I finally made it there!

I finally made it to Maldon today, it is a nice little town which doesn’t know much about it’s historic past.

The battle at Maldon in AD 991, was fought between the Saxon forces the earldorman of Essex, Byrhtnoth and a Viking army lead by Olaf Tryggvason.

The accepted site of the Battle in Maldon, hasn’t changed since AD991 and is the oldest recorded in the English Heritage register of battlefields.

I took a number of photos of the battlefield and I can understand why the Saxons chose to make a stand, where they did.  The photos include a couple panoramas of the site, which I have to put together when I get back to Australia, next week.

Here is the plaque commemorating the Battle.  Keep an eye out for my future posting, which will include a full review of the battlefield walk and surrounds, including pictures.

Plaque commemorating the Battle of Maldon.

 

Kind of sad that the plaque sits on a farm gate.

Battlefields

I scored a book titled British Battlefields, in a charity shop in Reigate a couple of days ago.   The book summaries battles from the Dark Ages until Culloden, it has diagrams showing deployment of forces and photos of re-enactors portraying the battle.  For someone who knows very little about battles fought in the UK, it is a great resource.  The biggest disappointment is that no battlefields from the Roman invasions have been identified.  Anyway, looks like I will be going to Sutton Hoo on Friday and Maldon next week.  Also heading to Bodium Castle tomorrow, which is a good example of a 14th Century castle.

http://www.castlexplorer.co.uk/england/bodiam/bodiam.php

The Battlefield Trust also have a great website with plenty of maps and details of battlefields and I recommend it.

http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/