Publishers' web page
"The Viking Age in England lasted for just three centuries, from the earliest recorded raids in the AD 790s to the Norman take-over that took place between the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and William Rufus’s annexation of Cumbria in 1092. This 300-year period began with sporadic Viking raids, and saw increased political and economic interaction, settlement, and ultimately assimilation." (page 1 of the source)
"A considerable number of ‘Viking’ place-names in north-west England post-date 1100, and others are later modifications of non-Scandinavian names such as Greasby, Wirral, (appearing in the Domesday Book as Gravesberie, an exclusively Old English name). Conversely, many of the early estates established by Scandinavian lords appear to have been take-overs of existing settlements and which retained their pre-Viking names. This explains why so many parishes with important collections of 10th and 11th century Scandinavian-influenced sculpture do not have Norse place-names. These include English names such as Gosforth, Workington, Dearham, Brigham (Cumbria), Bolton-le-Sands, Halton and Heysham (Lancashire), Bidston, Wallasey, Woodchurch and Walton (Wirral and West Derby); or British names such as Dacre and Penrith (Cumbria). Many of these places already had pre-Viking churches with sculptural traditions. Gaelic–Norse hybrid names such as Aspatria (Cumbria) account for a much smaller number of sculpture sites. Remarkably few sites with Viking period sculpture have unambiguously Norse place-names, such as Crosscanonby and Kirkby Stephen (Cumbria) or West Kirby (Wirral)..." (page 18 of the source)
Source: In Search of Vikings, page 18 of Chapter 1, Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Scandinavian Heritage of North-West England by David Griffiths and Stephen E. Harding
Source address: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/-sczsteve/Griffiths_Harding2014.pdf
Downloaded by Stephen Harding at 10:02 on 22 January 2015
Publisher's link: In Search of Vikings
Google books: In Search of Vikings
Nottingham University: In Search of Vikings
Page last edited by Andy V Byers on 31-07-2016
Comments welcomed: workingtonhistory@gmailcom