On Saturday we hosted an archaeology student from Durham University, Tom Brash, who was keen to do some aerial photography to support his dissertation on Yeavering. One of our tug drivers, who also studied at Durham, took Tom up in the SuperCub so he could photograph the sites of interest.
The project is described by Tom:
Summary
The
modern hamlet of Old Yeavering below Yeavering bell is named after an early
medieval township. Originally called Ad Gefrin it was the royal seat of Edwin who
was an exiled Anglo-Saxon nobleman, in AD 627 he returned to Yeavering and
brought with him a Roman priest Paulinus. The chronicler Bede describes how
Paulinus stayed at Gefrin for 26 days baptising the pagan locals in the nearby
river Glen. Edwin was killed in battle by pagans, and after his death Gefrin
was abandoned in favour of a new town at Milfield. Today all that remains of
Edwin's royal palace at Yeavering and the town at Milfield are crop marks which
can only be seen from the air.
The Project
This project which will
form the core of my dissertation aims to
gather as many of the aerial photographs of Yeavering as possible then analyse and map all
of the features that are visible. The crop marks are most visible during long dry periods. The
site was first discovered in the summer of 1949 when the strange marks were first
seen from the air.
I am also using Near
Infra-red photography which captures pictures beyond the visible spectrum and
can reveal all sorts of interesting features. For more information on the site
visit the Gefrin trusts website at:
This photograph was taken
in 1949 by an inquisitive RAF pilot (above). This is a map of the buildings at
Gefrin many of which can be seen from the air (below).
Some photographs from the flight.
