Cuerdale Hoard
[6] Banks suggested that the Cuerdale Hoard might have been a gift to English churches suffering persecution in the areas called the Danelaw that were occupied by pagan Vikings.
[citation needed] The treasure could have been several hundred years old when brought from an unknown location in Ireland at the direction of Richard II and buried at Cuerdale.
[citation needed] Remains of fortifications and moat suggest that a larger building once occupied the present site of Cuerdale Hall.
A local Preston tradition said that anyone who stood on the south bank of the Ribble at Walton-le-Dale, and looked upriver to Ribchester, would be within sight of the richest treasure in England.
The Cuerdale Hoard is an example of the rich archaeology that exists around the Preston area and includes evidence of prehistoric and significant Roman history.
To the Royal Numismatic Society Published 1841 On the evening of 15 May 1840 workmen, engaged in repairing the southern embankment of the river Ribble, near Curedale Hall, and about three miles from Preston, were agreeably surprised by the discovery of hidden treasure, which had for many centuries laid inhumed in that delightful and secluded vale within three feet of the surface of the pasture, and about thirty yards from the edge of the river.
The attracted the attention of the hind of Curedale Hall, who, hastening to the place, found the workmen collected around the treasure in the act of the general scramble, each endeavouring to obtain the greatest share of the booty.
The hind, however, lost little time in informing them that they must return the property, adding that the pieces of metal were probably of pewter or solder and consequently of little value, and that the coins appeared to be nothing more than tin counters.
A portion of the coins and other antiques still remain in the hall for the inspection of visitors, whilst some of the relics of by gone days are stated to have found their way into the hands of private individuals; and this is not improbable, as several pieces, it is said, have by diligent scratching, been gleaned from the soil since the bulk was removed to the bank.
Of the pennies of Edward the elder, bearing the portrait I have only seen two; they are in fine preservation, but differ materially in the form of the head from those appropriated to this monarch by Ruding.
The skeptics naturally scoffed, especially when diviners paced the riverside meadows, hazel twigs, willow branches and silver chains limp in their hands.
At one point they came upon a large, water-logged mass of soil that had slipped down towards the river, leaving an open rift in the earth some twenty yards above the water.
Yet another ingenious suggestion is that the name Cnut may be an acrostic, the initials of the Latin words 'Christus Nostrum Ubique Triumphans', meaning 'Our Christ (is) everywhere triumphant'.
Orsnaforda has been tentatively identified as either Oxford or Horsforth, in Yorkshire, and Ebraice as either York, or Evreux, in northern France, but these attributions are little more than optimistic guesses.
King Alfred, by courage, force and diplomacy, had managed to achieve a working relationship with the Viking invaders but their share of the country, the Danelaw, covered the north and east of a line drawn from London to Chester.
They raided Ireland and into north-west England; from the Orkney Islands they plundered Scotland and the Isle of Man; they even conquered the part of France which was later named after them, Normandy.
Their raids and the tribute money, Danegeld, which they extracted from the notorious King Ethelred the Unready, have resulted in their being more English 10th-century coins in Scandinavian museums than there are in British.
The valley of the Ribble and the old Roman town of Ribchester lay on well-defined routes which an army might use when marching from Yorkshire to North Wales or from Chester to Carlisle.
In an article in the Numismatic Gazette for December 1966, Mr M Banks suggested that the treasure may have been intended to support the English churches in the Danelaw, where they were in serious financial difficulties as a result of the Viking occupation.
We find that in the reign of Athelstan, Northumbria, was in a very disturbed state, that the King of the Scots, eagerly sought to free himself from his dependence on the English monarch, and that, with this view, he entered into alliance with Howel, King of Wales; and although the powerful army of Athelstan was irresistible, that Anlaf shortly afterwards made a desperate attempt to reconquer the Northumbrian dominions.
Does it not appear probable, then, that some powerful Northumbrian chieftain, relying on the numerous and hardy allies of Anlaf, might deposit his property in this solitary spot, to serve under the banners of the courageous Dane, and from which expedition he never returned.
The circumstance, then, of a friendly intercourse thus subsisting between the two countries, may not unsatisfactorily account for the introduction of the immense number of French coins found in this hoard.
