The Spaldingas ("dwellers of the Spald"
[Mills, A. D. (1997) ''Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names''; 2nd ed.; p. 320. Oxford: Oxford University Press]) were an
Anglian tribe that settled in an area known as ''the Spalda''. This divided the fens and marshes of
East Anglia in what is now the
South Holland part of
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
. As well as establishing the town of
Spalding, first mentioned in a charter by King
Æthelbald of Mercia
Æthelbald (also spelled Ethelbald or Aethelbald; died 757) was the King of Mercia, in what is now the English Midlands from 716 until he was killed in 757. Æthelbald was the son of Alweo and thus a grandson of King Eowa. Æthelbald came to th ...
to the monks of
Crowland Abbey
Crowland Abbey (also spelled Croyland Abbey, Latin: ''Croilandia'') is a Church of England parish church, formerly part of a Benedictine abbey church, in Crowland in the English county of Lincolnshire. It is a Grade I listed building.
History
A ...
in 716, they also gave their name to area of
Spalding Moor and the village of
Spaldington in
East Yorkshire.
A tribe living in "Spalda" are mentioned in the
Tribal Hidage
Image:Tribal Hidage 2.svg, 400px, alt=insert description of map here, The tribes of the Tribal Hidage. Where an appropriate article exists, it can be found by clicking on the name.
rect 275 75 375 100 w:Elmet
rect 375 100 450 150 w:Hatfield Ch ...
(7th century).
Eilert Ekwall regarded this name as etymologically obscure. He suggested that the tribe may have brought this name (Spaldas) from the Continent where there may have been a corresponding place-name. It would presumably be related to the unrecorded Anglo-Saxon ' (to cleave) (OHG ') so the meaning of the noun would be "cleft" or "ravine". However, as there are no ravines in the fenland, all of the above should be treated with caution. Caitlin Green has suggested that the Spaldingas were of mixed Anglo-Saxon and Brittonic origin, due to a significant concentration of British Celtic place names in their territory.
[Caitlin Green, ''Britons and Anglo-Saxons: Lincolnshire AD 400-650'', second edition (2020), p. 183]
The Spaldingas may have retained their administrative independence within the Kingdom of
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era= Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ...
into the late 9th century, when
Stamford became one of the
Five Boroughs of the East Midlands under Danish control.
References
Peoples of Anglo-Saxon Mercia
Spalding, Lincolnshire
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