New Archaeology Site

A lot has been discovered, this area has a very high density of medieval charters, nearly 100 for just Whitworth!
Viking style sculpture fragment found in Milnrow, east Rochdale! For this find and more about archaeology see this site .

The Ding!

fig. 1 The Ding (to the right) with Naden below

I was looking at an on-line 19th century Ordnance Survey (OS) map of north Rochdale, which is now in Greater Manchester. I was interested in names like Wolstenholme and Sidholme. These names contain Scandinavian (Old Norse) elements that probably indicate Scandinavian settlement in the area over 1000 years ago. As I panned north on the map, my eye was caught by a special and rare name...."Ding!?"

This may be a funny name now, but as in Dingwall in Scotland and, it signifies a Viking Age assembly or thing.

Much has been written about the Ding place name by academics at Nottingham University. Ding is thought to be the dialect word for Thing, by Vikings who had been in contact with Gaelic speakers in the West of Britain and Ireland. A poem about the great battle of Brunanburh in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, mentions a "Dingesmere",
see: Corpses lay strewn across the fields

Could Rochdale have a "Ding" an assembly or "Thing" too!? and why would it be up on the moors? Could the name be a modern invention? or have another meaning? It was time to research the area's early history and talk to a few experts. I must say, I got a lot of help and encouragement, thanks to all who helped.

Let's look into the historical background of the region and see where Rochdale fits in.

The wild frontier - where Mercia met Northumbria
Lancashire did not exist during the Viking Age. At this time,the kingdom of Northumbria included most of what is now Lancashire and Yorkshire. The river Mersey formed a boundary between the Kingdom of Mercia to the South, and Northumbria to the North. Northumbria, ruled from York, was an independent cross-Pennine kingdom which had been conquered by the Danes in 866/7 AD. Across the Irish sea the Vikings had established the kingdom of Dublin. Later, in the 10th Century Dublin and York were even united on occasions. We also know that Vikings settled in the Wirral (after Ingimund was expelled from Dublin in 902 AD) and also the West of Lancashire, where Viking Age sculpture can be seen at Heysham and Halton.

fig. 2 Northumbria Mercia and the Vikings

In response to Scandinavians (Danes and Norwegians) Mercia built a series of border forts along the Mersey, at Thelwall and Runcorn. Mercia even sent an army into Northumbria to "occupy and improve" the fortifications at Manchester. This entry in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle (919 AD) shows that the border between Mercia and Northumbria was in contention. Certainly, Manchester, on the river Irwell was strategic enough for a force to be sent in to Northumbria to occupy it. Was this to control the trade route to York and Viking settlers in the area, by advancing to a strategic point on the river Irwell?

fig. 3 Domesday Salford Hundred

Today, if you cross from Yorkshire over the Pennines towards the Mersey, you go via Rochdale, just as they did in the Viking Age. In the North of the old Rochdale parish there was a second cross-Pennine route, called Saltergate (gate is the Scandinavian equivalent of street). This route, mentioned in 12th C, ran over the moors to Todmorden and on to Calderdale, and no doubt brought valuable salt from Cheshire. This route probably came through Bolton and Bury.Bury means fortified place and Radcliffe (later a Royal Manor in the Domesday survey), is where the Roch (which runs through Rochdale) joins the Irwell. Additionally Saddleworth, though in Yorkshire, was also a part of Rochdale parish and also a on a strategic Pennine route, and the site of a Roman Fort at Castleshaw.

Rochdale had two ancient trade routes going through the Parish, it was, probably like Manchester a small town. To the south of Rochdale, the place-name Middleton, between Rochdale and Manchester indicates it was between two larger settlements.

So, there is evidence for Viking settlement in Lancashire, particularly on the coast with Viking age sculpture and hoards such as that at Cuerdale, the largest found in Britain. Now let's survey the evidence for a Viking "Thing" in Rochdale.
Thing site check list

OK! after researching what factors influenced the location of an assembly I had a check-list. I suspected that if this was a site up on the moors, it may have been for a large area, perhaps the whole of Rochdale (this was about 42,000 acres when Rochdale parish included Todmorden and Bacup!) But what else? well, assemblies were on "common land", a neutral area not owned by a single individual, just in case there was a conflict (not something the Vikings were afraid of!).

In the 1626 manor survey of Rochdale the Ding is recorded as common grazing land. So, the first tick on the "check-list".

fig. 4 Looking towards Manchester

The Ding has commanding views over Manchester...a coincidence?

Many names near the Ding are of Norse origin such as Hamer Hill, derived from Old Norse for steep rock or cliff according to Ekwall's place-names of Lancashire. Top of Nabs, a hill south of the Ding (written Nabbe in the Latin of the 13th C. from Old Norse Nabbi, a hill) and Warm Slack (slack is Old Norse for valley) are other examples near the Ding.

These place names support an Old Norse context for the Ding place name. A little further from the Ding we can add Gauxholme (near Todmorden), derived from the Old Norse name Gaukr, of course, Rochdale itself contains dale, another word of Scandinavian origin, meaning valley.
Other Scandinavian elements are found in; Wolstenholme, Leeholme, Sidholme, Schofield, Clegg, Kirkholt, The Holt, Birchen Holts, Scale Hill. Rake (Lane) and gate (road) are also examples of a Scandinavian words.

More evidence...

But what else would support Vikings having settled in Rochdale? Evidence was close at hand, in Healey, to the south east of the Ding, we have a Dolphin de Healey living in the 12th Century. This "Dolphin" had nothing to do with the sea! it was a common Norwegian Viking name! Perhaps Dolphin's ancestors used to meet at the Ding?

Clues from the Domesday Book

Rochdale is also mentioned in an even older and more famous document, The Domesday Book! compiled after the Norman Conquest. Back then, about a hundred years before Lancashire was created, Rochdale was called 'Recedham'!
Significantly the nobleman or, thegn, who held Rochdale, held it directly from the king! So he was a thegn of the highest status, he was called Gamel (a Scandinavian name). Gamel even had tax concessions, and legal autonomy, with a few exceptions, such as obstructing the King's highway (trade route protection?). So this indicates a special legal status for Rochdale, was this a survival of a scandinavian administration area which met at the Ding?

It was at this point that I found historian David Roffe's Domesday information, and I decided to contact him. He was most helpful, and gave me some surprising news! At this point I should explain that Henry Fishwick, in his History of Rochdale, was not sure who Gamel was, or where his manor house was in Rochdale. To my surprise, David knew quite a bit about Gamel, the King's thegn, and, where he lived!
From the other side...
Gamel was an Anglo-Danish magnate with many holdings mentioned in the Domesday Book, based in Elland , in West Yorkshire, on the other side of the Pennines! This perhaps explains why he alone, was mentioned unlike all the other lesser thegns in Salford Hundred the area that was to become South East Lancashire.

Hard to imagine? Elland is only 23 kilometres from Rochdale! Records show Gamel's descendants, who adopted the surname Eland, as holding land in Rochdale (and possibly the manor in the 12th Century). After the conquest the thegns in some cases became knights under the new overlords who William the Conqueror had installed. In the case of Rochdale and Gamel, the first Norman overlord was Roger of Poitou, later replaced as overlord by the de Lacy magnates of Pontefract, who also held Blackburn.
After the Norman ConquestOnly four places were mentioned in the Domesday survey of Salford Hundred; Salford, Radcliffe, Manchester and Rochdale. Both Manchester and Rochdale had a castle! castles are rare in this part of England, so Rochdale must have been an important local town. In fact it had medieval burgesses (residents of a borough) and a market charter was granted in the 13th C. So I think we can assume that Rochdale would have been important before the Domesday Survey too. After all, much of the North was in Decline immediately after the Norman Conquest.Wapentake!

However, it was the chance reading of a footnote in the Victoria County History of Lancashire, The Parish of Rochdale" that really caught my eye! Rochdale was called a "wapentake" in the medieval Latin of the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey!

fig. 5 "Wapentake of Rochdale"

So the old parish was described in terms of a Scandinavian administrative area, a wapentake! (literally taking of weapons) where a vote of hands holding weapons would be held at an assembly, such as...the Ding! Normally this term is used for a division of a county, and, as in the Anglo-Saxon equivalent, a hundred, it contained several parishes. Rochdale parish though large, is unusual in being called a "wapentake".

It is with one of the de Lacy lords that we get another clue to the legal status of Rochdale. The court of Rochdale was a sargeancy, a royal privilege, granted in return for a service to the king.
This is also a transcription from the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey.

fig. 6 the "Sargeancy" of Rochdale..its court!

The "Free Court of Rochdale"During the reign of King Edward I, Henry de Lacy sold the sargeancy of the "free court" to an Adam de 'Balschaghe' in exchange for land in Rossendale and 'Holkenheved,' and a rent of 2 marks a year.

So the sergeancy may well have been the survival of the original thing-court in Viking times.So now we have the following points supporting the case for a thing site in Rochdale:

• The Ding place-name appears genuine (it is in a list of old place-names mentioned in medieval documents in Fishwick's "History of the Parish of Rochdale", Chapter 1 p. 12)and is in an area near other Norse place-names such as Hamer.
• The Ding is on common land, with commanding views over Manchester and beyond.
• Roads going North/South and East/West cross the Ding area.
• We find a Norse personal name (Dolfinr) nearby in Healey.
• Scandinavian sculpture fragment found in Milnrow near Rochdale.
• Important trade routes connected Rochdale to Scandinavian dominated trade centres
• Dublin Vikings settled in the Wirral and attacked Chester, could a group have settled in Rochdale too? (creating the Gaelic influenced "Ding" place-name?)
• Rochdale was described as a wapentake, a Scandinavian administrative area
• The Domesday book mentions the special legal privileges of Rochdale, and they were similar to those of West Derby, which had a thing at Thingwall (a low lying site, quite different to the moors above Rochdale, which reach over 400m. above sea level).
• The sargeancy of the court of Rochdale mentioned in medieval documents, probably represents a survival of the original Ding's area of jurisdiction and legal scope.
• In the 16th. century, a manor court was held close to the Ding, by the lord of the manor of Spotland. This was in defiance of the manor court of Rochdale, could this have been influenced by folk memories of the Ding?

I hope to assess the archaeological evidence for the Ding in the near future. Now, let's look at what we can expect of a thing site.

What happened at a Thing Site?

The national thing in Iceland at Thingvellir, which was first held in 930 AD was a big annual event, not just politically, but for entertainment, they even watched horse fights! and people also searched for jobs! It lasted from two to five weeks and in 950 AD a calendar was developed to help people know when to turn up! So, Thingvellir was a parliament, law court, job centre and fair, all rolled into one! Perhaps regional and local things in Britain were more mundane!

Thing site examples

Thingvellir in Iceland has a dramatic setting, it was after all the national parliament. However many local things were just open air meeting places next to a landmark or crossroads. Some, as in the national thing site on the Isle of Man, Tynwald were on an artificial mound, so was the Thingmount of Dublin too.

Some sites had pagan associations, while others might have used earlier sites, such as a barrow to signify continuity of authority. They were above all intended as a practical space to administer justice and settle disputes. and be a focus for the political aims of those that used them.

Some thing (or ting in Swedish) sites still have a few traces left, like this small rectangular thing, known as; Arkil's Tingstad (site in Swedish!), Vallentuna, Sweden. The entrance is from the North and the other corners align with: East, South and West.

Unusually in this case, we know it was a thing, and who built it (around 1000 years ago), from a rune stone next to the thing, a section of the runic inscription translates to:

'Ulvkel och Arnkel och Gye de gjorde här tingsplats'
"Ulvkel and Arnkel and Gye, they made this thing."

If only someone had done the same thing (sorry!) in Rochdale.

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Thanks to:Paul Cavill
Chethams Library, Manchester
David Morris, Conservation Officer Rochdale
Guðmundur Ólafsson
David Roffe
Sarah Semple
Svavar Sigmundsson
Touchstones, Rochdale
Norman Tyson, Bury Archaeological Group
Whitworth Historical Society
Whitworth Library

Further reading
Sources
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles - Michael Swanton, 2000
The Coucher Book Of Whalley Abbey - William Adam Hulton, Chetham society, 1847-49
The Domesday Book

Histories
A History of the County of Chester, Volume 5 - C.P. Lewis, A.T. Thacker, (editors), 2003

The History of the Parish of Rochdale - Henry Fishwick, 1889
A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5 - William Farrer & J. Brownbill, (editors) 1911
'An Introduction to the Lancashire Domesday' C.P Lewis, The Lancashire Domesday, ed. A. Williams et al, 1991

Place names
The Place-Names of Lancashire - Eilert Ekwall, 1922
The Place Names of Lancashire - David Mills, 1977
Vikings in the British Isles: The Place-Name Evidence - Acta Archaeologica, Gillian Fellows-Jensen, 2000

Thing SitesAssembly Places and Practices in Medieval Europe - Aliki Pantos & Sarah Semple ( editors). 2004
Aspects of the development of public assembly in the Danelaw - Sam Turner
Vikings in the North West of EnglandScandinavian York and Dublin - Alfred P. Smyth, 1975
VIKING MERSEY Scandinavian Wirral, West Lancashire and Chester - Stephen Harding, 2002
Vikings in North West England, the Artifacts - B.J.N. Edwards, 1998

Websites of interest
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/
http://www.northeastengland.talktalk.net/VikingNorthumbria.htmhttp://www.regia.org/history/viking2.htmJorvik Viking Centre, York
Domesday Book Online

(C) 2007 Stuart Mendelsohn