Conservation Management Plan - Tamworth Borough Council

A widely promulgated theory is that early Norman Motte and Bailey castles might be deliberately sighted on former
Saxon high status sites in order to slight them (Liddiard 2004:30). It has been suggested that Tamworth Castle might
have been sited on the site of Offa’s palace (Meeson 2006:7).Wainwright dug in the bailey in 1960 to try and locate
‘Offa’s Palace’ but found nothing conclusive, although he did not publish his results and the records, housed within
the castle archives are piecemeal and tantalising. What survives of the Bailey remains an area of high archaeological
significance, and the potential buried remains of Saxo-Norman timber buildings would be particularly fragile, so it
must receive full protection in its management.
As recently as 1966, scholars interpreted the herringbone masonry wall of the causeway leading up the motte as
late Saxon (HM Taylor 1966) and others have suggested it was part of Offa’s palace, and that motte was built up
against it. Herringbone masonry is widely used in churches, but it is not in itself diagnostic and it can be impossible
to distinguish between pre-and post-conquest work.
Meeson has provided a plausible, and widely accepted suggested location for the palace in the enclosure
surrounding St Editha’s church (Meeson 1979: 22-30). However Blair, has suggested that many potential high
status ‘palace’ sites, like Northampton and Cheddar may actually be high status religious houses, which provided
hospitality to itinerant kings. It is entirely possible that the religious and secular high status sites at Tamworth were
in separate enclosures, perhaps this is one interpretation of the large ditch running east west between Church
Street and Market Street?
St Editha’s Church
Although none of the fabric of St Editha’s church is definitely pre-conquest there is little doubt that there was a
church on this site in the Saxon period. The location of the church at the dead centre of the Saxon defences and
within the smaller enclosure postulated by Meeson, makes it highly likely that there was an important Saxon church
or monasterium here. In the medieval period the church was administered by a college of priests rather than by a
single rector/vicar and was by the 14 th century a royal free chapel, both of which are indicative of an early status as a
minster church from which priest s were sent out to preach in outlying areas before the establishment of the parish
system. William Marmion, son of Robert Marmion III (the Justiciar) was Dean of St Editha’s in the mid 12 th century.
The collegiate church of St Edith, was founded in the 10 th century, and had a full prebendal system introduced in
the 1130s, by Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Coventry. There is confusion over which Editha the church was dedicated
to. Roger of Wendover, writing in the 13 th century, is the source of this confusion. He wrongly stated that Editha,
sister of Athelstan married Sihtric, king of Northumbrians and later founded a monastery at Polesworth, close to
Tamworth. Earlier sources make it clear that Athelstan married his sister Editha to the Emperor Otto in 930 and that
she died at Magdeburg in 946 as the recent identification of her body there reminds us.
The nunnery at Polesworth may have been associated, with the church. Ninth century sources list Edgyth as abbess
of an unknown nunnery. Gould has suggested that the most likely candidate is Edith sister of the West Saxon king
Aethelwulf (839-858) an alternative is Edith the daughter of King Egbert, who founded Polesworth Abbey in 827. The
most likely date for the dedication of the church to St Edith is the 12 th century when it was rebuilt by the Marmion
family who also held churches with the same dedication at Polesworth and Pulverbatch. (Gould 1985-6; Meeson
1979, 47-8).
We don’t know what happened to the church in era of Danish invasions. The Viking army over-wintered at Repton,
only 15 miles from Tamworth in 874-5, and the Mercian King Burghred was driven out and replaced by King
Ceolwulf II who followed a policy of appeasement. In 877 the Mercian kingdom was divided between the Danes and
king Ceolwulf.
The Anglo Saxon chronicle tells us the kingdom of Mercia was ravaged at this time and it has been suggested that
Tamworth was destroyed by the Danes. However there is no specific mention of this in the Anglo Saxon chronicle.
It is possible that the first phase of the Town Ditch actually belongs to a Danish phase of occupation of the town
(Shaw 2010), which is recollected by the Danish street names Gumpengate and Alldergate.
In 913 Tamworth was retaken by Aethelflaed, and she died there in 918. A measure of its strategic importance as
a place at this time, is that after Athelstan seized control of Mercia, the Saxon nobles gathered at Tamworth for a
Great Council and declared Athelstan ‘King of all the English’. In 925 it was chosen to be the site of a peace treaty
between Athelstan and the Danish King Sihtric of Northumbria at which time Sihtric married one of Athelstan’s
sisters and briefly accepted the Christian faith.
Tamworth Castle Conservation Management Plan www.marionblockley.co.uk
Part 1
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