Runic Stone, Upton
Goostree is perhaps the 'God's tree' where the land was parcelled out among the villagers and punishment meted to wrong-doers; Thurstaston, or the tun of Thor's stone, the place of sacrifice to their heathen god Thor.
The ash tree gives its name to several Cheshire villages, Ashton, Ashley, Astbury, for instance. This fact tells us that the tree was held in great veneration by the Angles and Saxons. Even to this day the tree is thought to possess the power of bringing good or evil. A superstitious Cheshire labourer will not, if he can help it, cut down an ash tree for fear it should bring him misfortune, and churn staves made of ash are used by farmers' wives to prevent the butter from being bewitched.
It is in fact from the Angles and Saxons that we have inherited the priceless possession of our English tongue. The oldest traces of our language in a written form in Cheshire may be seen in the Grosvenor Museum at Chester. Here on a plaster cast is an inscription written in strange letters, 'Runes' or 'mysteries' as they are called. This cast is a copy of an inscribed stone discovered at Upton-in-Wirral when the old church was pulled down. The stones of this building had previously been taken from the ancient ruined church at Overchurch. Learned scholars examined the stone carefully and made out these words: FOLCAE AREARDON BEC[UN]. [GI]BIDDATH FOR ATHELMUND. The meaning is 'Folk reared tomb, bid (i.e. pray) for Athelmund'. You can see that the words are English, though their form has changed considerably during the 1,200 years or more that have gone by since the runes were carved.
Fierce and bloodthirsty were these early ancestors of ours, 'hateful alike to God and men,' as Gildas, a Welsh monk, described them. Yet even they were taught in time to abandon their strange gods and turn to the worship of Christ, and through the land in town and village uprose a cross of wood or stone, the outward symbol of a new and better faith.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CROSS IN CHESHIRE
During the latter years of the Roman occupation there must have been many among the Roman soldiers stationed in Cheshire who had heard the message of the Gospel, and, following the example of their emperors, professed the faith of Christ. But, as we have before stated, there is no proof that a Christian church existed in Cheshire in those days, though tradition says that where the cathedral church of Chester now stands there was a church dedicated to S. Peter and S. Paul, which had previously been a temple of Apollo.
In Wales and Ireland the Church flourished greatly through the troublous period of the Anglo-Saxon invasions. We are told that Kentigern, the first bishop of Glasgow, on his return to Wales landed in Wirral and founded a church there. In the previous chapter we have seen that at Bangor-Iscoed on the Dee there was a monastery of great importance, which after the victory of Aethelfrith of Northumbria was razed to the ground.
Yet it was from Northumbria that Christianity was destined to be brought and preached to the Angles and Saxons of Cheshire. Oswald, the son of the heathen Aethelfrith, had during his exile in Scotland been converted by Celtic missionaries. During the reign of this 'most Christian king, a man dearly beloved of God, and fenced with the faith of Christ', missionaries from Scotland 'began with great and fervent devotion to preach the word of faith to those provinces which King Oswald governed, baptising all such as believed. Therefore churches were builded in places convenient: the people rejoicing assembled together to hear the word of God,' The ancient churches dedicated to S. Oswald at Chester, Malpas, Brereton, Peover, Bidston, and Worleston, are proof of the great part played by King Oswald in the conversion of Cheshire and of the high repute in which he was held as a champion of Christianity.