river and the Brun is called in old maps Roo-ley and in older manuscripts Ruhlie, marked in Thomas Turner Wilkinson's time, with a cairn and tumulus. Some distance further on we find Heckenhurst. The roads down from the burh are at Rooley and at Brownside and at Red Lees by the Long Causeway leading to Mereclough.

Athelstan placed Thorolf on the left of his army, at Roo-ley, to oppose the Welsh and irregular Irish under Adalis. In front of Brownside (Burnside) was Eglis with the picked troops, and on Eglis' right opposite Worsthorne, Athelstane and his Anglo-Saxons.

Across the original Long Causeway on the Red Lees, with the burh entrenchments immediately at his back, was the valiant Turketul, the Chancellor, with the warriors of Mercia and London opposite Round Hill and Mereclough.

Thorolf began by trying to turn the enemy's right flank, but Adalis darted out from behind the wood, now Hackenhurst, and destroyed Thorolf, and his foremost friends on Roo-ley or Ruhlie. Eglis came up to assist his brother Viking, and encouraging the retreating troops by an effort destroyed the Welsh Prince Adalis, and drove his troops out of the wood. The memorial of this flight was a cairn and tumulus on Roo-ley.

Athelstan and Anlaf were fighting in the centre for the possession of (Bruns) Weston, neither making much progress, when the Chancellor Turketul, with picked men, including the Worcester men under the magnanimous Sinfin, made a flank attack at Mereclough, and breaking through the defence of the Pict and Orkney men, got to the "Back o' th' Hill." He penetrated to the Cumbrians and Scots, under Constantine, King of the Grampians. The fight was all round Constantine's son, who was unhorsed. The Chancellor was nearly lost, and the Prince released, when Sinfin, with a mighty effort, terminated the fight by slaying the Prince.

On Round Hill, down to one hundred years ago, stood a cairn called High Law. When the stones were made use of to mend the roads, a skeleton was found underneath. That would, I believe, be a memorial of the fight.

At "Back o' th' Hill," a blind road leads through what in an old map, and in tradition is called "Battlefield," and the first memorial stone is called "Battlestone." Another similar stone is further on. Following the blind road through Hurstwood, the Chancellor would find himself at Brown End, near Brown Edge. At the other end of the position, Eglis having won the wood, would be in the neighbourhood of Hell Clough, ready to charge at the same time as Turketul, on the rear of Anlaf's army.

Old Daneshouse

At this point of the battle, Athelstan, seeing this, made a successful effort and pushed back the centre. Then began the carnage, the memorials of which are still to be seen on Brown Edge, Hamilton Pasture, Swindene, Twist Hill, Bonfire Hill, and even beyond. Those who could get through the hills at Widdop would do so: others however would take their "hoards" from the camps at Warcock Hill and other places, and burying their "treasures" as they went along, pass in front of Boulsworth, and over the moor through Trawden Forest, between Emmott and Wycollar.

If the Saxon description of the battle, in Turner's "History of the Anglo-Saxons" be read and compared with the Ordnance maps before named, the reader will see that there is no other place in England which can show the same circumstantial evidence nor any place, having that evidence, be other than the place sought for.

Danes House, Burnley, is thus referred to by the late Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S.:—"Danes House is now a deserted mansion situated about half-a-mile to the north of Burnley, on the Colne Road. It has been conjectured there was a residence on the same site A.D. 937, when Athelstan, King of the South Saxons, overthrew with great slaughter, at the famous battle of Brunanburgh, Anlaf, the Dane, and Constantine, King of the Scots. Tradition states that it was here that Anlaf rested on his way to the battlefield from Dublin and the Isles, hence the name Danes House. The present deserted mansion has undergone little change since it was re-erected about the year 1500." This house has now been pulled down.