Tunics, Ponchos and Pigs

Everybody knows that back in the old days, long before William the Conqueror set his beady French eye on our green and boggy island, the Saxons had infiltrated our shores and had eventually, following the odd skirmish or two with our Celto/Norse aborigines, become the dominant race.
So we thought to ourselves that it might be a good idea to write an article about the appearance and lifestyle etc. of these people, just for the sake of it, you understand, in attempt to bring our local history a bit more to life. (God knows it probably needs a bit of resuscitation.)
So, where to begin? Well, when it came to their general appearance, Saxons weren’t an awful lot different from the Norse. Mainly they wore woollen or linen clothes, their favourite garment being a narrow-sleeved tunic fastened at the wrists with hooks or laces, often dyed in bright colours.
Men’s tunics were short affairs, whereas women’s were generally treated as underskirts and covered with sleeveless poncho-style dresses created by gathering the material up at the shoulders. (Laura Ashley eat your heart out.) These were then held in place by ornate brooches and decorated with braid or embroidery, sometimes even fine strands of gold being woven into the fabric.
In cold weather, such as you’d expect from typical Fylde and Wyre winters…and possibly summers as well…women also wore trousers beneath their dresses, which just goes to prove there’s nothing new in the fashion industry.


As can be seen in the illustration above, which shows a female Saxon recreationist busily filling a pot over an outside fire, they also covered their heads with silk or linen wraps, carried small bags and sometimes even wore girdles. (A number of people have suggested that I could benefit from a scarf wrapped around my head and a very strong girdle…but that’s another story.)
Men wore breeches, leggings and leather shoes fastened by cross garters up to the knees. Being a bit more macho, however, they required a number of additional accessories to their general costumes, such as helmets, battleaxes, wooden shields and spears.
Being it a hierarchal society only those members of the upper classes, such as earls and thanes, were allowed to carry swords, as demonstrated by another recreationist in our illustration below.


Incidentally, recreationists such as these are excellent for bringing local history to life. Putting on public displays over the summer, in which battle techniques and Saxon cookery are demonstrated, also keeps them out of mischief at the weekends.
With a similar leaning towards displaying their social status as the men-folk, aristocratic women often wore jewellery such as necklaces and bracelets made from gold, amber, crystal or coloured glass beads. The Saxons living around local haunts such as Marton, Layton, Thornton, Wood Plumpton, Pilling et al, appear to have been mainly of agricultural stock, so it’s hardly surprising that finds of trinkets from this period are few and far between.
There was one Saxon bead, however, dug up at Newers Wood chapel in Pilling. (Well…at least it was probably Saxon. The Norse wore remarkably similar beads, but whatever the case it stemmed from that particular period of history.) Want to see what it looked like? Fair enough, here you go.


Yes, you’re right. It is a small picture. Then again it was only a small bead, so what did you expect?
In a class of their own were the Saxon priests who wore long white tunics with short sleeves, cloaks with hoods, and mantles that hung from their left shoulders. (That’s mantles, not mantelpieces. Anybody attempting to recreate the Saxon style of dress at home should take note of this.)
As far as their domestic necessities went, Saxons turned cups, bowls and spoons on simple but effective pole lathes, whilst other household items made of pottery were baked around a fire.
More often than not pigs were given free range to wander around the village, eating the scraps discarded by residents, whilst hens were allowed to roost in the surrounding trees.
Some, although not all, of the Saxons around the Fylde and Wyre would have rented their land. The title of thanes, however, was granted to those who owned at least five hides (one hide being the amount of land required to provide a living…so the actual measurements are anybody’s guess).
Ceorls, on the other hand, were regarded as lower in status, but only because their land ownership was smaller.
In all other respects a ceorl could actually be richer than a thane. All of which brings us to Carleton, its name being a corruption of ‘The Township of the Ceorls’, indicating that some of our local Saxons had a great deal of wealth.
So, there you go…a brief snapshot of the Saxon way of life in the Fylde and Wyre (and everywhere else in Britain as well). So, if you didn’t already know this stuff beforehand, the next time we mention the Saxons you’ll have a better understanding of who and what we’re talking about.