400 - 1050

These early years are known as the Dark Ages, mainly due to very little ever being found to explain their lives and routines. Very little pottery is ever found as it wasn't used very much, and of course the houses that were built were made of mud, timer and thatch... and of course these material don't survive for very long in the ground.

In-between the major invasions of the Romans and the Normans, Britain was 'visited' frequently. Some of the invaders are known about (the Angles, the Saxons and the Vikings for example) while some are a bit more mysterious (i.e. the Jutes). Some plundered and left, while others hung around a while to see what was going on. And of course, many never left these shores, whether through death or their own free will. While it is plausible that a few of these peoples may have eventually ended up around Lancashire after a number of years roaming the country, nearly all of these 'invaders' stayed in the more affluent South and East of Britain- after all, it was these parts of the country that were invaded and defeated first.

After the Romans had left the future of the Britons in their own, less than capable hands, things rapidly changed, and while most would have been glad to see the back of their old political masters it brought with it confusion, lawlessness and, at times, all-out bloodshed - a very murky and uncertain time for Leyland Man, with life often being hard, cruel, violent... and frequently quite short.

As a rule, your average Anglo-Saxon didn't care much for recording events... they were usually too busy just trying to survive from day to day. In all probability Leyland Man was not literate enough either (no change there then!!!) and the chances are that if any records or accounts had been kept then they wouldn't have survived the ravages of time. Generally it was only the very highest of landowners and the clergy (monks, nuns etc.) that were capable of reading, writing and recording (individuals such as the Venerable Bede for example).

Leyland Hundred

The land and administration of Leyland must have been prestigious enough as it earned itself the title of a 'Hundred'.
Our 'Leyland 'Hundred' measured about 15 miles south from Preston, to the outskirts of Wigan, and roughly the same from the Snoter stone at 'Hundred' End to Rivington in the East •5. The Townfields are also thought to have developed around these times as well and tiny hamlets would have been located at key points in the landscape (along boundaries such as rivers or around major pathways for example). Hundreds were subdivisions of shires and counties. They were basically a judicial and taxation unit of land that emerged during Saxon times. The size of a Hundred would have varied, but the basis for them was pretty much the same everywhere - it was the area that contained one hundred families, or one hundred 'hides.' A hide (also known as a carucate - see below) was a measure of land which was the amount required by one family and all its dependants. A hundred was a division of the local administration for a very long time, though this ancient division is not found in every county. Lancashire had six individual hundreds - Salford (Manchester), West Derby (Liverpool), Blackburn, Amounderness (Preston & the Fylde), Lonsdale (Southern Cumbria toady) & of course, Leyland. In order to compare places, Cornwall had nine hundreds, Essex had twenty while Norfolk had thirty-three. This is a way of working out how populated a particular area was... the more hundreds there were then the more people there were and the smaller that particular hundred would be.

Leyland Cross

This is the time period that sees Leyland Cross being constructed as well. It could have been used as a meeting place as well as an obvious place to gather water from (there is a Well that is close to it). Before pubs and such like these places would have been like a communal gathering places and it is highly likely it would have been used as a place to preach from as well. It was erected sometime before the first designated church building was constructed in Leyland and it could well have been used as a place of worship as well in early Christian times (crosses are believed to on 'hallowed ground').

Later on in this timespan came the Vikings, and these are known to be active around the Lancashire coastal area. The Vikings and Norsemen used the Lancashire coast as a base from which to launch their attacks on the rich Monasteries of Ireland. Having made their way across from Norway and Denmark they slowly made their way down the Western Scottish Isles, and onwards to Lancashire and the North Wales coast.

Coins and other finary was found in the famous Curedale Hoard on the banks of the Ribble in the 1800's after a storm had washed part of the riverbank away. These items were from Saxon and Norse origins as well as from Ireland and were thought to have been hidden here possibly after an attack on Ireland but more probably while fleeing from the Irish mainland (during a period of persicution perhaps) with the obvious intention to pick them up at a later date. For the person that buried them that time obviously never came...

What else is happening...

Under Construction