ANGLO SAXON CHESTER

Another epoch was now rapidly dawning upon the world, Rome had passed the meridian of its splendor Chester was now to be alternately possessed by Briton, Saxon and Dane . However it is generally believed that from the departure of the Romans A.D. 406 , Chester remained deserted

Two of the industries known to have been performed in Chester during the late Saxon period are tanning and cow horn removal The tanning took place at Lower Bridge Street, and the cow horn industry took place at Abbey Green , just inside the north wall , roughly midway between the north gate and King Charles tower . During excavation various pits of late Saxon date were discovered , one of which was stone lined with clay and stone sluice leading to it , inside we found a quernstone which is associated with cow horn removal, and antler points , used for the actual removal of the horn from the cores .
Some years ago, numerous horn cores were found in the vicinity of King Charles tower . On the western side of Lower Bridge street midway between Grovenor Street and Castle Street archaeologists found the site of a hide processing industry , with various pits and stoned lined water troughs . ( SAXON CHESTER by Paul Nicholson )

" Slave trading was still an important item of trade, horses another, but their exportation prohibited by the law of Athelstan . Metal, hides dogs and chalk, were probably also exported, as in the times of the Romans . Chester was ideally situated for supplying all these articles the rich plains of Cheshire furnished horns and hides , and the Cambrian mines, lead and copper . Cheese must not be omitted as an important article the Britons made such considerable progress in the arts of the dairy, when under the Romans. " ( Joseph Hemingway p 327 )

Two battles are usually taken as marking the end of the Saxon conquest , these are the battle of Deorham in 577 and the battle of Chester in 613. Of course it is not true to say that fighting between Briton and Saxon came to an end . Nor were the " Welsh ", as the Saxons termed the Britons, subdued , but after these two battles there was no longer any question of which power was dominant in England.There was no hope of the Britons recovering their lost ground, consequently these two battles deserve special notice.

The victory of Deorham was won by the West Saxons under their King Ceawlin. The site of the battle is not far from Gloucester, and as a fruit of it, that city with Bath and Cirencester fell into Saxon hands. Yet the importance Deorham, of the battle lies not in the extent of the conquest nor in the richness of the plunder, but in its locality. It gave the Saxons command of the Severn mouth, and so cut the Welsh off from the Welsh of the South-west of Britain. Precisely the same work was done in the north by the battle of Chester: this was won by an Anglian king, Ethelfrith of Northumbria, who, after hurling back an invasion of Picts at Dawstone near Jedburgh, fought his way westwards.

The Welsh mustered all their forces against him. Two thousand monks came from the monastery of Bangor'-is-coed to pray for victory while the "Comrades"' fought. Ethelfrith who remorselessly slew the monks, just as Suetonius Paulinus had massacred the Druids. "Whether they bear arms or no," said he, "they fight against us when they pray to their God." As by Deorham the Saxons won the Severn line, so Chester gave them the Dee. The Welsh were again divided. The men of Wales were split off from their kinsmen in Lancashire and Cumberland.

Little surprise need be felt that the Britons preferred to flee for refuge to the hills of the west rather than, submit, to live on in their old homes. In their eyes the Saxon was a barbarian, speaking an outlandish tongue and worshipping heathen gods. Yet barbarians though they were, the Saxons are of great interest to us, for their language has become ours, and amongst them were germs of some political institutions and ideas that are our own peculiar pride to-day.

St. Bede a monk , of the Northumbrian monastery of Jarrow known as the Venerable Bede , wrote about the battle in his important work Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum ( ' The Ecclesiastical History of the English People' [c.731 ] ) it was written in Latin and later translated into English . He called Chester ' legacaestir ' in English and ' Caerlegion 'in Briton which derives from the latin ' Castra - Legionium ' camp of the legions. but the Britons regained control and possession until the British Prince Mervyn and his wife Esylbt were dispossessed in 828-30 by Egbert, he as sole monarch added Legancester as it was called by the Saxons to his domain

Pope Gregory the Great initiated the conversion by the Roman monk Augustine, to Christianity of King Ethelberht of Kent who had a Christian Frankish Queen, the church was to provide a unifying influence, although it was not until 669 that the church in England acknowledged a single leader . After their conversion to Christianity they made progress, adopting the title of King. Church art and architecture, contain some of the finest expressions of Anglo-Saxon culture.