30 
wliere Penda was encamped. If such was the position 
of the Mercian forces, who probably moved by Shadwell, 
Thorner, and Blackmoor to Meanwood, it thus affords 
some clue to the occurrence of the flint implements at Adel, 
which may have belonged to the Britons under Oswiu, 
who, if they took up position on the low moorland at 
Adel to intercept Penda’s army, would be only separated by 
a small stream (Adel-beck) from the enemy on the high 
ground at Meanwood ; and, therefore, Adel may have been 
the stronghold of the British forces in defence of the royal 
city of Oswiu at Leeds, against which the Mercian attack was 
principally directed. Be this as it may, however, as we 
know the Brigantees had positions at Rombald’s moor , 
Baildon moor , Lightcliffe, Bramham moor , Osmondthorpe , and 
also along the Wolds up to the East coast, it is not im- 
probable that in passing through the country they may 
have occupied Adel, though there is no indication that 
any lengthened stand was made here, as the site does not 
appear of even sufficient importance to have handed down 
its name to the present day, unless the place, in the parish 
of Adel, called Burhedurum in Domesday Survey , indicates 
this spot. 
I am aware that in the opinion of some archaeologists the 
decisive battle of Winwsedfield, as it is called, was fought at 
Whitwood or Winmoor, and the ford crossed by the retreat- 
ing army of Penda was the Aire at Woodlesford.* But from 
* As some confusion has arisen between St. Oswald, and Oswy, or Oswiu, and 
the statue of the former over the porch of Methley Church having been considered 
as evidence that the battle of Winwsed was fought in that neighbourhood (as St. 
Oswald is reported to have made a vow to build a church if he obtained a victory 
over Cadwalla), I wrote, therefore, to my friend, the Rev. D. H. Haigh, for his 
opinion on the question, and received the following reply : — “I once thought that 
Woodlesford might be the scene of the battle, but I was influenced by a wrong 
etymology. Woodlesford is certainly the ‘ford of Wothel or Wodel ,’ a name of 
which we have other occurrences simply, as on a coin of one of the kings of 
Mercia, and in composition, as in the name of Wothelgeat, the ancestor of the 
