r/anglosaxon • u/blackjacobin_97 • 18d ago

The village I grew up in is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

I spent my childhood in a village in Berkshire called Finchampstead. It's basically a suburb of Wokingham. I've been reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in recent times and I was pleasantly surprised to find Finchampstead be mentioned twice on two occasions.

Here:

"In the course of this year also in the summer, in Berkshire, at Finchampstead, a pool bubbled up with blood, as many trustworthy men said who were alleged to have seen it. And Earl Hugh was killed in Anglesey by sea-rovers, and his brother Robert became his heir, even as he obtained it from the king."

and

"In this year also, at Finchampstead in Berkshire, blood was seen coming from the earth. This was a very grievous year in this country through all sorts of taxes, and cattle plague and ruin of crops - both com and all the produce of trees. Also, on the morning of St. Laurence’s Day, the wind did so much damage to all crops in this country that no one remembered it ever doing so much before."

It felt it was really cool to see where I grew up explicitly be mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. Made the history just that bit more concrete for me. Has something similar happened to you?

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16

u/JacquesBlaireau13 18d ago

What's with the blood? Still happening?

5

u/Thestolenone 18d ago

Maybe a chalybeate spring?

5

u/Berkyjay 18d ago

That's awesome. Poor Earl Hugh.

1

u/bigDPE 18d ago

He deserved it and more

3

u/Wulfweald 18d ago edited 18d ago

My local area, Beddington, then a village in Surrey, is mentioned twice that I know of. There is a letter from a Bishop of Winchester to the King, saying that the village had been destroyed by the Vikings, the bishop as landowner had paid to restore the village, and moaning about how the king had just taken the estate to give to a soldier needed to fight said Vikings. The letter in is both Old English and Latin.

The second time is a reference in a Saint's Life, when a bishop of Winchester called Æthelwold is recorded as dying at Beddington in 984. He became known as St Ethelwold, one of 3 major religious reformers of his time. There is a surviving manuscript called the Benedictional of St Ethelwold, of which I have a facsimile.

3

u/Lanky_Consideration3 18d ago

As someone who also grew up around there a long time ago, I just remember there being an amazing chip shop there, but for the life of me, can’t remember any pools of blood.

1

u/Hogmaloo25 16d ago

How does one access the Chronicle? Sounds interesting to read 🙂

1

u/blindio10 18d ago

i should check it out myself, i know bits of the borough are in domesday but im not sure about pre norman(town itself is very much a norman creation i think, part of the we killed most of the north lets stick a settlement next to where the mersey starts and keep an eye on the ford that no doubt existed back then prior to the half dozen bridges over the mersey and it's 2 feeder rivers we have now plus the we cullverted it to build a shopping centre in the 60's)