King Edmund's Eyot Traditional Cache

A cache placed near the likely site of a major historic event of the Anglo-Saxon period. As this is a serious floodplain, it has been placed high up to avoid muggling by the River Severn! You can walk to it from Deerhurst village, which has parking, or either way along the Severn Way footpath.

It doesn't look much like an island today, but 1000 years ago this area of meadow was entirely surrounded by water and could only be accessed by boat. The Severn was bigger and more sprawling, and what is now riverside meadow was once an eyot (pronounced 'eight') – a river island. As the Severn shrunk away over time the eyot was left dry, although its outline is still just about visible. On Victorian OS maps this strip of land was still known as the Naight (eyot).

In the early 11th century there was a long struggle by the English Saxons, under the Kings Æthelred the Unready and his son Edmund Ironside, to fend off the invading forces of the Danish King Cnut. The Danes came in 200 shining longships tipped with silver and gold, "the men of metal, menacing with golden face", terrorising and overwhelming every part of the country. After a vicious battle in Essex, King Edmund Ironside fled west, possibly hoping to find some support across the Welsh border, but Cnut caught up with him at the River Severn. And so it was at Deerhurst that the two kings met in October 1016, on an eyot in the Severn which they were taken to by fishing-boat, and signed a truce. Cnut was to have all of England north of the Thames, but Edmund Ironside was to keep southern England, including London, for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, the rest of his life turned out to be only six weeks. His death at the end of November 1016 forfeited the rest of the English lands to Cnut. The circumstances of the young king's demise are lost to history, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes no mention of any suspicion of foul deeds, so presumably the cause was natural. Cnut consolidated his position by marrying King Æthelred's widow Emma the following year, while still keeping his first wife Ælfgifu as a spare, and went on to help himself to Norway and a few bits of Sweden. He is most famous, of course, for getting his boots wet on a beach in Southampton.

More on the history of the area can be found on my Deerhurst blog page.