Scandinavian Settlement in North-East England

Principal investigator: Elaine Stokes
Level: Personal research project

I am one of the individual researchers who have passed through the Lancaster University History Department. For my MA dissertation (2011), I researched Scandinavian settlement in the north-west, looking at the very many field names in two 12th century cartularies. Now I am filling in the gaps - looking for potential Scandinavian settlement in all those townships in the area which were not covered by the cartularies - and I am also developing an awareness of Norman settlement.
As you are aware, data available for this period (9th-13th centuries) is relatively sparse, and I need to consider all available information - both documentary and physical. I did not have the opportunity to consider physical remains whilst working on my MA, and so I shall be looking at this data for the whole of North Lancashire and the southern part of what was Westmorland (now Cumbria). This will doubtless take a few years to complete.
Researcher access will enable me to understand each township more fully - for example: I have read an unsubstantiated claim that the original settlement at Arnside was at Far Arnside, which is at the far side of Arnside Knott and around the promontory from the current settlement. My existing access level enables me to see that many finds were made on the coast - but not on which part of the long coastline there, so I am no nearer to understanding where the original settlement was.

Audit data

• Created: 7 years ago
• Created by: Sam Moorhead