On a small prominence at roughly the spot where the Bowes
Railway meets the southern-most extremity of Eighton Banks lies, possibly, the
burial site of a once mighty Anglo-Saxon warrior. For centuries known as
Blackham, or Blackim, Hill, the nondescript piece of wasteland may well be the
final resting place of Blaec, a
warlord who seems at one time to have held sway over a rather large tract of
what we now know as County
Durham
The word Blackham/Blackim (Hill) is derived, it is argued,
from the Anglo-Saxon word blaecen,
meaning ‘of Blaec’ or ‘belonging to Blaec’ – hence ‘Black’s Hill’. And until
the Victorian times it seems that there existed a legend that a mighty warrior
of this name was buried there. Texts mention the persistent rumour until as
late as the 1880s … but nothing much seems to have trickled down to the
present.
Despite its twentieth century fall from grace, the land
hereabouts has given up signs of ancient human activity – most notably between
the wars when shards of worked flint dating back to the Mesolithic age were
found. It’s a prominent spot in the landscape, and it stands to reason that
humans would have made use of the site through the centuries. Iron Age
activity/settlement is certainly likely, the Romans passed by this way … so why
not the Anglo-Saxons, too?
No one has any solid evidence as to who this Blaec chap may have been – or even when
he lived. It can only be speculated that he rose to prominence during the
yawning gap that is 400-1066AD – most likely after Northumbria ’s ‘Golden Age’, which
ended in the mid-eighth century. So we’re talking about 750-1000AD.
And evidence from maps suggests that his area of influence
may have been substantial. One thirteenth century cartographer marked a huge
inland tract of land stretching from the Tyne
to the Humber as ‘Blachamoz’ – ‘the settlement
of the people of Black’. Yet the question remains: if he existed, why was this
man excluded from the royal lineages of Dark Age Northumbria ? Perhaps he was just a very
powerful, non-royal upstart.
Or is it all some woolly North Country
myth?
Why not come along to...
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