Maps of Anglo-Saxon England

The maps listed below were devised over the past 20 years to accompany particular articles or for use as handouts in lectures. The maps were drawn by the late Reginald Piggott, of Potter Heigham, Norfolk, whose distinctive style (represented by his elegant calligraphy, and by various aspects of cartographic design) can be seen in many books published in the last fifty years by various presses (notably the Cambridge University Press). All of the original maps (drawn on artist’s board) are available as image files, and may be downloaded for personal use from the links below. Should any map be wanted for purposes of publication, high resolution files are available on request. Production of the maps, over the years, has depended on the support given to its fellows by Trinity College, Cambridge, for purposes of teaching and research.

SDK
May 2012

Note: Click on the title of each map for a preview. To enlarge the preview, click the arrow icon at the bottom right of the viewing screen. In order to download and save an image, Windows users should right click the title and select 'Save link as...'; Mac users ctrl-click and 'Save linked file to downloads' or 'Saved linked file as...'.

  • The political development of Anglo-Saxon England
    • ​The sequence of maps shows how matters changed from the days of the so-called 'Heptarchy' (c. 700), past the period of the 'Mercian Supremacy' (c. 800), to the kingdom 'of the Anglo-Saxons' (c. 900) and thereafter to the kingdom 'of the English' (c. 1000).
    • ​Made in 1997, for the Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1999), though re-drawn on four pages by the publishers, pp. 517–20.
  • Bede’s Britain (c. 700)
    • Showing how Britain is represented in the pages of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, with the addition of some other significant information.
    • Made in 2012, for general purposes. Not yet available.
  • Map showing the probable location of Clofesho
    • ​Clofesho was designated the meeting-place for church councils in the late seventh century, and was still used for such purposes in the 820s. It is likely to be somewhere on this map, but its exact location remains a mystery.
    • ​Made in 1994, for The Councils of Clofesho, Brixworth Lecture 1993 (Leicester, 1994). 
  • Southern England in the eighth century
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2000, and published in Æthelbald and Offa: Two Eighth-Century Kings of Mercia, ed. D. Hill and M. Worthington (Oxford, 2005), p. 9 (reduced). 
  • Southern England in the ninth century
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1998, and published in Alfred the Great, ed. T. Reuter (Aldershot, 2003), p. 187 (reduced). 
  • From England to Rome in the ninth century
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1996, and published in Alfred the Wise, ed. J. Roberts, et al. (Woodbridge, 1997), p. 102. 
  • The Viking invasions of Wessex
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • In preparation.  Cf. S. Keynes & M. Lapidge, Alfred the Great (Harmondsworth, 1983), Maps 1–3 (pp. 59–61).
  • The ‘Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons’
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1996, and published in Kings, Currency and Alliances, ed. M. A. S. Blackburn and D. N. Dumville (Woodbridge, 1998), p. 32. 
  • England during the reign of King Edward the Elder
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1998, and published in Edward the Elder, ed. N. Higham and D. Hill (London, 2001), pp. 46–7. 
  • The contexts of the Fonthill Letter
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1991, and published in Words, Texts, and Manuscripts, ed. M. Korhammer (Woodbridge, 1992), p. 79. 
  • England during the reign of King Æthelstan
    • Made in 2001, for the Toller Lecture (2001); not yet published. 
  • England during the reign of Kings Edmund (939–46) and Eadred (946–55)
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2008, for the Loyn Memorial Lecture (2008). Not yet available.
  • England during the reign of King Eadwig (955–9)
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2012. Not yet available.
  • Southern England during the reign of King Edgar (959–75)
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2008, and published in Edgar, King of the English, ed. D. Scragg (Woodbridge, 2008), opp. p. xvi. 
  • The fenlands in the tenth and eleventh centuries
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1999, for a book on Ely Cathedral (2001), but not published. Lost in the post; available only as a photocopy of the original. Replacement in preparation.
  • Meeting-places of the king and his councillors, 900–1066
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2006, for an article forthcoming, superseding map published in The Diplomas of King Æthelred (Cambridge, 1980), p. 36. 
  • The endowment of Ely Abbey in the tenth and eleventh centuries
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • In preparation, for Keynes and Kennedy, Anglo-Saxon Ely (forthcoming)
  • Southern England c. 1000
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2000, and published in Europe Around the Year 1000 (Warsaw, 2001), p. 249 (re-drawn and reduced). Not yet available.
  • The will of Wulfric Spot and the foundation of Burton Abbey (c. 1000)
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • In preparation
  • Ælfric, monk of Winchester, mass-priest at Cerne, Dorset, and Abbot of Eynsham, Oxfordshire
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2006, for an article on King Æthelred’s charter for Eynsham Abbey; not yet published. 
  • Viking activity during the reign of King Æthelred the Unready, Maps I–IIc
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1999, for general purposes. 
  • Viking activity during the reign of King Æthelred the Unready, Maps III–IVc
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2002, for general purposes. 
  • Viking activity during the reign of King Æthelred the Unready, Maps V–VIII
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 2002, for general purposes.
  • Viking campaigns in England 991–1005
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1991, and published in The Battle of Maldon, AD 991, ed. D. Scragg (Oxford, 1991), p. 87.
  • Places named in the surveys of the Archbishop of York’s estates at Sherburn-in-Elmet, Otley, and Ripon, c. 1020
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1997, for reprint of an article published in The York Gospels, ed. N. Barker (London, 1986), p. 85; published in Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, ed. M. Townend (2004), p. 185.
  • Estates of the bishops of Wells
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1996, and published in Anglo-Norman Studies 19 (1997), p. 250. 
  • Churches and estates belonging to Regenbald of Cirencester, priest and chancellor
    • Explanatory comment to be added.
    • Made in 1997, for reprint of an article published in Anglo-Norman Studies 10 (1988), p. 194; not yet published. 
  • Episcopal sees and other religious houses of late Anglo-Saxon England
    • This map shows the episcopal sees in England at the time of the Norman Conquest, and the principal religious houses within each diocese. (Much of what is known about the Anglo-Saxon past is owed to one or other of these churches.)
    • Made in 2004, for R. Allen Brown Lecture; completed in 2012.