Hixon History Society

In July we were given an intriguingly titled talk on The Saint and the Viking by Dr. Charlotte Ball. This was the story about the village of Repton in south Derbyshire, which was at one time a major settlement of the Kingdom of Mercia. There was an Anglo Saxon abbey established there which had been used for the burial of a Mercian king. The crypt is still there today and was built in the eighth century, but was used as a mausoleum. The saint in the title was St. Wystan (Wigstan) who was a Mercian prince who became king on the death of his father Wigmund. As he was still a young man, his mother Aelfflaed, became regent in his place. However his uncle and godfather Beorhtfrith wanting to take the throne wanted to marry Wystan’s mother, but Wystan refused saying that they were too closely related. Beorhtfrith, visited him, supposedly in peace, but when they greeted each other he struck Wystan on the head with his dagger and his servant stabbed him with a sword killing him. This occurred in Wistow, Leicestershire in 849 AD. It was said that there were miracles surrounding the young prince immediately afterwards. His body was taken to the abbey at Repton and placed in the crypt which became a site of pilgrimage. Dr Ball told us about excavations at Repton in the 1970's & 80's which uncovered a D shaped enclosure abutting the church and the old Trent river. Two graves were excavated next to the church and the remains were obviously Viking, and both seem to have died violently. One grave clearly belonged to a warrior and contained a sword and a pendant of Thors hammer. There was very little accurate dating evidence at the time but subsequent carbon dating put both individuals into the right time frame. Dr. Ball gave us much other interesting information about the impact of the Vikings in Anglo Saxon Mercia. 

Please note that our next meeting will be on Tuesday September 8th at 8-00pm in Hixon Memorial Hall with Michael Morton speaking on The story of coal mining.

All meetings start at 8-00pm. 

The fee is £2-00 per person. All welcome. 

John Egginton