He is thought to have been the thegn who, having purchased land at Hope and Ashford in Derbyshire from the Vikings before 911, had it confirmed by King Æthelstan in 926.
A charter dated to 926, preserved in the archives of Burton Abbey, has King Æthelstan confirm 60 hides (manentes) of land at Hope and Ashford in Derbyshire to his "faithful man", Uhtred.
Uhtred is said to have purchased the land from the Scandinavians for twenty pounds of silver and gold, having been ordered to do so by Æthelstan's father and predecessor Edward the Elder and by Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians.
[4] Sawyer further speculated on the course of events: the Bamburgh family acknowledged West Saxon supremacy c. 900, and the West Saxon king ordered them to buy up land in the Peak District; the area remained outside direct West Saxon control until 917, when the Scandinavians lost control of Derby; in 920, on the death of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, Edward became King of Mercia, soon after constructing a burh at Bakewell, on Uhtred's land Edward; Æthelstan succeeded Edward in 924, and confirmed Uhtred's lands in 926.
[7] This man occurs as the fourth ealdorman in the list of secular witness to a charter of King Æthelstan to Beornheah, bishop of Selsey, dated 3 April 930 and issued at Lyminster in Sussex; then fifth in a grant by the king to Eadulf bishop of Crediton, at Chippenham in Wiltshire, nearly a month later on 29 April.
[13] Simon Keynes' Atlas of Attestations lists this Uhtred as witness to nine more charters during Æthelstan's reign, three in 937, two in 938, and four in 939; he is the second ealdorman in all cases for the years 937 and 938, and in 939 he occurs fourth three times and fifth once.
[15] Historian Cyril Hart argued in 1975 that this second Uhtred was an ealdorman in Essex, but by 1987 thought his jurisdiction fell over the shires of North-Western Mercia.
[21] Uhtred witnessed one more charter in 946, falling to tenth among ealdormen, this time after the accession of Eadred to the English throne.
[24] He may have been granted this land in order to found or refound a religious house there, and the evidence indicates Bakewell became an important centre of sculpture during the century.
[30] During the reign of Eadred's successor Eadwig (955–59), probably in 956 (but perhaps in 959), an "Ealdorman Uhtred" witnessed the king's grant to Oscytel bishop of Dorchester (and later archbishop of York) of the minster of Southwell with its dependent lands in Nottinghamshire.