by Gerry Spoors
"Now they were beginning to harry from the south and one day news came that an organised band of Angli was creating havoc in the area around the old Roman settlement of Guinnon, known by the Romans as Vinovium (Binchester), which was half a day’s march away. Arthur gathered his horsemen together and they set off to Vinovium to find that the Angli had already taken the fort.
"On arrival, Arthur decided to wait until his foot soldiers came, and in the meantime he would cut off as many of the in-roads into the fort as he could. When his men arrived, he decided to wait overnight as he surmised that the Angli had little in the way of provisions with them and would soon become hungry. The next day dawned, but Arthur stayed put until late afternoon. His men had been well provided for by the people of the local villages, and they were hungry for battle. So Arthur gave the cry to attack and they were soon able to breach the walls of the fort, which had been partly ruined by farmers taking stones for their own use. The Angli were stubborn, but, it seems, not in good condition after days of marching and lack of provisions and were soon worn down by the Votadini.
“After visiting the local villages to assess the damage done by the Angli, Arthur undertook to see what help he could provide in the future. He appointed a group of his most trusted advisors to establish how the Angles could be held at bay and how to maintain the loyalty of the local inhabitants. This was to be typical of his approach from then on, as he realised that he couldn’t always be in two or more places at once when his kingdom was troubled by Angles and Picts.”
Chapter 8
“I think we need a bit of a break—fancy some more coffee, anyone?” This was Wilko interrupting proceedings, and as they sat around sipping it and letting the words of the scrolls sink into their brains, he said, “You know, although some of this account fits with the histories of Gildas, Nennius, William of Malmesbury and Geoffrey of Monmouth, it seems that Arthur had little to do with the area we now know as Wales and certainly nothing to do with Cornwall. But his exploits were obviously well known to his father and brothers in Powys, and with time they would have been embroidered by incorporating all kinds of other early British (Welsh) legends into his story—not to mention the legends of Armorica (Brittany or Little Britain).”
Gerry, who had been relatively quiet lately, was keen to say a couple of things: “But you’ve got to admit that what we’ve heard so far does fit in with the early battles he had, such as the first at the River Glein, and the last of the twelve at Badon. I’ve never believed in the fanciful Arthurian legend stuff, but the agreement of what we’ve uncovered with other aspects such as his wife’s name, Gwynyfawr, is uncanny.” Pam started again:
"Arthur now decided to go on the offensive and particularly targeted the area south of the Tees? River, where Anglian settlers had displaced some of the Brigantes tribe. This time, he gathered a much larger army than before and headed down the Roman road known as Dere Street, dealing with anyone who threatened to stand in his way. Finally, they reached the ancient Roman town of Isurum Brigantum, where the Anglians had gathered in numbers. But they did not seem to be well organised and the local Brigantes were looking for any opportunity to cause disruption to the invaders. Arthur had sent messengers ahead to prepare the Brigantes so that they would create havoc in the town, thus distracting the Anglians who would be caught napping.
“Arthur’s men scattered the Angles, and the Brigantes were able to take back their township for themselves. Arthur had known that although the residents were of a different tribe to him, they hated the Angles and were happy to support his intentions of clearing them from the area, after which they would take over their own defensive duties. So there was no real battle, as the Angles didn’t have the spirit or the heart to oppose the Votadini.”
“There is some disintegration to the manuscript at this point but from the words that I could make out, it was to the effect that”:
"Further down Dere Street is the Roman city of Eboracum, which, despite the defences left by the Romans, the Votadini were able to enter under cover of darkness. Many of the Parisii tribe were still there but the Angli were making their life miserable. Here Arthur carried out a purge. He learnt that the Angles had also become well established south of the river called Humber in an area called Linnuis and had even settled in the Roman city of Lindum. He was determined to clear them from here also, so having recruited men from the Parisii, he set off down Ermine Street.
"The Angli must have had warning of Arthur’s approach as they sent a war-band to meet him. Arthur knew nothing of this, as his scouts had come across a large area of marshland and had skirted around it.
"However, the Angli seemed to know the area very well and were able to avoid the wetlands and took Arthur completely by surprise. A truly bloody battle ensued and both sides lost many men. In the end, both groups decided to withdraw and Arthur decided to save what he could of his army.
"Arthur realised that he could only effectively control the area known as Deira and that to try to hold on to the territory south of Eboracum would be a big mistake. He hoped that the Brigantes living north of Eboracum could be trusted to keep the Angles at bay. And of course, he still controlled Bernicia, which, along with Gododdin, was the Votadini homeland. Although Leodonus had been made overlord of the northern Votadini territories, he was a relatively weak soldier, a poor leader and needed a great deal of help. So, Arthur was in effect the ruler of the whole Votadini kingdom, keeping a check on the northern lands with the help of Leodonus at Agned (Traprain) Law.
"The Votadini marched back to Eboracum where they rested and refreshed themselves before heading back to Penchion. Here, Arthur called his captains and advisors together, and they decided that they had to concentrate on land to the north of Eboracum and even then it was dependent on the support of Parisii and Brigantes. Arthur was beginning to realise that the Angli were now becoming too numerous and despite their many weaknesses, one day soon they might just out-number the native people of this island. His priority was to his family and to the Cunedda dynasty.
“Arthur now began to further reinforce Penchion as he felt that it was the best place for his family, should the Angli take the offensive again. However, everything seemed to settle down and for many months he was able to lead a nearly normal family life. But then news came from Leodonus that the Picts were again causing problems in the old lands of Gododdin, and he needed help to push them back. Arthur headed north and together with Leodonus, they encamped at Bowden Hill (near present day Linlithgow?). Within days, hordes of Pictish wild-men gathered in the valley of the Avon (a common name for a river) with the intention of cutting off the Votadini. But Arthur’s men were far superior and he was able to outwit the blue-painted savages of the North. The devastation was overwhelming and those Picts who didn’t die ran for their lives. This was in the year of our Lord 493.”
“Do you think this could be the Badon Hill of legend?” Gerry asked Wilko, who just shrugged his shoulders.
“Arthur was now sufficiently confident to march south again and to leave Leodonus in charge once more. He decided to head for Agned (Traprain Law) and rested there for several days before heading back to Yeavering and Penchion.”
At this point, Pam broke off from the narrative, saying that she was exhausted and needed a rest. She admitted that she’d been overdoing things recently but had wanted to get the job completed. She’d actually finished presenting everything that she and Sheena had translated up till now. She felt that she needed a few days’ rest, but she suggested that Sheena should continue the work and they could keep in touch over phone or email. Anyway, they had completed translating everything from the earliest fourteen jars and the remaining four were those that had been damaged!
Driving home afterwards, Gerry couldn’t get the thought of the possibility of Penchion being modern day Penshaw out of his mind. In fact, they could see Penshaw Hill in the distance, and they resolved to go up there over the coming weekend to have a look round. When he got home, he shared the news with
Kenneth, who was also keen to go up Penshaw Hill again. Gerry got out his copies of the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, which he’d copied page by page on his company’s photocopier. He’d borrowed a book of the Chronicles from the local library and copied a few pages at a time each day.
Turning to the entries for the year 788 (although there is a note in both accounts that it could have been 787), both the Parker and Laud Chronicles state that ‘a synod assembled at Pincanhalh in Northumbria’. An annotation by a 19th or 20th century scholar had it as Pincanheale!
Both Gerry and Kenneth were very familiar with Penshaw, Penshaw Hill and the slopes down to the River Wear. So, on the Saturday, they went to Penshaw, with Elaine and Brodie, their West-Highland terrier, and also with Gerry’s other children, Julie and Geoffrey (who were a few years older than Kenneth and were married and settled with kids of their own). From the top of the hill, which is mostly occupied by the Monument now, they had to try to imagine what it must have been like looking down on the Wear valley 1,500–1,600 years ago, probably mostly covered with trees and small fields here and there.
The village of Penshaw itself lies west of the hill, about half a mile away. Gerry thought that this would have been a fairly secure place for Penchion Township as it was also in an elevated position, but perhaps there had been an earlier village down nearer the river. He was going to have to do more research but he felt that it was highly plausible that Penchion had indeed been here—especially because the scrolls mentioned the hill and Penshaw Hill was just south of the river that the team had identified as the River Wear.
Chapter 9
In fact, Pam was off work for several weeks and Sheena worked hard on the remaining scrolls, but many of them were in such poor conditions that she had difficulty making sense of them. This gave the team the chance to do a more in-depth analysis to confirm the dates when the scrolls were produced and when they were deposited at Yeavering.
Dating of the scrolls was carried out using radiocarbon dating, and other analytical techniques such as gas chromatography and X-Ray fluorescence, were employed on the jar material and on extraneous soil and rock collected from the site and from the outside of the jars. All of this confirmed that the jars had been in situ since the early 6th century. However, there was a difference in the last four jars and the feeling was that they were perhaps put there slightly later or not put in place quite so gently or carefully. Maybe there had been some urgency to finish writing and storing the scrolls and securely concealing them.
When Pam returned to work, a meeting was convened to discuss the next move. It was decided that Pam and Sheena would shelve the work on the remaining scrolls, as it was much more important to reveal what they had up till now. Once the findings were exposed, Sheena could spend much more time on making sense of the later scrolls—even if the information contained in them was intermittent—and this would enable her to finish her PhD. Whatever they could glean from them could well be vital in understanding what happened to Arthur.
Meanwhile, it was time to start thinking about revealing everything to the world, and they were all in agreement with this. They needed to stop inaccurate stories or misinformation leaking out. However, what they couldn’t agree on was how to do it. Opinions were divided between a book (but how long would it take and who would write it?) and a major TV documentary (this was Gerry’s favourite because someone else would do the work, and it would be wonderful if the BBC was interested). They would of course now have to approach the landowner, Thomas Beattie, to get formal permission as the jars and their contents belonged to him.
Also, after discussion with the others, he thought it was time to bring Alan Coulson, the Director of the Newcastle Natural History Museum into the inner circle. After all, Alan would have been Gerry’s first contact if he hadn’t have been on an extended holiday and combined secondment when he found the jars. Gerry made an appointment with Alan, who remembered Kenneth and him, and he was absolutely bowled over when he heard the story. Gerry needed someone like Alan, who knew how to store artefacts safely and securely and could advise about display and so on. Gerry reported the outcome of the meeting to the others and they were all very happy with his report. Alan was now invited to join future discussions.
Gerry’s idea was to ask the BBC to see if they would be interested in employing a film production company to tell the whole story, maybe even as a series. The more he thought about it, the better it sounded as, provided the secret didn’t leak out first, the audience could be huge. The story would be a faithful narrative of the discovery of the jars and the work at Newcastle. This would be interspersed with actual history as revealed by the scrolls. But the whole thing could be very expensive and finance might be a problem. So the first thing might have to be a ‘revelation’ of the findings in (say) a one-hour review of the work. Anyway, he would make some enquiries to see if he could get some support, without letting the cat out of the bag.
Of one thing he was sure, though: the jars and scrolls would have to be part of a major display at Newcastle Natural History Museum and Alan Coulson was actioned to seek support from the Museum’s Board and Newcastle City Council to make immediate plans. No doubt, in the future the British Museum would be after the exhibits, but not before the North-East of England (Bernicia and Deira) had benefitted from the discovery.
Gerry went to see Thomas Beattie again to keep him up-to-date with developments and to ask for formal permission for the revelation; and to allow the jars and scrolls to be used in whatever documentary or news bulletin that would come to pass. Tom was delighted to do this and to give his agreement for the artefacts to be kept at Newcastle Museum. Being a very modest man, he didn’t push for any sort of plaque to acknowledge his ownership or permission to display, but Gerry felt that this was necessary.
Gerry, Pam, Wilko and Alan made contact with the BBC and were invited to meet with the Head of Documentaries and his team in London. To say that the BBC executives were dumbfounded would be an understatement. They were sold on the idea of a one-hour documentary, which would cover the facts of the investigation and the story as revealed would be narrated. There would be no frills, as they felt that the revelation that Arthur was an historical figure would be enough to attract a large audience. During the meeting, Gerry asked if it would be possible for the 9 o’clock news to trail the programme. After all, this was a piece of major news. He felt that if the discovery could be on the news headlines (depending on other news that day, of course) and after a couple of short interviews, it could be mentioned that the documentary was to be shown later in the year. This was to make sure that the news was given to the world before any leaks occurred.
Everyone agreed that this was a great idea and for the next couple of weeks preparations were made for the news item. The Head of News Programmes was very happy with the suggestion which would probably be introduced as:
"The BBC has learned that a team of archaeologists, scientists and amateur sleuths have uncovered definitive proof that there was a man called Arthur who was the King of a tribe in Northern Britain, called the Votadini. A full account of his life has been discovered on numerous scrolls found buried on a hill in North Northumberland.
“More details from our correspondent in Newcastle…”
Epilogue
“Well, what a roller-coaster journey that was! The mystery of Arthur solved at last—what an achievement—and thanks to all of you for your splendid work.”
This was Gerry speaking to the team as they gathered in a magnificent function room at St James’s Park, Newcastle United’s ground. What better place could they have chosen to celebrate the success of the project? They were all there with their spouses or partners. It had been many months now since they had first met, and since then the first news stories and mini-documentary had been shown on the BBC, followed by articles and interviews in the press.
Once the fees started to come in, it had been necessary to set up ‘proper accounts’ to make sure money was allocated to Sheena’s continu
ing study, to the various departmental costs, to travelling expenses and so on. It was all done above board and Tom Beattie had become very much part of the team. He wasn’t bothered about making any money out of the project but wanted to ensure that ‘fair was fair’. In fact, he’d offered his private accountant to oversee financial matters, which was welcomed by everyone.
There were now plans to make a TV series which would go into more depth than the original one-hour documentary. And, this would include dramatisation of the historical record as narrated in the scrolls, as well as the presumably fictional account of how the Votadini arrived in Britain. All seemed straightforward, but then Pam suddenly stood up and with Sheena, set up her laptop, coupling it to a projector that was available to them.
“What’s this then, Pam?” asked Wilko.
“Well, you may not have noticed, but while you lot have been bathing in international exposure, Sheena and I have been beavering away at the mundane task of deciphering the text in two of the later scrolls. Although we’ve had great difficulty in making sense of much of the text, we have been able to put some sections together.”
“And?” “Yes?” “Really!” and various other exclamations came from those gathered.
“Well, you’d better hold on to your hats, because what we’ve now discovered is almost as exciting as our discovery of the real Arthur!”
“The final scrolls are definitely written by another hand. I think I remember from Gerry’s photos that the jars in which they were contained, were together in the ‘pit’ and to one side. This could indicate that they were an afterthought or else the chamber was opened up years later with further historical details. The writing isn’t as good and the scrolls are not quite as well preserved. But, anyway, to cut a long story short—they mention Bearnoch…”
