ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS 



between Hwiccia and the unsubdued marauding Britons of what is now 

 alone called Wales. From the neighbourhood of Bath as far as Ciren- 

 cester, the diocesan boundary in some parts follows the Fosse Way, 

 though it is generally rather to the west of the hne. After passing the 

 important junction of Cirencester it ran eastward, and no doubt bore 

 some close relation to the present border between Gloucestershire and 

 Oxfordshire, though there is no conspicuous natural feature to mark its 

 course. An important point for the purposes of archaeology is that 

 Fairford would thus be included in the Hwiccan kingdom, and the 

 extensive remains discovered there may throw some light on the scanty 

 relics of the pagan period in Worcestershire itself. 



The escarpment of the Cotswolds, along which are yet to be seen 

 remains of many prehistoric strongholds, apparently had nothing to do 

 with the limits of Hwiccia ; and in the absence of any other obvious 

 line of demarcation, the Fosse Way was in all probability utilized as such 

 by the early Teutonic settlers of these parts. There are some indications 

 in Northamptonshire that the Roman roads which crossed that county 

 served to mark out the territories of tribes which roughly correspond 

 to the dialects ; and this view has also been put forward with regard to 

 the Fosse Way by the author of a paper on ancient roads on the Cots- 

 wolds.^ From a consideration of the diocesan boundary, which extends 

 far into Warwickshire, it seems Hkely that all between the Fosse Way 

 and the forest of Arden was included in the Hwiccan kingdom ; and 

 if this can be established, the relics of Worcestershire can be further 

 illustrated by discoveries in the Avon valley, as at Longbridge, near 

 Warwick, and Bidford, 4 miles south of Alcester. Interments of the 

 pagan period have come to light near Evesham, and it seems hard to resist 

 the conclusion that those further up the river belonged to the same tribe, 

 for the valley of the Avon would have been the natural and almost the 

 only practicable opening at the time for the increasing population of the 

 lower Severn valley. 



What is now Oxfordshire was certainly one of the principal seats of 

 the West Saxons, and was therefore not available for occupation by the 

 Hwiccans. The Britons to the south and west forbade expansion in 

 those directions and the forest belt at the north checked advance long 

 enough to leave a trace in the dialects of the adjoining settlers. The 

 north-east alone remained, and here were no natural impediments: 



A writer with considerable local knowledge states^ his belief that 

 ' the district afterwards known civilly as the Hwiccan realm, and ecclesi- 

 astically as the diocese of Worcester, represented the extent of Ceawlin's 

 conquest after the battles of Dyrham and Fethanleah, and that if ever the 

 site of Fethanleah is fixed, it will be found to lie in the northern part of 

 this district,' and not at Faddiley in Cheshire nor Fretherne in Gloucester- 

 shire. Mr. Taylor goes on to suggest that the conflict probably took 

 place near Stratford-on-Avon, in the neighbourhood of which was a 



* Mr. John Sawyer, Transactions of Bristol and Gloucs. Arch^ological Society, 1896-7, p. 254. 

 « Rev. C. S. Taylor, op. cit. p. 270. 

 T 225 Q 



