The Battlefields Register is not a strong planning document, he said. We have achieved a number of compromises at Stamford Bridge which may not satisfy the wider archaeological community, but which we believe are as far as we can go. According to Peter Addyman, Director of the York Archaeological Trust and a Viking specialist, the wonderfully evocative site should never have been earmarked for development. The battle had influenced the course of English and European history, he said. The site, known as Battle Flats, has been regarded locally as the scene of the battle for centuries, long before its identity was confirmed by academic research.
Legend is just as real as a heap of potsherds, and more important.
It is part of the mental baggage of the nation, Dr Addyman said. Pressure is now likely to grow on the Government to find ways of bolstering the Battlefields Register by law, as the ease with which it can be disregarded by planning authorities becomes increasingly clear. The new dating confirms its probable association with a palace belonging to the Mercian king, Offa, whose kingdom extended over much of central and southern England in the later decades of the 8th century, and who is known to have signed 12 Mercian charters from his palace in Chelsea. Fierce resistance to Mercian overlordship in Kent led Offa to summon a synod at Chelsea, at which the chief Mercian see, Lichfield, was granted metropolitan status, with the agreement of the Pope, in an attempt to reduce the importance of Canterbury. Attending the synod were the king, two archbishops, nine bishops, six abbots and eight ealdormen, no doubt with a large entourage and several ships.