Stories from the Edge: Creating Identities in Early Medieval Staffordshire

Description

Stories from the Edge identifies a methodology to illuminate the early medieval history of places that lack the compelling evidence to be included in national surveys of the period. It demonstrates that even in seemingly unpromising places something can be said about the people of the period. In landscape terms it is a study of the little world, the local, the manorial complex with its church and burial place, a micro-topography, investigating the construction of social memory. Through this we see the way the early medieval landscape was perceived and how people engaged with it in a creative and imaginative series of responses. Their past and present were negotiated and expressed through the landscape. It is about stories and storytelling, about the creation of memory, the invention of home, spirituality and social hierarchy. This study re-tells some of those stories and recaptures the early medieval sense of place in Pirehill. Above all though, this is an account of living in a mutable landscape and the stories people once told there. Cover Title Page Copyright Of Related Interest Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures Abbreviations Abstract Introduction Historiography 1. The Creation of Memory: Law-less Staffordshire? ‘Real’ barrows Barrows associated with inhumations in Staffordshire Barrows without evidence of associated inhumations in Staffordshire Staffordshire barrow sites – early excavations Barrow forms Barrow composition Place-names: hlāw, beorg and crūg Barrows: major place-pames: beorg, hlāw and crūg Naming hlāws Naming hlāws: summary Minor place-names: hlāw field-names in Pirehill Local study 1: Blurton Local Study 2: Aston and Burston Local Study 3: Catholme Exploiting meaning, establishing memory: the invention of local landscapes Creation of meanings Creation of ancestors Biographies Conclusion: The work of the dead 2. The Reality of Saintly Stories in the Landscape: Staffordshire’s ‘Worthless’ Saints Æthelred and Æthelflaed The saints of Pirehill and Staffordshire Æthelflaed and Wærburh Wulfhad and Ruffin The Wulfhad and Ruffin story in the Staffordshire landscape Beorhthelm Using the dead: their power and their memory 3. Public and Permanent Statements: The ‘Rickety Arched Frames’ of Staffordshire Provenance Production The Staffordshire corpus Trent Valley Group Dove Valley Group Pennine Fringes Group Dating Regional influences Stone sculpture and identity Memorialisation and manorialisation Discussion 4. The Thegnly Moment: An Anatomy of Estate Centres Background: multiple estates Thegns and their estates Methodology: an anatomy of a thegnly estate centre in Staffordshire Defining the landscape: townships Ecclesiastical developments The Domesday Survey evidence Taxatio Ecclesiastica Place-names: OE tūn Case studies Darlaston Madeley Mucklestone Standon Blithfield Colton Wolstanton Discussion: wateriness and life on the e(d)g(e) Trentham Stoke Church Eaton Seeking out the e(d)g(e) Discussion: a commonality of topographies 5. A 10th-Century Family: Kinship in Practice in the Staffordshire Landscape A 10th-century continuity? The family Wulf and their religious houses Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Primary Sources: printed Primary sources: not in print Secondary Sources Back Cover