Fragments of a seventh century Welsh poem, Y Gododdin, tells us that Æthelfrith secured a decisive victory and it was one from which the Kingdom of Northumbria would emerge. Catterick, close to the Roman Dere Street and where the road splits westwards to Carlisle or north to Corbridge on Hadrian’s Wall, was the strategic location of the battle. The battle is barely visible through the mists of time, but It is possible that increasing westward Anglo-Saxon incursions were threatening to cut the line of communication between the Britons of Lothian and the Britons of North Wales. Their foe was a native British army from Lothian in southern Scotland, aided by a contingent from North Wales. The army was led by the Bernician King Æthelfrith, perhaps more warlord than king, but he was able to rally Anglo-Saxon men from across the north of England. It begins at Catterick in 604, an army was raised from the kingdoms of Deira (Yorkshire), Bernicia (County Durham and Northumberland) and Reghed (Cumbria). In this first part we will travel from dark age beach markets at Filey Bay, hear echoes of a bloody battle at Catterick in a seventh century Welsh poem and witness a mysterious figure arrive at the camp fire of a condemned king a northern version of Alfred burning his cakes in the marshes at Athelney. It was called Northumbria, the lands north of the Humber. A kingdom that produced the greatest written text of dark age Europe. A kingdom that set the template for the modern Anglo-Saxon state. It was a kingdom forged in battle and lost in battle.
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