Calder and the Wharfe; here for nearly one hundred years they defied the arms of the invaders, but were finally conquered about the year 616 by Edwin of Northumbria, after which, the victors gradually spread themselves over the conquered land; the rivers and streams were the highways over which they travelled, and as these settlers fought their way up the Calder, the Britons, though contesting the soil inch by inch, were slowly but steadily driven from the lands which they and their forefathers had held so long. The invaders came in bands, bringing their wives, their children and even their cattle, so that permanent settlements were quickly formed; those who settled in Elmet became known as the Elmedsetna, and as they came creeping up the river, now known as Calder, in their flat-bottomed boats, their attention must have been attracted by the two natural hills, one on either side the water, and only a short mile apart, which hills, if fortified, would command the further passage up the river, which must always have been an open and dangerous highway to the wooded valley beyond. Doubtless settlements on both the heights which we now know as Sandal hill and Lowe hill took place, and the early history of the one is that of the other. The new inhabitants of the district found it incumbent upon them to form a strong fortress, serviceable in the feuds of tribe against tribe, or family against family, and one in which their women and children, their flocks and herds, could be safely placed in time of war. For this reason the head of the family that settled at Sandal began in the eighth century to fortify his home; choosing the highest point of the sloping ground, he raised an artificial hillock on its summit by digging a wide and deep moat around, and throwing the soil so obtained into the centre, and thus a double fortification-a mound 46 feet high, 1710 feet in area at its summit, and a moat from 13 to 18 feet deep and 70 feet in width-was formed at the same time. Lying on the east of the moated mound is a level platform-the base-court-somewhat semilunar in shape, its concavity being applied to the east side of the mound; this base-court is itself entirely surrounded by a deep moat, and contains an area of about 22,680 square feet. Around the summit of the mound ran a close palisading; around the base of the mound and the court, along the inner edge of the moat, was another stockade or quickset hedge, and on the outer great bank or counterscarp of the ditch was erected a strong palisade. On the summit of the mound stood the English thegn's home, the walls of which were constructed of trunks of trees sawn in half lengthwise, and set upright against each other, then securely fixed by cross-pieces; the thatched roof had a hole in the centre for the smoke to escape, similar in this respect to the crofter huts still to be seen in the isle of Skye; the hearthstone was in the centre of the mud floor of the hall, from which the chambers for the women and the household opened. Within the base-court rose the wattled or wooden huts of the serfs, the sheds for the horses and cattle, the barn and the brew-house, for our English forefathers loved their ale. Thus Sandal was a true type of an English burh or fortified house. And what manner of men were those who lived here in the eighth and ninth centuries? The hall was the common living-place of all the dwellers within the homestead; here they met at mealtimes, the lord above the salt, the serf at the lower end of the board, and in the long winter evenings "the gleeman sang his song, and the harp was passed from hand to hand; here too, when night came and the fire died down, was the common sleeping place, and the men lay down to rest on the bundles of straw which they had strewn about its floor." 1 Their dress was partly that of the ploughboy of the present day-a smock-frock, or coarse linen overcoat that fell to the knees, and whose tight sleeves and breast were worked with embroidery. Feet and legs were wrapped in linen bands, cross-gaitered and parti-coloured, as high as the knees; a hood sheltered the head in wintertide; the wealthy man threw over his frock a short cloak of blue cloth, embroidered, and fastened at the shoulder with a costly buckle. Around the burh lay the home pastures, with the flocks under the watchful guardianship of the shepherds and their great dogs, to protect them from attacks of bears and wolves; patches of cornfield and plots of flax broke the forest of oak, elm and beech, where swineherds tended the hogs in their search for mast. Down by the river, which has altered its course, and was then nearer the castle hill than at the present 1 Green, The Making of England, 185. |