Are we brave enough to claim our rightful place in history?

By jharper

BY JOHN HARPER: Has Tamworth Borough Council any real intention of making a credible bid to claim the recently discovered Staffordshire Hoard and, subsequently, making Tamworth the Anglo-Saxon centre of England?

Do councillors and their officers possess the energy, enthusiasm and downright bloody mindedness to take on the might of Birmingham and Stoke, who already seem to be dividing the booty between themselves – treasure which they have absolutely no moral right to.

Do our civic leaders have any appreciation of Tamworth's place in British history, or are they content to sit back and allow the town to squander the most fortuitous stroke of luck to come our way in generations?

The result of such inactivity is simple – Tamworth will continue its decline into a scruffy, anonymous town of little interest, of which its inhabitants have no pride.

Recent decades have shown a somewhat 'careless' attitude towards the town's history, to put it mildly.

Many Tamworthians agree that succeeding civic administrations – from all political shades – have seemingly spent the last 50 years erasing the historic fabric of our ancient town in a disastrous mania for redevelopment at any price.

We may have lost many irreplaceable buildings, but nobody – not even the council – can take away Tamworth's place as a foremost Anglo-Saxon capital of the ancient Kingdom of Mercia.

The problem is – who knows about it?

It doesn't take a genius to realise that if our town's fabulous history was properly exploited – an Anglo-Saxon centre; statues of the great kings who lived here; link ups with other attractions such as Drayton Manor and Tamworth Castle – the economic benefits could be enormous.

Gift shops, hotels, themed cafes, restaurants... the town centre could be transformed from the dreary, lacklustre place it is becoming into a thriving tourist centre.

We already have a superb Norman Castle; a fabulous medieval Church; a fine 18th Century Town Hall and a host of national figures such as the Peels and Thomas Guy etc – but the most important era of Tamworth's history is ignored.

If properly established and marketed, Anglo Saxon attractions in the town would be an irresistible magnet for school children and tourists, not only from this country, but from Europe and around the globe.

They'd come here by the bus load to learn about the dark, often violent days of Anglo Saxon England.

Why did King Offa murder so many of his relatives?; following his victory at the Battle of Seckington, why was King Aethelbald slaughtered by his own bodyguards?; why did King Wulfhere have his own children murdered?

What stories...what history!

As early as the 8th Century Tamworth was an Anglo-Saxon Royal Borough, one of several residences of the Kings of Mercia.

Offa (755-796), the most powerful of these rulers, erected at Tamworth a palace so magnificent in its style and furnishings that it was declared to be 'the wonder of the age'.

He fortified the town with a huge earthwork – a wall and a ditch – resting on the rivers Tame and Anker and encircling the town.

The lines of the defences are marked today by streets and lanes. Why don't we have signs telling visitors the boundary of these historic walls, traces of which were uncovered during excavations for the MacGregor Tithe housing development in Hospital Street?

Charters were granted by Offa and later Mercian rulers, dated from 'the Palace at Tamworth'. Why don't we build a replica of this amazing building to show how a powerful Anglo Saxon king lived?

Offa spent the Christmas festival at Tamworth in 781, when bishops and other top ecclesiastics were at his court, and it is reasonable to conclude that a church (now Tamworth Parish Church) was established in the town at that time. Why is Tamworth Church not celebrated as one of England's greatest parish churches?

In 874, Tamworth was razed to the ground by the invading Danes and for 39 years remained a mass of blackened ruins.

In 913, as the Anglo Saxon Chronicle states, Ethelfleda, 'the Lady of the Mercians' and the daughter of King Alfred the Great, rebuilt the defences.

The town arose, phoenix-like, from its ashes.

Ethelfleda – who should be heralded as one of the greatest women in British history – drove back the marauding Danes, and seizing Watling Street, established that great strategical highway as the southern boundary of the Danelagh (the border between the Danes and Anglo Saxons).

To strengthen her line of communication across England she established a chain of fortified posts, and in the early summer of 913, 'with all her Mercians', marched to Tamworth, and here, at the junction of its two rivers, the Tame and the Anker, established a fortification. We know it today as Tamworth Castle.

In 920, Ethelfleda died at Tamworth, an event which resulted in Mercia being merged into Wessex.

From then on Winchester became the capital of the enlarged kingdom.

Tamworth, however, did not lose its royal connection.

Ethelfleda had trained her nephew Athelstan in the arts of war and kingship; she taught him to read, and gave him a jewelled dagger as a symbol of his high rank.

When he succeeded to the throne of Wessex, after the death of his father, Edward the Elder, he waged ceaseless war against the Danes and again made Tamworth a royal seat and a rallying point in the struggle.

In 925 Athelstan came to Tamworth and married his sister Editha to the Danish leader Sihtric, King of Northumbria, his loathed enemy.

Sihtric, however, soon broke his Christian vows and, relapsing into paganism, deserted Editha.

The war being resumed with still greater fury, was ended, temporarily, by the death of Sihtric the following year, and Editha retired into a convent which she founded at Tamworth, close to the palace where she had reigned as bride.

The names of the two Saxon princesses, Ethelfleda and Editha, will ever be associated with Tamworth – they should be national figures.

Athelstan too was one of the greatest warriors, administrators and patrons of art to occupy the English throne in the early medieval period. He justified his claim to the proud title Rex Toitus Britanniae – King of all Britain – by clinching victory in the epic battle of Brunanburh.

Of all the Anglo Saxon kings, Athelstan was the most magnificent – but who knows about him today?

Upon Athelstan's death in 943, Sihtric's son, by a former wife, Anlaf 'the Terrible', again bore south, bringing fire, sword and pillage to Tamworth – a second calamity from which the town suffered for centuries. From that time it ceased to be a royal residence.

Anglo-Saxon England ended abruptly at Hastings with the Norman conquest of 1066.

William I granted Tamworth's royal Saxon castle and its lands to Robert Marmion, of Fontenaye, his dispencer and hereditary champion, but the Borough remained a Crown possession.

In the early 20th century, every Tamworth child knew about King Offa, Wolfhere, Ethelfleda and Athelstan – just a few of the amazing characters who ruled in Tamworth during what we know today as 'the Dark Ages'.

If you mention any of these names to a Tamworth child today, would they have any idea what you were talking about?

It would cost a good deal of money to transform Tamworth into an Anglo Saxon tourist centre – but grants from the National Lottery, English Heritage and cash from Europe would surely be made available to achieve this laudable aim.

The long term benefits would be incalculable.

The result of doing nothing would be yet another calamity which would allow some other town or city with less moral authority to become England's Anglo Saxon centre.

Will we take up the challenge the discovery of the Saxon Hoard has afforded us – or will we limply sit back and allow others to benefit from what is rightfully our history.

What would Tamworth's Anglo Saxon warrior rulers do?