The formation of Elmet from its Brigantian roots:

Timeline 1: From Brigantia to Elmet

- 500BC                         Proto-Celtic tribes settle northern Britain; Brigantes begin to coalesce as a confederation.

100BC                           Brigantia emerges as a dominant tribal territory, named after the goddess Brigantia

43AD                             Roman invasion of Britain; Brigantes initially allied with Rome under Queen Cartimandua

69-79AD                        Internal strife between Cartimandua and Venutius; Roman annexation under Agricola

1^st-3rdcAD                    Brigantian identity persists under Roman rule; sacred sites like Ferry Fryston remain active.

400-500AD                    As Roman control wanes, Brigantian lands begin to reorganise into smaller kingdoms

500-600AD                    Elmet emerges as a post-Roman kingdom, inheriting Brigantian sacred geography and memory

The Emergence of the Brigantes

By the 1st century BC, a loose confederation of Celtic tribes had begun to unify under shared cultural and religious practices, particularly the worship of the goddess Brigantia. Their territory—Brigantia—spanned from the Humber to the Tyne, making them the largest tribal grouping in Britain.

When the Romans arrived in 43 AD, the Brigantes were already a settled and pastoral society. Their queen, Cartimandua, initially allied with Rome, but internal power struggles and resistance led to eventual annexation by Agricola in 79 AD. Despite Roman control, Brigantian identity endured—especially through sacred sites like the Ferry Fryston chariot burial (more of that to come), which remained active centres of veneration.

As Roman influence waned, Brigantian lands began to fragment and reorganise. By the 6th century, the kingdom of Elmet emerged as a ritual and cultural continuation. Elmet inherited Brigantia’s sacred geography, mythic figures, and communal memory, weaving them into a new post-Roman identity

Elmet: An analysis based on the timeline 1 above:

1. Prehistory to Bronze Age and its ritual Landscape

Long before Elmet bore a name, its limestone ridges and river valleys shaped a sacred geography. Burial mounds, water shrines, and early enclosures suggest a people attuned to the land. Sites dotted throughout Elmet hint at ritual continuity.

2. Iron Age and Brigantian Dominance

As the Iron Age matured, the Brigantes emerged—a sprawling confederation of tribes stretching across northern Britain. From an Elmetean vantage, they were protectors and overlords, cultural stewards. Elmet, nestled within this Brigantian sphere. The ground around Elmet offered defensibility within Brigantia. Hilltop enclosures like Barwick-in-Elmet were perfect: watchpoints and tribal markers. Though politically subordinate, Elmet’s cultural autonomy began to crystallise.

3. Roman Transition

Rome’s arrival fractured Brigantian unity. Roads and forts sliced through tribal lands, utilising strategic crossing points such as the ford at Castleford—a gateway into the north of the Brigantes. Elmet, buffered by its terrain, absorbed Roman influence selectively. While Brigantian cohesion waned.

4. Post-Roman Elmetean Kingdom

Rome’s retreat signalled Elmet’s sovereignty through kings like Ceretic. Ecclesiastical centres, perhaps at Barwick or Sherburn, anchored spiritual life. The kingdom’s borders were porous but fiercely defended, especially against Anglian expansion. Elmet’s voice grew distinct—neither Brigantian nor Roman, but Brythonic rooted in the land.

5. The Anglian and Norse era

Anglian conquest was slow and hard. Settlements such as Barwick and Sherburn affixed Elmet to their name. It is argued that these places were frontier settlements, defining the boundaries of Elmet. The landscape provided once more a difficult barrier to breach, with such defences as the dykes at Aberford.

Brigantes and Elmet: A Kinship of Shadows and Stone

From the Elmetean perspective, the Brigantes were ancestors whose fall marked the beginning of Elmet’s true sovereignty. Their dominance did not seem oppressive, shaping Elmet’s early identity through shared rites and defensive unity. Yet Elmet’s geography—its ridges and rivers always set it apart. As Roman pressure fractured Brigantian cohesion, Elmet’s resilience allowed it to evolve, not as a remnant, but as a distinct kingship within its Brythonic roots.

One such example is the The Chariot burial at Ferry Fryston

The Chariot at Ferry Fryston:

Amid the shifting identities of Brigantia and Elmet, the Ferry Fryston chariot burial stands as a ritual landmark. Discovered in Fryston Park, Castleford, the burial revealed a finely crafted Iron Age chariot accompanied by cattle bones from distant regions—a clear sign that the individual interred there was venerated far beyond his immediate community.

This figure, possibly a warrior-leader or ancestral priest, was not only central to Brigantian society but remained revered as Elmet began to form. The exotic offerings suggest a pan-tribal recognition, with reverence stretching across Brigantian lands and persisting into Elmet’s emergence. His burial site became a ritual anchor, a place where perhaps memory and myth converged.

As Roman influence fractured Brigantia, Elmet did not discard its legacy—it reclaimed and reinterpreted it. The chariot burial thus becomes a symbol of ritual continuity, bridging the pre-Roman past with the emerging identity of Elmet.

The boundaries of Elmet

This is contentious. One map shows its southern extreme as Nottingham, while most agree it’s the river Leaf in Sheffield. The boundary settlements mark the Eastern edge at Sherborn and Micklefield; its northern extreme at possibly Wetherby, and west to perhaps Craven/Ilkley. Its core being centred roughly at Castleford, utilising the ford that allowed the river Aire to be crossed while to the East impregnable marshland acted as a natural boundary; to the west, moorland and the Pennine hills hindered movement.

Known and probbable boundary towns of Elmet

• Barwick-in-Elmet – Northern watchpoint and ecclesiastical centre

• Sherburn-in-Elmet – Eastern frontier, possibly a royal or ritual site

• Aberford – Defensive dyke system marking eastern resistance

• Castleford – (not a boundary town but a strategic crossing)

• Newton Abbet/Priory and moat manor house

• Kirkby Wharfe – Eastern river boundary near Tadcaster

• Saxton– Eastern settlement within Barkston Ash wapentake

• Micklefield – Eastern settlements within Barkston Ash wapentake

• Burton Salmon – part of Elmet’s eastern extent

• Sutton – part of Elmet’s eastern extent

• Ferrybridge Henge - The Ritual Lanscape

• Clifford – Border zone near the Wharfe

• Upper Calder Valley (Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Heptonstall) – Western upland settlements with Brigantian field patterns and burial continuity. This is Ted Hughes' country and what he tapped into for his poetry. 

• Craven – Probable north-western limit; upland buffer zone

• Winkobank (Sheffield) – Hill fort marking southern boundary

• Templeborough (Rotherham) – Roman fort near River Don, southern threshold

• River Sheaf (Sheffield) – Linguistic and geographic southern boundary

• Loidis (Leeds) – Central capital or administrative heart

• Cambodunum (Slack, near Huddersfield) – Western outpost, possibly royal

• Grim’s Dyke – Linear earthwork marking western defence

Then there is Loidis. The rivers Aire and Wharf were pivotal in Elmet’s existence. Here lies Loidis.

Loidis

the name Loidis was first recorded by Bede around 731AD, describing a region rather than a town, becoming Ledes and eventually Leeds. Theref is dispute of the importance of Loidis, whether it was the capitaol of Elmet or just a sovereignty within Elmet.

Ledston and Ledsham are derived from Loidis, so we know roughly the Eastern boundary, and possibly the northern, somewhere around Barwick n Elmet. Its southern boundary followed the northern bank of the river Aire. Possibly exploiting the ford at Castleford. Its Western boundary, around the parish church in Leeds, but maybe beyond that. A manor hall existed somewhere in Loudis and whether this housed a royal occupant is debatable. Ledsham and Leeds are possibilities. Wherever the manor hall was it is lost in time, as is Loidis, though it was of importance: According to Bede, after the Battle of the Winwaed in 655 AD—where King Oswiu of Bernicia defeated and killed Penda of Mercia—Oswiu concluded his campaign in the district of Loidis, which corresponds to modern-day Leeds. While the battle itself likely took place near a river (possibly Cock Beck or the River Went), the aftermath unfolded in Loidis. Oswiu’s victory marked the end of Anglo-Saxon pagan dominance and the rise of Christian kingship in the north.  

NEWTON

There is, though, Newton Abbey. It could be argued that this was of importance and could be considered for being the manor house of Loidid.

Newton Abbey consists of a moated enclosure—a sub-rectangular island (~75m x 50m) surrounded by a ditch 5–7m wide. The island contains fragments of walling and window tracery, with substantial buried remains of domestic and ancillary buildings. A medieval leat connects the moat to a nearby pond, indicating deliberate hydrological engineering.

Interpretive Significance

While no direct evidence confirms Newton Abbey as a royal residence, several factors make it a plausible candidate for reinterpretation:

• Its scale, moat, and water management suggest more than typical manorial function
• Its position just south of the Magnesian Limestone ridge may reflect ritual or territorial orientation
• The site lies on Elmet’s eastern boundary, balancing the chariot burial at Ferry Fryston in the west
• The absence of ecclesiastical remains paired with the abbey name hints at post-abandonment myth-making—possibly echoing a deeper memory of royal or sacred use

Newton Abbey may have served as a chieftain’s seat, a ritual anchor, or even a royal manor in the pre-Norman landscape of Elmet or Loidis. Its layered identity—prestige, abandonment, renaming—makes it a prime candidate for mythic and territorial narrative.

“This was not a cloister—it was a manor reborn in memory. Newton Abbey is Elmet’s echo, shaped by water, status, and story.”

Ferrybridge Henge.

Ferrybridge Henge lies just to the south of the FerryFryston Chariot burial and should be considered as on a sacred landscape, which was heavily excavated through archaeological investigation at the site of the Homefield Interchange of the A1 Motorway. This is covered in-depth in the book 'Ferrybridge Henge: The Ritual Landscape', published by ASrcaeological Service WYAS, which concludes that the lanscape was special and ritual. 

I would welcome any input regarding the boundary towns, listed or not. Describing other towns, new evidence, inaqurcies, revelations.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please send to editor@wrackline.co.uk

Michael Wilkinson