Then follows a process of reasoning in support of the above conclusion, based upon the place of minting and the dating of the coins.
"The bulk of the coins, however, were Danish, issued by Danish Kings of Northumbria, many of them from York."
Besides the Cuerdale find of 10,000 silver coins and 1,000 ounces of silver there are records given of other Danish finds.—From the Victoria County History of Lancashire, Vol. I., see Coins.
Each historian of this important event has claimed a different site, in as many parts of England. In Grose's "Antiquities" we find the allied Scotch, Welsh, Irish, and Danes, the Northumbrian army, under Anlaf were totally defeated, in 938 at Brunanburgh (Bromridge, Brinkburn), in Northumberland, when Constantine, King of the Scots, and six petty Princes of Ireland and Wales, with twelve Earls were slain. This description is given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The honour of claiming the Lancashire site on the river Brun near Burnley, belongs to the late Mr. Thomas Turner Wilkinson, a master of Burnley Grammar School, who claimed it for Saxifield in 1856.
We are indebted to Mr. Jas. T. Marquis, a member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, for the following summary of evidence which he placed before the above Society during the winter session of 1908–9, and which will be found recorded in the Transactions of the Society. He says, "There is overwhelming testimony in favour of the site on the Lancashire Brun."
The reasons for claiming this site are simply two. An old writer spells Brinkburn—Brincaburh, and there is an artificial mound proving a fight.
Camden gives Brunford, near Brumbridge in Northumberland, as the place where "King Athelstane fought a pitched battle against the Danes." This might easily be, but not the battle we refer to. There is no reason given except the word "ford."
Gibson suggests that it must have been "somewhere near the Humber," although he finds a difficulty in carrying Constantine and the little King of Cumberland so high into Yorkshire. The other places suggested are Brumborough in Cheshire, Banbury in Oxfordshire, Burnham and Bourne in Lincolnshire, Brunton in Northumberland, but no good reason beyond a name, and an embankment in some cases, but not all. Brownedge in Lancashire has been suggested, with excellent reasons.
Dr. Giles and others suggest that the name should be Brumby instead of Brunanburh. Ingram in his map of Saxon England places the site in Lincolnshire, near the Trent, but without assigning good reasons. Turner observes that the "Villare" mentions a Brunton in Northumberland, and Gibson states what may still be seen in maps of a century old, "that in Cheshire there is a place called Brunburh near the shores of the Mersey." This last would be a serious competitor if there was a river Brun, or tumuli, or ford, or battlefield: but nothing is claimed, only the name suggested.
Brunsford or Brunford. Let us first establish the site of the "burh," which is a hill that shields or protects a camp, town, or hamlet. The question is, where was the "tun" or village on the Brun? It was in Saxon times usual for the folk to settle near a "burh" for the protection afforded by an overlord who occupied it.