29 
branch, or colony of the same race, and who may have brought 
with them such materials as their experience taught them 
would be essential in the course of their inland migrations. 
Now, the question arises, How can we account for the 
occurrence of flint implements at all, in this particular 
locality, as we have no record of a settlement of the early 
Britons at Adel ? In the first place, it must be borne in 
mind that comparatively little of the history or movements 
of those primitive people has come down to us. In many 
instances all we know of their having had any particular 
settlement is derived from the accidental discovery of their 
coins or burial mounds, from which we naturally infer at 
least temporary occupation. It is, therefore, pardonable to 
endeavour to fill up such blanks as occur in the annals of 
this early people from the scanty memorials or traditions 
we have. 
It is recorded that at Winmoor, in the parish of Seacroft, a 
great battle was fought between Penda, king of the 
Mercians, and Oswiu, king of Northumbria, in 655 ; and the 
Annals of Nennius contain a notice of the final engagement 
between these rival forces on the field of Gaii or Giti, in 
656. The place where Penda’s army was encamped is called 
Manau or Manu. The exact position of these places, how- 
ever, is uncertain, as it is difficult to reconcile the early 
names with those at present known. The Rev. Daniel H. 
Haigh, in an interesting paper read before this Society in 
January, 1857, in alluding to the Annals of Nennius, 
ventures an ingenious suggestion as to the correct reading of 
these localities. That as Gu and G are constantly written 
for W in the early transcripts, and hence Giti will be Witi, 
to which if wood is added most probably means Witiwood, 
or Weetwood ;* and the same with Manu for Mean wood, 
* In Thoresby’s Ducatis we find that Dr. Hick gives Woetur as the Saxon for 
Weetwood, 
