Eliseg BC (Before COVID)

While they are all places I’ve posted about before individually, in Feb 2020 I took my level 5 students on the brand-new module Empire and Aftermath – exploring the archaeology of the first millennium AD in Britain and beyond – to see a range of early medieval sites in North East Wales.

We started by heading out from Chester and into the Vale of Llangollen to visit the wonderful Pillar of Eliseg.

At the site, in wind and spots of rain, we discussed the monument’s early medieval significance as a statement of power and defiance by the rulers of Powys, including its Latin text and its reuse of an Early Bronze Age burial mound. We then considered the monument’s ‘afterlife’ through the Middle Ages as a cross and into the modern era as a cross, then a fragment, and then restored as a pillar. I then rambled and ranted about its present-day heritage interpretation.

Back over the muddy field, next, we explored the ruins of the Cistercian monstery of Valle Crucis, and its 18th-century summer house. While dating to far later than the module’s focus, this allows us to put the Pillar’s biography in context.

Back on the coach, we then went eastwards back down the Vale of Llangollen to explore the linear monuments built by the Mercian kings to combat the dynasty of Powys inscribed on the Pillar of Eliseg. By now it was raining persistently. At Ruabon, we walked along a strikingly well-preserved, but threatened by modern development, section of the late 8th century linear earthwork: Offa’s Dyke. The students provided a wonderful set of mobile scales with which to capture the magnitude of the bank and ditch.

It was now raining heavily, it was cold, windy and then it started to snow. The only option was Morrisons in Wrexham for a lunch break. For me, this involved consuming a sustaining small all-day breakfast.

After lunch, we went to the National Trust property at Erddig to investigate a series of stretches of the early 9th-century linear earthwork: Wat’s Dyke. If Offa’s Dyke was built at the time of Eliseg, Wat’s Dyke seems to be contemporary with the Pillar built in his memory. We explored where it was cut by the 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle in the woods to the north of Erddig Hall, as well as sections of the dyke in the woods.

We then descended to see the cup-and-saucer hydraulic ram before noting the destruction of the dyke in the vicinity of the hall.

Through visiting both Offa’s and Wat’s Dykes, the students gained an impression of the scale, design and landscape placement of these monuments, as well as their complex afterlives. As with the Pillar of Eliseg, we addressed the challenges of heritage conservation, management and interpretation for these enormous but still poorly understood monuments.

In summary, a cold but fun field visit by University of Chester students to unsurpassably awesome monuments, with a luxury coach supplied by Pat’s Coaches and a friendly professorial tour-guide with microphone! Looking back 12 months, it seems like a different era: Eliseg BC!

Missing the Pillar of Eliseg – ‘Beyond the Walls’ in 2018

In October 2018, I was filmed on location at the Pillar of Eliseg and at Offa’s Dyke near Ruabon and looking across at Offa’s Dyke where it hits the River Dee at Ty Mawr Country Park. This was all for a forthcoming documentary produced by AlleyCats entitled: Beyond the Walls: In Search of the Celts.

The programme explores the conflicts and interactions between the Romans and, subsequently, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, with the Celtic (Brythonic)-speaking peoples of the island of Britain. It will first air at 10pm on Tuesday 4th December on BBC4: The official blurb reads:

Historian Dr Eleanor Barraclough travels through some of Britain’s most beautiful landscapes – Hadrian’s Wall, the Lake District and Offa’s Dyke – in search of new evidence to reveal the true story of the mysterious ancient British tribes often called the Celts.

According to the official history books, the Celts were defeated and pushed to the edges of Britain by waves of Roman and Anglo Saxon invaders. However, a growing body of evidence suggests this is not the full story.

To help give the Celts back their proper place in our history, Eleanor examines freshly discovered treasures, new archaeological evidence from real photographs and clues hidden in ancient poetry to reveal a fresh narrative – one that suggests the relationship between our ancient British ancestors and those who came to conquer them was much less repressive, and far more co-operative, than we have thought.

I was being filmed in order to talk about the early medieval kingdoms of Britain, focusing on the relationship between the Britons and the Anglo-Saxons. To do this, I wanted to talk about the Pillar of Eliseg and Offa’s Dyke, and how they afford contrasting perspectives, one ‘Welsh’, one ‘Saxon’, on the Christian kingdoms of the Early Middle Ages.

me: whilst filming by Offa’s Dyke, near Ruabon

Obviously I haven’t seen the programme yet and I’m not quite sure how my segments will be edited and integrated into the programme’s overall narrative. Certainly, the researchers and producers knew my scepticism regarding the ‘Celts’ narrative of the programme.

However, I can say is I did my very best to articulate the stories of two complex monuments, and they gave me every opportunity to make my points as clear and coherent as possible. Whether I do make sense remains my responsibility! Certainly, this was my first time working on a TV documentary in a decade and it was a very positive experience for me to get to work with David Starkey and Alfie Turner from AlleyCats.

In doing so, I got to represent my work on Project Eliseg and my work with the Offa’s Dyke Collaboratory. In doing so, I was delighted to be able to talk about two monuments that should be regarded as key to the study of early medieval Britain, and yet which rarely feature on television documentaries.

About the Pillar of Eliseg, I discussed some ideas to appear in the forthcoming Project Eliseg monograph. I addressed the complex biography of the early ninth-century cross, including its form and text. I also considered how the monument operated in its landscape setting, and how and why the monument reused a prehistoric cairn. Most importantly, I identified how the monument was positioned in relation to, and perhaps in defiance to, the Mercian linear earthworks to its east.

 

The Pillar of Eliseg in March of 2018

Regarding Offa’s Dyke, I wanted to discuss how it was positioned in relation to the Vale of Llangollen and the River Dee. I then talked about changing views on its functions and significance as a part of the Mercian frontier, and its legacy to this day.

What I hoped the programme shows, by addressing the Pillar and the Dyke together, is the complex and fluid relationships between the British and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: a ‘prehistory’ to the March of Wales as it developed following the Norman conquest of England.

It was a pity that the equally significant Wat’s Dyke couldn’t be featured, especially in relation to the Pillar of Eliseg. Still, for a 29-minute programme, I think they will be packing in quite a lot of new and interesting research!

When the final programme was aired, I was rather sad to find that the Pillar of Eliseg didn’t make the final cut! I hope it appears at some point!

Cameraman/Director/Producer David Starkey, at work at Ruabon

David, busy trying to film the Dee Valley at Ty Mawr Country Park, and attempting to avoid the llamas…

Chester Archaeological Society visiting the Pillar of Eliseg, 2018

When I can, I try to help out local societies giving talks and tours. I’m a member of Chester Archaeological Society so I was honoured and pleased to be able to spend today leading an intrepid group of other members to the Vale of Llangollen.

We visited the superb triumvirate of ancient monuments I’m reasonably familiar with: The Pillar of Eliseg, Valle Crucis Abbey, and Castell Dinas Brân. For my previous posts, please search this blog.

We discussed the archaeological evidence, historical context, and legends associated with each place, and explored also their current management and heritage interpretation.

At the Pillar of Eliseg, I was able to discuss the biography of the monument from the Early Bronze Age through the early medieval period to the present day as revealed by Project Eliseg, and also to reflect on the future of the monument.

At Valle Crucis, we not only discussed the architecture and landscape of the Cistercian monastery, but also the many funerary monuments, including the ‘Maruret’ stone over the 16th-century fireplace in the former abbot’s lodgings. I love its dragon biting a vine stem. We also identified many traces of the complex changes to the monastery from the 16th to the 21st century.

At Castell Dinas Brân, we investigated the nature of the design and the bias shown to discuss the walls and buildings and overlook the scale of the earth-moving and ditch-building associated with the late 13th-century castle. We also noted the stone messages left were there again, including one saying ‘I love Terry’s Chocolate Organge’. I personally do not like orange-flavoured chocolate, but who am I to object an other’s desire to mark the landscape in this fashion?

I also noticed evidence of ash-scattering again, – a practice I’ve noted before – this time over the rocks at the south-west corner of the castle: on the face overlooking the town. This is a very popular place for scattering the ashes of loved ones: the beautiful views are part of the story. Also, for anyone living in the town, they are always able to look up and see the place where their loved ones’ remains have diffused into the landscape.

I was also pleased to have a canine member on the tour, ‘Scamp’ – a Labrador/Alsatian cross (a German Sheprador) – joined the tour too.

 

Finally, I was delighted to meet the crow again, and couldn’t resist a Bran selfie!

The Muddy Pillar of Eliseg

The Pillar of Eliseg is a popular theme of this blog. This unique 9th-century stone sculpture remains reconstituted but in its original location on top of a Bronze Age burial mound near Valle Crucis Abbey, Llantysilio, Denbighshire.

Recently, I visited with the students on the MA Archaeology of Death and Memory and we discussed the form, biography and landscape context of the monument from the Bronze Age to the present day.

This was the second MA group to visit since the new heritage board was raised in April 2017, so I was keen to see what the students made of it.

However, I want to briefly mention the appalling public access arrangements for the monument. In addition to the lack of clear signage, and despite the gate, there is no discernible path across the quagmire of the farm gates to the monument. My students really struggled, despite most being adept walkers, clinging to a barbed wire fence to keep their footing, in order to get across to the mound. Of course, I’m not objecting to the fact that the farmer is using the gate to access her/his fields, or the sheep are present, but that there has been no agreed access via a path to the monument in such conditions.

Once there, visitors don’t see the stile on the far side. This was by far the muddiest Pillar of Eliseg I’ve ever seen it: perhaps unsurprising given the recent weather. Recent snow and rain notwithstanding, it beggars belief that this is seen as adequate access to a nationally important ancient monument.

Still, on another point, I was pleased to see the latest addition to the roadside signs framing the approach to the monument. I wonder whether Eliseg himself might have enjoyed fish and chips (maybe turnips if not potatoes)?