The wintering of the Great Heathen Army at Repton in 873-874 was a defining event in the Danish conquest of Mercia. The Vikings used the church of St Wystan as a gateway tower in their defensive earthwork, incorporating it into a D-shaped enclosure on the Trent bank. King Burgred was expelled and fled to Rome. A mass grave of around 264 bodies — many showing violent trauma — discovered at Repton in the 1970s-1980s represents the most tangible archaeological evidence of the Great Heathen Army in England.
Viking: Great Heathen Army under Ivar, Halfdan and their brothers. Mercian: King Burgred\'s army
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
Research a location near Derbyshire