I know that the “village” I live in has at least 1100 years of history and that at one time it had a castle (long gone) of its own, but the minutiae of history has never gripped me. We won wars, we lost a few, we invented many things and kick-started the world’s industrial revolution; we, the peoples of Great Britain: the “Brits”, the “English” (an inclusive substitute for the Welsh, Scots, Irish and English) have done quite a bit in history, but that’s just “history” right?
No!
Not today, for today I remember my very own bit of history and what’s more it’s in my own back yard and I know that for I dug it up. A commonplace discovery finally fired a desire to learn some history – the minutiae of some history.
It was the day to dig-out the root ball and stump of a felled tree and so reluctantly I started. Dig dig dig, boring boring boring, aching aching aching and then time for lunch. Then more digging and a reward that was as unexpectedly pleasurable as it was unexpected.
I struck a brick in the soil about 1 foot (30cm) down and not being able to break it I decided to dig to its left: another brick. Left again and another brick; a little further North and another brick, with the same to the South. I had decided to dig-out the tree from hell, but things quickly got better, when I realised this tree must have grown up against the side of a building, a pretty big one at that for the building’s wall had not yielded at all: the tree had a flat-edged stump underground and all its major roots headed in the same direction. With that knowledge the tree was quickly excised, revealing a redbrick façade 4 bricks deep. Wow – my first bit of interesting history!
With the tree conquered and dying on the lawn I reviewed my options: to fill in the hole and start on the next stump or pretend I was looking for every root.
I scraped the top of the bricks I had exposed thus far and confirmed they were of the same level and an hour later, all aching gone, I had my own piece of history: a brick built wall 4 bricks wide and at least 4 bricks deep underground. I exposed a 3 foot section and on its inside (for the tree must have been outside) a brick paving, of which I have currently exposed about 4 square feet. I am guessing it is a floor of the structure as it too is level.
The thickness of the wall, the brick size and the depth of the footing suggest a big old building, perhaps a farm building as this area is still agricultural. It appears to run across our garden with the “paving” toward the end of the garden, but only more digging will tell the truth. A few hours searching on the Net may reveal some local history and hopefully a map, but I will report on this again.
P.S. My back was killing me!
UPDATE 10/11/2023:
Sourced from "Anlaby: The History Of An East Yorkshire Village 867-2000" by an Anlaby resident called Renton Heathcote.
A 9th century Danish "Jarl" or military commander named Anlaf decided he wanted to settle with his men in this area, so in 867 he agreed with "ealdorman" (high ranking official(s) at nearby Beverley, that he would create a new permanent settlement on unoccupied land between the port (then) of Hessle and Cottingham (now the largest village in the UK), and that his men be allowed to choose wives from these and two other nearby villages (still here) of Weighton and Riplingham.
In return the Danes cleared the chosen land and thereafter called it Anlafby, becoming Anlafsbyr and finally Anlaby over subsequent history; they had to agree to "behave themselves" by respecting other people (Danes) similarly granted rights of settlement in what became known as Willerby (Villaby), Skidby, Tranby and Ferriby (then a port for a ferry across the Humber estuary to the South).
The suffix "by" or "byr" meant farms of, though all of these settlements are predated by an ancient administrating settlement called Wyke (four miles to the East), centuries later renamed Kingston-Upon-Hull (the Kings town upon the river Hull) in 1299, following the grant of a royal wool trade charter. This is now the 16th largest city in the UK.
Anlaf's direct descendants (the Anlabys) became one of the two dominant aristocratic families in the area (the others were Normans - the Legards). In the 19th Century, when Kingston-Upon-Hull's seaport started to flourish, rich merchants looked to live beyond there and between 1800 and 1900 the population of Anlaby grew by 500 to 800. Now it is home to a few thousand.
This is the ultra rare "definitive" history of Anlaby village in East Yorkshire. Written by a local, Renton Heathcote, it was a private pressing.
To this day Anlaf's founder status remains recognised by the name of a central Anlaby street called Anlafgate.
Here's what contributors to Wikipedia have to say about Anlaby
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