Anglo-Saxon - 410AD - 1066
When Roman control came to an end, various groups of
settlers arrived from places such as Germany and Denmark. These
people, the Anglo-Saxons, had a very different way of life to that
of the Romano-British. They were not part of a huge empire and
tended to live self-sufficiently in small farmstead settlements.
The great pottery industries of the Nene Valley were abandoned, the
palace at Castor and many villas in the surrounding countryside
were left to fall down or robbed for their stone. Even the town of
Durobrivae was not maintained and gradually was forgotten.Anglo-Saxon settlements, consisting of small clusters of
timber houses, have been found at Woodston, Orton Longueville and
Maxey. Evidence of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship can be seen in the
spectacular artefacts found in the pre-Christian cemeteries at
Woodston, Gunthorpe and Alwalton.
About 1,400 years
ago, the Peterborough area lay on the boundary of two great
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercia to the west and East Anglia to the
east and Christianity was becoming the established religion. Pious
Anglo-Saxons, like St Guthlac, came to dwell as hermits in the
fens, or to establish religious houses. Peterborough abbey was
founded by Mercian royalty on the site of the present
Cathedral.A settlement at Peterborough, originally named Medeshamstede
grew up around the abbey. It was re-named "Burgh" when it was
enclosed by a defensive wall and ditch about a thousand years ago.
"Burgh" was an Old English word for a fortified settlement. Later
on it became known as "Burgh St Peter", from which we derive the
present-day Peterborough. The town and abbey were attacked by the
Vikings in 870AD and probably formed part of the Danelaw, the
Viking part of England, for a time.