Queen Cynethryth's 'lost' monastery found next to Cookham church

[Tommy Tainant]

Queen Cynethryth's 'lost' monastery found next to Cookham church

Archaeologists from the University of Reading solve a mystery that has long puzzled historians.

www.bbc.co.uk

Her husband is famous for the Dyke which ran down the border between Mercia and Wales. I dont know what it looked like at the time but the basic structure is a ditch backed up by a bank that is about 10 or 12 feet hgh.

It runs alongside my old school Ysgol Rhiwabon and we used to sneak out there with our girlfriends for a quiet snog at lunchtime. I doubt that Offa would have approved.

Queen Cynethryth sounds a bit dungeons and dragons so I would expect there to be some interest in this.

 

[Gabe Lackmann]

Her husband is famous for the Dyke which ran down the border between Mercia and Wales.

What was she running from?

 

[Tommy Tainant]

What was she running from?

Cookham is a long way from Wales so its a good question.

 

[Lysistrata]

Queen Cynethryth's 'lost' monastery found next to Cookham church

Archaeologists from the University of Reading solve a mystery that has long puzzled historians.

www.bbc.co.uk

Her husband is famous for the Dyke which ran down the border between Mercia and Wales. I dont know what it looked like at the time but the basic structure is a ditch backed up by a bank that is about 10 or 12 feet hgh.

It runs alongside my old school Ysgol Rhiwabon and we used to sneak out there with our girlfriends for a quiet snog at lunchtime. I doubt that Offa would have approved.

Queen Cynethryth sounds a bit dungeons and dragons so I would expect there to be some interest in this.

Cool. I just saw a TV show last night called Expedition Unknown, wherein a total lucky duck named Josh Gates gets to go exploring interesting or mysterious places all over the world, even the island in the middle of Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Last night he was in Wales, exploring deep caves and caverns. He didn't find anything, though. You folks have some incredible underground terrain. I wonder if the ancients got down there.

Please, how do you pronounce the queen's name?

 

[whitehall]

Cool. I just saw a TV show last night called Expedition Unknown, wherein a total lucky duck named Josh Gates gets to go exploring interesting or mysterious places all over the world, even the island in the middle of Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Last night he was in Wales, exploring deep caves and caverns. He didn't find anything, though. You folks have some incredible underground terrain. I wonder if the ancients got down there.

Please, how do you pronounce the queen's name?

Gates never finds anything. I saw an episode where Gates teamed up with underwater explorers in the Great lakes. They were supposed to be diving on a wreck that was never explored before but the diving babe spilled the beans when she said "follow me".

 

[Lysistrata]

Gates never finds anything. I saw an episode where Gates teamed up with underwater explorers in the Great lakes. They were supposed to be diving on a wreck that was never explored before but the diving babe spilled the beans when she said "follow me".

So far, I think that he has found only a small piece of something medieval, I think that it was in a bog in eastern England, and an ammo belt at a Nazi site in Germany. It's a shame that they use ground-penetrating radar, but they are not allowed to dig up the spot if it hits on something. I'd love to walk around in the English countryside with a metal detector. England and other countries in Europe are so full of old stuff, and I love old stuff, not just treasure, but the little personal items that make you wonder what life was like for the person who owned them. I'd love to "accidently" get locked in the British Museum overnight.

 

[whitehall]

Indications are that the "Queen" was a Saxon princess rather than Catholic. Where does the "monastery" come in?

 

[Pellinore]

Cookham is a long way from Wales so its a good question.

Offa's Mercia stretched all the way to London, and in the later years they had subjugated Kent and East Anglia as well, so she may not necessarily have been running from anyone.

That said, after Offa died, Kent and East Anglia quickly rebelled, and Offa's and Cynethryth's son didn't even make it six months before he was assassinated, so it's also possible that she just wanted to get out of politics ASAP to keep from waking up one morning with a dagger in her ribs.

 

[Pellinore]

Cool. I just saw a TV show last night called Expedition Unknown, wherein a total lucky duck named Josh Gates gets to go exploring interesting or mysterious places all over the world, even the island in the middle of Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Last night he was in Wales, exploring deep caves and caverns. He didn't find anything, though. You folks have some incredible underground terrain. I wonder if the ancients got down there.

Please, how do you pronounce the queen's name?

kih-NETH-rith.

The Anglo-Saxons didn't make it easy with the pronunciations. They have more than their share of names like Aethelthryth and Wulfgifu to go around.

 

[Pellinore]

Indications are that the "Queen" was a Saxon princess rather than Catholic. Where does the "monastery" come in?

She was both, Anglo-Saxon by culture and Catholic by religion. England was converted in the early to middle 7th century, and she and Offa reigned in the middle and late 8th century, about the same time as Charlemagne.

There were plenty of monasteries around by then; they basically started sprouting up right away. There was functionally no difference between government and religion in those days, especially under Offa, so monasteries were seen almost like a public utility. The people support the monks, who in return offer non-stop prayers to help the people.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

kih-NETH-rith.

The Anglo-Saxons didn't make it easy with the pronunciations. They have more than their share of names like Aethelthryth and Wulfgifu to go around.

Depending on the origin of her name.............If its of Celtic origin you need to replace the C with a K and the I with a U. Its not a name that caught on for some reason.

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Cool. I just saw a TV show last night called Expedition Unknown, wherein a total lucky duck named Josh Gates gets to go exploring interesting or mysterious places all over the world, even the island in the middle of Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Last night he was in Wales, exploring deep caves and caverns. He didn't find anything, though. You folks have some incredible underground terrain. I wonder if the ancients got down there.

Please, how do you pronounce the queen's name?

The slate quarries of North Wales have just been designated a UNESCO heritage site. The locals are livid because they think it will make the ara fashionable.

Welsh slate mines join Grand Canyon, Taj Mahal and Great Wall of China as UNESCO World Heritage Sites

 

[Pellinore]

The slate quarries of North Wales have just been designated a UNESCO heritage site. The locals are livid because they think it will make the ara fashionable.

Welsh slate mines join Grand Canyon, Taj Mahal and Great Wall of China as UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Good, I think they deserve it. My ancestors came through Blaenavon, so I'm glad to see that's on the list as well. Heartbeat of the Industrial Revolution, it was.