THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

SAXONS ARE COMING

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003.

First published in Along the Furlong in August 2003.

One day I received an e-mail asking me a pertinent question which every schoolboy should know the answer to.    At the time I did not know if John was aged 8, 18 or 80.....

Not wishing to take up the position of Education Officer on the website, I threw the question out to the surfers and Neil gave an excellent answer.   I thought it worth repeating in the event that there are any more Johns around wondering about the origins of the Saxons.

Refortification of the Cissbury summit above the Findon area took place late in the Romano-British period when Saxon pirates began threatening the Sussex coast.  

At this period there was a community of homesteads on the slopes of the valley separating the Blackpatch hillside and the Muntham woodland.  Evidence has been discovered of a Romano-British settlement on the Park Brow hill beyond Canada Barn to the east of Findon.

Around 350 AD the Romano-British presence began to diminish on the great Cissbury hilltop.  The landmark slowly began to revert back to a deserted open space and by c.410 A.D. the great earthwork above the village was finally abandoned to nature.  The Roman legions, garrisons and naval forces had departed and our island was ripe for invasion.  This came about some 60 years after the last of the Romans departed these shores, and it came in the form of the Saxons.   The area of Sussex had by this time become isolated from the rest of England, the Wealden Forest was a great barrier.

The local population in the Findon environs became very nervous having received word of sightings from downland vantage points of strange boats scouting from the horizon.

Britain was beginning to look inviting and more accessible and sinister Saxon ships headed for the Sussex shoreline each propelled by stalwart oarsmen.   Fear and uncertainty most likely entered the minds of the Findon population.  The Cissbury hilltop would have been a splendid place to watch for pirate fleets coming into view between what we now know as Beachy Head and the Isle of Wight.  The first Saxon landings were c.457 A.D. recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 

The pagan Saxon infantry landed at nearby Selsey, (within sight of Cissbury Ring if it was a clear day), and the fierce hordes stormed up the valleys, frightening the local native tribes and plundering all.  The first real Saxon conquest was of Regnum (later to be renamed Chichester).   The area was immediately taken unawares and fell without much opposition. 

Abandoned by the Romans, local inhabitants defended their “kingdom” with boldness and met with some success for it is reputed that it took the Saxons a full eight years to cross the county from Chichester, (passing through the Findon countryside at some point), to Pevensey in the east.  Deprived of the protection of the Roman legions, the Findon area was defenceless against them and had to meet their enemy head on.  

Did the resourceful local dwellers in the Findon area attempt to beat back the marauding besiegers by pressing their enemy with archers and darts thrown with thongs — before making a hasty retreat to the woods? 

There was wholesale slaughter at the downland village at Park Brow above Stump Bottom to the south of No Man's Land around 477 A.D.   In the ensuing battle the native inhabitants were most likely devoured by the sword.  The entire settlement was burned to the ground with such savagery that no adult, child or animal could have survived.   It was completely erased with no vestige left as to where it had once stood.  The area remained a deserted grassland pasture until modern excavations of the area brought it to light again.

And now for a somewhat eerie reminiscence all the way from the land of the kiwi which may have some relevance to the sacking of this community at Park Brow above Stump Bottom.  In March 2003, Jean Chainey, (who had lived in Fox Lea in Findon some ten years ago and now resides in New Zealand), emailed me.....

The Cissbury hilltop would have appeared at first as a formidable fortress to the invading Saxons.  The local authorities of Findon appear to have surrendered it to the Saxons without undergoing a siege.   A pit containing a considerable store of sling stones has been discovered there but no real evidence of an extended siege or fight for possession of the massive stronghold.  Legend says that Cissa, the early Saxon leader, resided at the Cissbury garrison, which may, or may not, be true.

The Saxons proceeded to trek out into the Findon countryside in small pioneering groups to form settlements.  They soon encountered difficulty in hauling their wheeled vehicles across the quagmires in winter and deep ruts in summer.  They took by force any selected location and consolidated their gains and commenced farming the conquered land. With great iron axes they cleared the trees from wooded valleys and opened them up.  The downland was left as pasture or sheepwalk.  The Saxons built settlements and lived in close groups of dwellings surrounded by their cultivated fields.

By A.D.897 the area was designated the land of the South Saxons. 

Slowly Christianity replaced the worship of Wotan and Thor.  In 1053 A.D., Findon was put on the Saxon map and came into recorded history.  A contract was made in that year and is now in the keeping of Magdalen College, Oxford, and mentions Findon.   A supply of timber for a church at Findon is recorded.   Therefore, in Saxon days there was a church in Findon, or at any rate there was one being prepared of wood with a thatched roof.  This most likely stood on the site of St. John the Baptist Church.

The use of timber by the Saxons for practically all building purposes means that we now have no trace of the Saxon village or its church.

There may also have been an ancient fair in Findon in Saxon or even earlier times, a theory perhaps corroborated by the number of old tracks that converge on the area of the village. 

Continue if you would like to read about The Saxons in Findon.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.