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Saxon Thegn

Anglo Saxon Chronicles - 527AD - Cerdicesleigh (Cerdic and Cynric)

The entry from the Chronicles
Original text Her Cerdic ⁊ Cynric fuhton wiþ Brettas in þære stowe þe is gecueden Cerdicesleaga. Translation 527AD. This year Cerdic and Cynric fought with the Britons in the place that is called Cerdicesleigh (Lee).

Where might it be

Cerdicesleigh this is made up of two snippets 'Cerdic's' meaning owned by Cerdice and 'leigh' from the Saxon 'leah' - 'A lea, meadow, open space' hence becomes 'Cerdices meadow', but over time Cerdic was dropped and it just became Lee. This Battle was most likely to have been on the roman road from the South West where it crosses the river Test.

A lot of names in this area are derived from Cerdic's name, this includes Itchenor, the river Itchen (which was probably the early boundary of Cerdic and Cynric kingdom).

The expansion of the West Saxons seems to have generally North West, and they first take Natanleods land from Netley up to Shawford, all along the Itchen River. They then take Shawford and defeat the defenders of Chichester.

This battle at Lee seems to have been an attempt by the Briton to take Chichester from the South West, but was stopped at Lee on the river crossing, and the Britons were driven back, this appears to give the Wessex Saxons control of the New Forest.

Possible interpretation of the Chronicles

My location at Lee is because Margary when plotting the M22 road from Otterbourne to the New Forest could not find the road around Nursling, and assumed it went straight across the River Test to Calmore, however with the water at 4.5 metres then a more northern route through Lee would be more likely as the Romans didn't like building across tidal areas. This northern route would have been from Winsor to Wade Hill then Lee.

This battle at Cerdicesleigh (Lee) seems to have allowed the West Saxons to take control of the New Forest area of Southern Hampshire.