Historic England
Historic England is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture and Sport. It is tasked with protecting the historical environment of England by preserving and listing historic buildings, ancient monuments and advising central and local government; the body was created by the National Heritage Act 1983, operated from April 1984 to April 2015 under the name of English Heritage. In 2015, following the changes to English Heritage's structure that moved the protection of the National Heritage Collection into the voluntary sector in the English Heritage Trust, the body that remained was rebranded as Historic England. Historic England has a similar remit to and complements the work of Natural England which aims to protect the natural environment; the body inherited the Historic England Archive from the old English Heritage, projects linked to the archive such as Britain from Above, which saw the archive work with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland to digitise and put online 96,000 of the oldest Aerofilms images.
The archive holds various nationally important collections and the results of older projects such as the work of the National Buildings Record absorbed by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and the Images of England project which set out to create a accessible online database of the 370,000 listed properties in England at a snapshot in time at the turn of the millennium. Historic England inherits English Heritage's position as the UK government's statutory adviser and a statutory consultee on all aspects of the historic environment and its heritage assets; this includes archaeology on land and under water, historic buildings sites and areas, designated landscapes and the historic elements of the wider landscape. It monitors and reports on the state of England's heritage and publishes the annual Heritage at Risk survey, one of the UK Government's Official statistics, it is tasked to secure the preservation and enhancement of the man-made heritage of England for the benefit of future generations.
Its remit involves: Caring for nationally important archive collections of photographs and other records which document the historic environment of England and date from the eighteenth century onwards. Giving grants national and local organisations for the conservation of historic buildings and landscapes. In 2013/14 over £13 million worth of grants were made to support heritage buildings. Advising central UK government on which English heritage assets are nationally important and should be protected by designation. Administering and maintaining the register of England's listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered battlefields, World Heritage Sites and protected parks and gardens; this is published as an online resource as'The National Heritage List for England'. Advising local authorities on managing changes to the most important parts of heritage. Providing expertise through advice and guidance to improve the standards and skills of people working in heritage, practical conservation and access to resources.
In 2009–2010 it trained around 200 professionals working in local authorities and the wider sector. Consulting and collaborating with other heritage bodies and national planning organisations e.g. the preparation of Planning Policy statement for the Historic Environment Commissioning and conducting archaeological research, including the publication of'Heritage Counts' and ‘Heritage at Risk’ on behalf of the heritage sector which are the annual research surveys into the state of England's heritage. It is not responsible for approving alterations to listed buildings; the management of listed buildings is the responsibility of local planning authorities and the Department for Communities and Local Government. It owns the National Heritage Collection of nationally important historic sites in public care; however they do not run these sites as this function is instead carried out by the English Heritage Trust under licence until 2023. English Heritage Historic England Archive Cadw Historic Scotland Northern Ireland Environment Agency Manx National Heritage Department for Culture and Sport Conservation in the United Kingdom Heritage at Risk Historic houses in England National Trust Properties in England Heritage Open Days List of Conservation topics List of heritage registers List of museums in England Heritage film Official website The Historic England Archive: Search over 1 million catalogue entries describing photographs and drawings of England's buildings and historic sites, held in the Historic England Archive.
Britain from Above: presents the unique Aerofilms collection of aerial photographs from 1919-1953. Images of England website Heritage Explorer: Education site for teachers Department for Culture Media and Sport
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of garden ornaments associated with the class of buildings to which it belongs. Eighteenth-century English landscape gardening and French landscape gardening featured mock Roman temples, symbolising classical virtues. Other 18th-century garden follies represented Chinese temples, Egyptian pyramids, ruined abbeys, or Tatar tents, to represent different continents or historical eras. Sometimes they represented rustic villages and cottages to symbolise rural virtues. Many follies during times of famine, such as the Irish potato famine, were built as a form of poor relief, to provide employment for peasants and unemployed artisans. In English, the term began as "a popular name for any costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder", the OED's definition, were named after the individual who commissioned or designed the project.
The connotations of silliness or madness in this definition is in accord with the general meaning of the French word "folie". This sense included conventional, buildings that were thought unduly large or expensive, such as Beckford's Folly, an expensive early Gothic Revival country house that collapsed under the weight of its tower in 1825, 12 years after completion; as a general term, "folly" is applied to a small building that appears to have no practical purpose or the purpose of which appears less important than its striking and unusual design, but the term is subjective, so a precise definition is not possible. The concept of the folly is subjective and it has been suggested that the definition of a folly "lies in the eyes of the beholder". Typical characteristics include: They have no purpose other than as an ornament, they have some of the appearance of a building constructed for a particular purpose, such as a castle or tower, but this appearance is a sham. If they have a purpose, it may be disguised.
They are parts of buildings. Thus they are distinguished from other garden ornaments such as sculpture, they are purpose-built. Follies are deliberately built as ornaments, they are eccentric in design or construction. This is not necessary. There is an element of fakery in their construction; the canonical example of this is the sham ruin: a folly which pretends to be the remains of an old building but, in fact constructed in that state. They were commissioned for pleasure. Follies began as decorative accents on the great estates of the late 16th century and early 17th century but they flourished in the two centuries which followed. Many estates had ruins of Roman villas; however few follies are without a practical purpose. Apart from their decorative aspect, many had a use, lost such as hunting towers. Follies are misunderstood structures, according to The Folly Fellowship, a charity that exists to celebrate the history and splendour of these neglected buildings. Follies were an important feature of the English garden and French landscape garden in the 18th century, such as Stowe and Stourhead in England and Ermenonville and the gardens of Versailles in France.
They were in the form of Roman temples, ruined Gothic abbeys, or Egyptian pyramids. Painshill Park in Surrey contained a full set, with a large Gothic tower and various other Gothic buildings, a Roman temple, a hermit's retreat with resident hermit, a Turkish tent, a shell-encrusted water grotto and other features. In France they sometimes took the form of romantic farmhouses and cottages, as in Marie Antoinette's Hameau de la Reine at Versailles. Sometimes they were copied from landscape paintings by painters such as Claude Lorrain and Hubert Robert, they had symbolic importance, illustrating the virtues of ancient Rome, or the virtues of country life. The temple of philosophy at Ermenonville, left unfinished, symbolised that knowledge would never be complete, while the temple of modern virtues at Stowe was deliberately ruined, to show the decay of contemporary morals. In the 18th century, the follies became more exotic, representing other parts of the world, including Chinese pagodas, Japanese bridges, Tatar tents.
The Irish Potato Famine of 1845-49 led to the building of several follies in order to provide relief to the poor without robbing them of their dignity by issuing unconditional handouts. However, to hire the needy for work on useful projects would deprive existing workers of their jobs. Thus, construction projects termed; these included roads in the middle of nowhere, between two random points and estate walls, piers in the middle of bogs, etc. Follies are found worldwide, but they are abundant in Great Britain. Roman ruin and gloriettes, in the park of Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna Series of buildings in Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape Chanteloup Pagoda, near Amboise Désert de Retz, folly garden in Chambourcy near Paris, France Parc de la Villette in Paris has a number of modern follies by architect Bernard Tschumi. Ferdinand Cheval in Châteauneuf-de-Galaure, built what he called an Ideal Palace, seen as an example of naive architecture. Hameau de la Reine, in the park of the Château de Versailles Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
Saint Mungo
Kentigern, known as Mungo, was an apostle of the Scottish Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late 6th century, the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow. In Wales and England, this saint is known by his birth and baptismal name Kentigern; this name comes from the British *Cuno-tigernos, composed of the elements *cun, a hound, *tigerno, a lord, prince, or king. The evidence is based on the Old Welsh record Conthigirn. Other etymologies have been suggested, including British *Kintu-tigernos'chief prince' based on the English form Kentigern, but the Old Welsh form above and Old English Cundiʒeorn do not appear to support this. In Scotland, he is known by the pet name Mungo derived from the Cumbric equivalent of the Welsh: fy nghu'my dear'.. The Mungo pet name or hypocorism has a Gaelic parallel in the form Mo Choe or Mo Cha, under which guise Kentigern appears in Kirkmahoe, for example, in Dumfriesshire, which appears as'ecclesia Sancti Kentigerni' in the Arbroath Liber in 1321. An ancient church in Bromfield is named after him, as are Crosthwaite Parish Church and some other churches in the northern part of Cumberland.
The Life of Saint Mungo was written by the monastic hagiographer Jocelyn of Furness in about 1185. Jocelin states that he rewrote the ` life' from an Old Irish document. There are two other medieval lives: the earlier partial life in the Cottonian manuscript now in the British Library, the Life, based on Jocelyn, by John of Tynemouth. Mungo's mother Teneu was a princess, the daughter of King Lleuddun who ruled a territory around what is now Lothian in Scotland the kingdom of Gododdin in the Old North, she became pregnant after being raped by Owain mab Urien according to the British Library manuscript. However, other historic accounts claim Owain and Teneu had a love affair whilst he was still married to his wife Penarwen and that her father, King Lot, separated the pair after she became pregnant. After Penarwen died, Tenue/Thaney returned to King Owain and the pair were able to marry before King Owain met his death battling Bernicia in 597 AD, her furious father had her thrown from the heights of Traprain Law.
Surviving, she was abandoned in a coracle in which she drifted across the River Forth to Culross in Fife. There Mungo was born. Mungo was brought up by Saint Serf, ministering to the Picts in that area, it was Serf. At the age of twenty-five, Mungo began his missionary labours on the Clyde, on the site of modern Glasgow, he built his church across the water from an extinct volcano, next to the Molendinar Burn, where the present medieval cathedral now stands. For some thirteen years, he laboured in the district, living a most austere life in a small cell and making many converts by his holy example and his preaching. A strong anti-Christian movement in Strathclyde, headed by a certain King Morken, compelled Mungo to leave the district, he retired to Wales, via Cumbria, staying for a time with Saint David at St David's, afterwards moving on to Gwynedd where he founded a cathedral at Llanelwy. While there, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. However, the new King of Strathclyde, Riderch Hael, invited Mungo to return to his kingdom.
He appointed Saint Asaph/Asaff as Bishop of Llanelwy in his place. For some years, Mungo fixed his Episcopal seat at Hoddom in Dumfriesshire, evangelising thence the district of Galloway, he returned to Glasgow where a large community grew up around him. It was nearby, in Kilmacolm, that he was visited by Saint Columba, at that time labouring in Strathtay; the two saints embraced, held long converse, exchanged their pastoral staves. In old age, Mungo became feeble and his chin had to be set in place with a bandage, he is said to have died on Sunday 13 January. In the Life of Saint Mungo, he performed four miracles in Glasgow; the following verse is used to remember Mungo's four miracles: The verses refer to the following: The Bird: Mungo restored life to a robin, killed by some of his classmates. The Tree: Mungo had been left in charge of a fire in Saint Serf's monastery, he fell asleep and the fire went out. Taking a hazel branch, he restarted the fire; the Bell: the bell is thought to have been brought by Mungo from Rome.
It was said to mourn the deceased. The original bell no longer exists, a replacement, created in the 1640s, is now on display in Glasgow; the Fish: refers to the story about Queen Languoreth of Strathclyde, suspected of infidelity by her husband. King Riderch demanded to see her ring. In reality the King had thrown it into the River Clyde. Faced with execution she appealed for help to Mungo, who ordered a messenger to catch a fish in the river. On opening the fish, the ring was miraculously found inside, which allowed the Queen to clear her name. Mungo's ancestry is recorded in the Bonedd y Saint, his father, Owain was a King of Rheged. His maternal grandfather, was a King of the Gododdin. There seems little reason to doubt that Mungo was one of the first evangelists of Strathclyde, under the patronage of King Rhiderch Hael, became the first Bishop of Glasgow. Jocelin seems to have altered parts of the original life; some new parts
Aeron (kingdom)
Aeron was a kingdom of the Brythonic-speaking Hen Ogledd, presumed to have been located in the region of the River Ayr in what is now southwestern Scotland. It existed during the post-Roman Era earlier, disappeared before or during the 7th century conquest of the region by the ascendant Kingdom of Northumbria. Aeron is incidentally mentioned in the Book of Taliesin in poems of praise to Urien of Rheged, it is the homeland of several heroes in the Book of Aneirin. The families of several of these heroes appear in royal genealogies associated with the genealogies of the better known kings of Alt Clut who lived in southwestern Scotland. This, taken together with the phonetic similarity of'Aeron' and'Ayr', suggests the location of Aeron. There are no historical records confirming its history or its existence, only literary references combined with circumstantially consistent genealogies and incidentally relevant historical records. Though Aeron may have been located within the territory of modern Scotland, as a part of Yr Hen Ogledd it is an intrinsic part of Welsh history, as both the Welsh and the Men of the North were self-perceived as a single people, collectively referred to in modern Welsh as Cymry.
Aeron's location is unclear from the sources, but the hypothesis most accepted by modern scholars places it in the Ayrshire region of present-day Scotland. During the post-Roman period, the area around the River Ayr was part of the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking part of northern Britain. William J. Watson noted the similarities between Aeron and the modern placename "Ayr", suggesting they may have derived from a pre-Christian deity *Agronā meaning "Goddess of Slaughter". John Morris-Jones noted the region was a good fit, considering that the poetry in the Book of Aneirin makes it clear that Aeron was nearby to Urien of Rheged, celebrated as its defender and may have been its overlord, he further notes that in poetry an Aeron is associated with "Clud", which he interprets as a reference to Alt Clut. Ifor Williams, however, is skeptical of the reading of "Clud" as a reference to the Scottish Alt Clut, noting that similar names appeared all across the Hen Ogledd and Wales. However, he concludes that "...the references in the Gododdin to Aeron, the place of importance given to Cynddylig Aeron, would seem to favour the identification of Aeron with Ayr."
Williams and Rachel Bromwich note that another possible location is along the River Aire in Yorkshire, which would place Aeron next to the kingdom of Elmet. There are several references to Aeron in the Book of Taliesin, all them incidental. In Stanza XI a battle is said to have occurred in Aeron. In XXXVI, part of a praise poem to Urien of Rheged, Urien is said to have traveled to Aeron. In XXXVII Urien is referred to as the protector of Aeron; the references to Aeron in the Book of Aneirin and its epic story of Y Gododdin are incidental in that it praises several notable heroes described as being from Aeron, most notably Cynon ap Clydno, mentioned as the most praiseworthy combatant at the Battle of Catraeth. In Stanza XVIII of the Gododdin poems, Cynon is among three heroes arriving from Aeron. In Stanza XXXIV of the Book of Aneirin, Cynon is again mentioned, along with men described as "the desolating spears of Aeron"; the families of several of the men from various regions of the'Old North' who are mentioned in these literary works are separately mentioned in the royal genealogies of the Harleian genealogies and the Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd, though not with consistent pedigrees, this includes Cynon's father Clydno.
In addition, many of the men, who were contemporary with Cynon's father Clydno appear as participants in the circumstances surrounding a war between these Men of the North and the Kingdom of Gwynedd in the reign of Rhun ap Maelgwn Gwynedd, with Clydno leading an invasion of Gwynedd. These include Elidyr Mwynfawr ap Gorwst Priodawr. Rhun subsequently took the war back to the north losing his life in battle. Taliesin's Marwnad Rhun laments his death; the written histories of Wales and Scotland by respected scholars make no mention of Aeron. This includes John Edward Lloyd's History of Wales, William Forbes Skene's Celtic Scotland, John Rhys' Celtic Britain, the more recent History of Wales by John Davies. John Koch's Celtic Culture mentions Aeron in passing several times, suggesting that it was located in modern Ayrshire, but always qualifying the suggestion as "probable", without elaboration. In Stanza LXV of the Gododdin poems, some manuscripts have'auon' instead of Aeron. Skene interpreted this to be'avon', placed the location at a river bearing that name that runs between Linlithgow and Stirlingshire, near the Firth of Forth.
This view is rejected by other historians. The earliest reliable information on the region of southwestern Scotland during the time when Aeron was supposed to have been located there is from archaeology that researches Roman Britain, which shows that forts were not planted in the region; this is in contrast to Roman behaviour in southern-most Scotland and northern England, where the land was planted with forts. This
Cumbria
Cumbria is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's county town is Carlisle, in the north of the county, the only other major urban area is Barrow-in-Furness on the southwestern tip of the county; the county of Cumbria consists of six districts and in 2008 had a population of just under half a million. Cumbria is one of the most sparsely populated counties in the United Kingdom, with 73.4 people per km2. Cumbria is the third largest county in England by area, is bounded to the north by the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders, to the west by the Irish Sea, to the south by Lancashire, to the southeast by North Yorkshire, to the east by County Durham and Northumberland. Cumbria is predominantly rural and contains the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site considered one of England's finest areas of natural beauty, serving as inspiration for artists and musicians.
A large area of the southeast of the county is within the Yorkshire Dales National Park while the east of the county fringes the North Pennines AONB. Much of Cumbria is mountainous, it contains every peak in England over 3,000 feet above sea level, with Scafell Pike at 3,209 feet being the highest point of England. An upland and rural area, Cumbria's history is characterised by invasions and settlement, as well as battles and skirmishes between the English and the Scots. Notable historic sites in Cumbria include Carlisle Castle, Furness Abbey, Hardknott Roman Fort, Brough Castle and Hadrian's Wall; the county of Cumbria was created in April 1974 through an amalgamation of the administrative counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, to which parts of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire were added. During the Neolithic period the area contained an important centre of stone axe production, products of which have been found across Great Britain. During this period stone circles and henges began to be built across the county and today'Cumbria has one of the largest number of preserved field monuments in England'.
While not part of the region conquered in the Romans' initial conquest of Britain in 43 AD, most of modern-day Cumbria was conquered in response to a revolt deposing the Roman-aligned ruler of the Brigantes in 69 AD. The Romans built a number of fortifications in the area during their occupation, the most famous being UNESCO World Heritage Site Hadrian's Wall which passes through northern Cumbria. At the end of the period of British history known as Roman Britain the inhabitants of Cumbria were Cumbric-speaking native Romano-Britons who were descendants of the Brigantes and Carvetii that the Roman Empire had conquered in about AD 85. Based on inscriptional evidence from the area, the Roman civitas of the Carvetii seems to have covered portions of Cumbria; the names Cumbria, Cymru and Cumberland are derived from the name these people gave themselves, *kombroges in Common Brittonic, which meant "compatriots". Although Cumbria was believed to have formed the core of the Early Middle Ages Brittonic kingdom of Rheged, more recent discoveries near Galloway appear to contradict this.
For the rest of the first millennium, Cumbria was contested by several entities who warred over the area, including the Brythonic Celtic Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. Most of modern-day Cumbria was a principality in the Kingdom of Scotland at the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and thus was excluded from the Domesday Book survey of 1086. In 1092 the region was incorporated into England; the region was dominated by the many Anglo-Scottish Wars of the latter Middle Ages and early modern period and the associated Border Reivers who exploited the dynamic political situation of the region. There were at least three sieges of Carlisle fought between England and Scotland, two further sieges during the Jacobite risings. After the Jacobite Risings of the eighteenth century, Cumbria became a more stable place and, as in the rest of Northern England, the Industrial Revolution caused a large growth in urban populations. In particular, the west-coast towns of Workington and Barrow-in-Furness saw large iron and steel mills develop, with Barrow developing a significant shipbuilding industry.
Kendal and Carlisle all became mill town, with textiles and biscuits among the products manufactured in the region. The early nineteenth century saw the county gain fame as the Lake Poets and other artists of the Romantic movement, such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, lived among, were inspired by, the lakes and mountains of the region; the children's writer Beatrix Potter wrote in the region and became a major landowner, granting much of her property to the National Trust on her death. In turn, the large amount of land owned by the National Trust assisted in the formation of the Lake District National Park in 1951, which remains the largest National Park in England and has come to dominate the identity and economy of the county; the county of Cumbria was created in 1974 from the traditional counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, the Cumberland County Borough of Carlisle, along with the North Lonsdale or Furness part of Lancashire referred to as "Lancashire North of
Rheged
Rheged was one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd, the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages. It is recorded in several poetic and bardic sources, although its borders are not described in any of them. A recent archaeological discovery suggests that its stronghold was located in what is now Galloway in Scotland rather than, as was speculated, being in Cumbria. Rheged extended into Lancashire and other parts of northern England. In some sources, Rheged is intimately associated with his family, its inhabitants spoke Cumbric, a Brittonic dialect related to Old Welsh. The name Rheged appears as an epithet of a certain Urien in a number of early Welsh poems and royal genealogies, his victories over the Anglian chieftains of Bernicia in the second half of the 6th century are recorded by Nennius and celebrated by the bard Taliesin, who calls him "Ruler of Rheged". He is thus placed squarely in the North of Britain and specifically in Westmorland when referred to as "Ruler of Llwyfenydd".
Legend associates Urien with the city of Carlisle, only twenty-five miles away. Although it is possible that Rheged was a stronghold, it was not uncommon for sub-Roman monarchs to use their kingdom's name as an epithet, it is accepted, that Rheged was a kingdom covering a large part of modern Cumbria. Place-name evidence, e.g. Dunragit α suggests that, at least in one period of its history, Rheged included Dumfries and Galloway. Recent archaeological excavations at Trusty's Hill, a vitrified fort near Gatehouse of Fleet, the analysis of its artefacts in the context of other sites and their artefacts have led to claims that the kingdom was centred on Galloway early in the 7th century. More problematic interpretations suggest that it could have reached as far south as Rochdale in Greater Manchester, recorded in the Domesday Book as Recedham; the River Roch on which Rochdale stands was recorded in the 13th century as Rachet. Such names may derive from Old English reced "hall or house". However, no other place names originating from this Old English element exist, which makes this derivation unlikely.
If they are not of English origin, these place-names may incorporate the element'Rheged' because they lay on or near its borders. Urien's kingdom stretched eastward at one time, as he was "Ruler of Catraeth"; the traditional royal genealogy of Urien and his successors traces their ancestry back to Coel Hen, considered by many to be a mythical figure. All of those listed below may have ruled in Rheged, but only three of their number can be verified from external sources: Meirchion Gul, father of Cynfarch Cynfarch Oer known as Cynfarch fab Meirchion and Cynfarch Gul, father of Urien Urien Rheged, about whom survive eight songs of Taliesin Owain celebrated for having fought the Bernicians, he is recorded in Welsh sources as having baptised Edwin of Northumbria, however, he may have stood sponsor at the baptism, thus becoming Edwin's godfather. Royth, son of Rhun, the last king of Rheged. A second royal genealogy exists for a line of kings, descended from Cynfarch Oer's brother: Elidir Lydanwyn.
According to Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd Elidir's son, Llywarch Hen, was a ruler in North Britain in the 6th century. He was driven from his territory by princely in-fighting after Urien's death and was in old age associated with Powys. However, it is possible, because of internal inconsistencies, that the poetry connected to Powys was associated with Llywarch's name at a probably 9th century, date. Llywarch is referred to in some poems as king of South Rheged, in others as king of Argoed, suggesting that the two regions were the same. Searching for Llywarch's kingdom has led some historians to propose that Rheged may have been divided between sons, resulting in northern and southern successor states; the connections of the family of Llywarch and Urien with Powys has suggested to some, on grounds of proximity, that the area of modern Lancashire may have been their original home. After Bernicia united with Deira to become the kingdom of Northumbria, Rheged was annexed by Northumbria, some time before AD 730.
There was a royal marriage between Prince Oswiu of Northumbria and the Rhegedian princess Rieinmelth, granddaughter of Rum in 638, so it is possible that it was a peaceful takeover, both kingdoms being inherited by the same man. After Rheged was incorporated into Northumbria, the old Cumbric language was replaced by Old English, Cumbric surviving only in remote upland communities. Around the year 900, after the power of Northumbria was destroyed by Viking incursions and settlement, large areas west of the Pennines fell without apparent warfare under the control of the British Kingdom of Strathclyde, with Leeds recorded as being on the border between the Britons and the Norse Kingdom of York; this may have represented the political assertion of lingering British culture in the region. The area of Cumbria remained under the control of Strath
Peredur
Peredur is the name of a number of men from the boundaries of history and legend in sub-Roman Britain. The Peredur, most familiar to a modern audience is the character who made his entrance as a knight in the Arthurian world of Middle Welsh prose literature. Gwrgi and Peredur are listed as sons of Eliffer "of the great warband" and as scions of the Coeling dynasty in the Harleian genealogies, making them first cousins of Urien. A pedigree from Jesus College MS 20 includes Gwrgi and Peredur as brothers together with one Arthur penuchel, their principal claim to fame rests on their having fought in the Battle of Arfderydd. The Annales Cambriae gives no further detail. A expansion of the entry names Gwrgi and Peredur, both described as sons of Eliffer, as the chieftains on the victorious side and tells that Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio was defeated and slain in the battle. Under the year 580, the Annales Cambriae record the deaths of his brother Peredur; these references give them a place as heroes in the Hen Ogledd of the late 6th century.
Further detail is supplied in legendary traditions, notably those represented by the Welsh Triads. One listing the three "Horse-Burdens" of Britain relates that Gwrgi, Dynod Bwr and Cynfelyn Drwsgl were carried by a horse called Corvan, which enabled them to watch the clouds of dust coming from Gwenddoleu and his forces in the battle of Arfderydd; the circumstances in which Gwrgi and Peredur died are alluded to in a Triad which explains that they had one of "Three Faithless Warbands of the Island of Britain". Their warband abandoned them at Caer Greu on the day before a battle with Eda Glinmaur and so they were slain; the Welsh Triads refer to family relations. One on the "Three Fair Womb-Burdens" of Britain, preserved incompletely in Peniarth MS 47, suggests that Peredur and Gwrgi had a sister called Arddun, while a variant version in Peniarth MS 50 calls the third sibling Ceindrech Pen Asgell and names the mother Efrddyl verch Gynfarch. Peredur is said to have had a son by the name of Gwgon Gwron, called one of the three "Prostrate Chieftains" because "they would not seek a dominion, which nobody could deny to them".
Still further allusions are found in early Welsh poetry. The poem Ymddiddan Myrddin a Thaliesi], which assumes the form of a dialogue between Myrddin Wyllt and the poet Taliesin, deals out praise to the brave "sons of Eliffer", saying that they did not avoid spears in the heat of battle; the apparent context is the battle of Arfderydd, where Myrddin fought as one of Gwenddoleu's warriors, went mad from terror and in this way, acquired the gift of prophecy. For some unknown reason, the poem extends the number of sons to seven. A warrior called Peredur is listed in one of the younger sections of Y Gododdin, which shows him as one of the heroes to have died fighting in battle as a member of the warband of Mynyddog Mwynfawr, chieftain of the Gododdin in "the Old North", it has been argued that Peredur's appearance here may have been due to a tendency in the growth of the poem to draw personages known from such sources as the Annales Cambriae into the orbit of its subject matter, assuming he is the same Peredur.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, the author of the Historia Regum Britanniae, mentions a Peredur in his Vita Merlini, an account of Merlin drawing on narrative traditions about Myrddin Wyllt. In an early episode based on the story of the Battle of Arfderydd, Peredur is joined by his allies Merlin, king of the South Welsh, Rhydderch Hael, king of the Cumbrians, when he engages Gwenddoleu, king of Scotland, in a battle at an unnamed site. Merlin loses three brothers and driven mad from grief, takes refuge in the woods. Peredur is here presented as prince of the North Welsh rather than a ruler in the British North. In his earlier and more famous work, Historia regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth used the name Peredurus for a legendary ruler of Britain, the fifth and youngest son born to the legendary Morvidus, king of the Britons, he is said to have conspired with his brother Ingenius to capture and oust their brother Elidurus, locking him up in Trinovantum. When the brothers divided the kingdom between them, Peredur became ruler over the part north of the Humber, including'Albany', following Elidurus' death, succeeded to the entire kingdom.
In the same work, Geoffrey includes one Peredur map Peridur among the leading magnates of the realm who attended King Arthur's plenary Court in the City of the Legion. The Peredur, most familiar to a modern audience is the character of this name who made his entrance as a knight in the Arthurian world of Middle Welsh prose literature; the earliest such Arthurian text and Olwen, does not mention Peredur in any of its extended catalogues of famous and less famous warriors. He is, the protagonist of a Middle Welsh text, Peredur son of Efrawg, one of the Three Welsh Romances associated with the Mabinogion and the Matter of Britain, along with Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain and Geraint and Enid, it is acknowledged that the text is related to Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished Old French poem Perceval, but the nature of this relation has been a topic of lively debate, notably the question if and to what extent the Welsh tale was adapted from Perceval. The earliest four manuscripts in which Peredur is contained are: Aberystwyth, National Library
