Avon Valley: Frontier & War Zone!

In the Anglo-Saxon period the Avon Valley was a contested frontier between Wessex and Mercia. At times it was an active War Zone. Yet this character differed either side of the Limpley Stoke Valley. Why was there this difference in its character as a frontier? The answer can be traced back to Late Iron Age politics, Roman colonial compromises, and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that emerged as successor polities to Rome.

By interrogating the distribution of coinage, clues in the written sources, Roman colonial policy, post-Roman conflicts, and the emergence of early medieval kingdoms, this character and the geo-political anomaly can be explained.

Martyn Whittock is a freelance historian, writer, columnist and political commentator. Having taught history for 35 years, his writing covers a wide range of themes, but he is particularly interested in the ways in which history influences later actions and culture. His recent books include: American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed Into the Lands and Imaginations of America, and Vikings in the East From Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin – The Origins of a Contested Legacy in Russia and Ukraine. This talk is based on his co-written book: The Anglo-Saxon Avon Valley Frontier: A River of Two Halves.