StephenEsQue.org
Title
American Erewhonist
Description
Excerpted from the website:
- Biography
- It is likely that the banks of the Rivers Tyne and Derwent were settled in pre-Roman times and certainly in the Roman period there were military and civilian settlements on the Tyne. Little is known of the period from the time the Romans left to early Saxon times, although the area was subject to Viking raids from Norway and Denmark and the Danes ruled parts of what is now northern England for long periods. Swalwell and the Tyneside area, that is the built-up area along the banks of the Tyne from the river mouth, were part of the ancient Kingdom of Northumbria which extended north from the River Humber to Edinburgh and the River Forth, while Bernicia was a Northumbrian province extending from Tees to Tweed. A weakened Northumbria was forced in 829 to accept the supremacy of Wessex which already incorporated Mercia under its rule, and resulted in England being united under one king. Periods of Danish rule followed. The conquest of the English Saxons by the Normans, themselves of Viking descent, in 1066 did not immediately affect this area much, the north having been left largely to its own devices because of its remoteness and relative lack of wealth and importance compared to the south of England. The savage retribution, the 'harrying of the north', which followed the rebellions against William's rule in the decades up to 1100 were to change all this and bring the counties of Durham and Northumberland under Norman domination when William's appointees, especially the Bishops of Durham, were given lands and political and religious power. The culture and the agricultural and social organisation of the area slowly changed and the Boldon Book* gives some indication of these changes and of land ownership at that time. Swalwell as a village did not then exist though, and it is difficult to state exactly when its formation began.
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