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Archenfield (Old English: Ircingafeld, Middle English: "Irchenfield")Map of Britain in the Dark Ages 2nd Edition (Ordnance Survey, 1966) is the historic English name for an area of southern and western Herefordshire in England. Since the Anglo-Saxons took over the region in the 8th century, it has stretched between the River Monnow and River Wye, but it derives from the once much larger Welsh people kingdom of Ergyng.
Herefordshire Archaeology Record provides some context for the 9th century in the south of the county:
In the 870s Viking raids continued in the area, while Wessex was ruled by Alfred the Great and Mercia by Ceolwulf II. In 2015, a large hoard of buried treasure was found in a field near Leominster, consisting mainly of Saxon jewellery and silver ingots, with two remarkable silver pennies, previously-unknown "two emperor" coins showing the heads of both Alfred and Ceowulf and dating to around 879. The find hints at an alliance between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. Gareth Williams, curator of early medieval coins at the British Museum, commented in 2019 "These coins enable us to re-interpret our history at a key moment in the creation of England as a single kingdom". The treasure was found by two metal detectors operating outside the law, and they were convicted.
A ravaging of Archenfield by the Danes in 905 is reported in the 1870-72 Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales:
In 914, the area was invaded by Vikings led by Ottir and Hroald, coming from the River Severn. They captured Bishop Cyfeilliog, and King Edward the Elder ransomed him for £40. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes Cyfeilliog as Bishop of Archenfield (Ergyng in Welsh),
In the early 10th century, a document known as The Ordinance Concerning the Dunsaete records procedures for dealing with disputes between the English and the Welsh of Archenfield, who were known to the English as the Dunsaete or "hill people". D. A. Whitehead – The historical background to the city defences It stated that the English should only cross into the Welsh side, and vice versa, in the presence of an appointed man who had the responsibility of making sure that the foreigner was safely escorted back to the crossing point.
Archenfield, which lay outside the English hundred system, became a semi-autonomous Welsh district, or commote (Welsh language cwmwd), with its own customs. Its administrative centre was at Kilpeck Castle. Its customs were described in a separate section of the Domesday Book account of Herefordshire. Domesday recorded that "King Gruffydd and Bleddyn laid this land waste before 1066; therefore what it was like at that time is not known". It also stated the Welsh of Archenfield were allowed to retain their old rights and'' privileges in return for forming an advance and rear guard when the King's army entered or left Wales. The local priests were required to "undertake the king's embassies into Wales", presumably providing a translation service. The exemption from services was mentioned again in 1250 and 1326, when it was stated: "The Frenchmen and Welshmen of Urchenesfeld hold their tenements in chief of our lord the King by socage, rendering 19 pounds 7 shillings and 6 pence. And they ought to find 49-foot-soldiers for our lord the King in Wales for 15 days at their own cost."
Uncertainty over the border persisted until the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 - often known as "The Acts of Union" - tidied up many of the administrative anomalies within Wales and the Marcher borderlands. However, no consideration was given at the time to ethnic or linguistic realities, and so various territories were grouped together in a rough and ready manner to form the new shires. Archenfield was thus bundled into Herefordshire as the Hundred of Wormelow Tump.
Archenfield remained a predominantly Welsh language-speaking region until at least the 17th century, and the language was still spoken to a significant extent in the Kentchurch area as late as 1750. It almost certainly persisted longer than this and Welsh continued to be spoken in Archenfield well into the modern period:
(Ewyas, the other Welsh-speaking area of Herefordshire, was in the diocese of St David's until late in the 19th century.) A plaque in St Margaret's Church in the Golden Valley is in Welsh and is dated 1574.
Many of the rights and customs of the people of Archenfield were maintained until comparatively recently. Men born in Archenfield had the right to take salmon from the River Wye until 1911.
In King's Caple, the only part of Archenfield east of the Wye, Domesday lists the inhabitants as one Frenchman and five Welshmen. Six local men paid the dues which had been owed at this time, and before, for centuries. Payment was still being made by one of these 'King's Men of Archenfield' in the 1960s.
One author has even speculated that the names "Archenfield" and "Ergyng" may ultimately derive from the Latin word for hedgehog, hericius, from which "urchin" is also derived.Bryan Walters, The Archaeology and Ancient History of Ancient Dean and the Wye Valley, 1992, However, the name of the Romano-British settlement of Ariconium is clearly the origin of the Welsh name and later the English name (probably via early Welsh).
(1979). 9780415143660, Routledge. ISBN 9780415143660 whereas John of Worcester says that Cyfeilliog was captured in Archenfield. (1995). 9780198222613, Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198222613 Thomas Charles-Edwards refers to "Bishop Cyfeilliog, who was probably bishop of Ergyng, or at least captured in Ergyng". He sees the payment of a ransom by the West Saxon king as evidence that the far south-east of Wales then lay in the sphere of power of Wessex rather than Mercia. The Vikings were defeated in battle by the combined forces of Gloucester and Hereford.
Later history
The Welsh inhabitants of Archenfield thereafter retained their privileged position, living in a shadowy border land that was not really part of England nor Wales. Around 1404, Owain Glyndŵr and his troops raided the area. Glyndŵr himself may have died around 1416 at Kentchurch, within Archenfield, an area which he considered to be part of Wales.Colin Lewis, Herefordshire, the Welsh Connection, 2006, The evidence of its Welsh history remains in many placenames and field names.
Legacy
The towns of Ross-on-Wye and Hay-on-Wye lie within the bounds of the Archenfield region and areas of or close to both towns today bear the name Archenfield. Additionally, one of Ross-on-Wye's most recognisable symbols, seen on numerous coats-of-arms, is the hedgehog, known in Middle English, and locally, as an "urchin" and, in heraldry the word urcheon is used to refer to the hedgehog. Thus the heraldic use can be seen as a partial rebus (or visual pun) on Archenfield. A hedgehog is the family crest of John Kyrle, the "Man of Ross".
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