The Great Heathen Army brought terror to the Trent Valley in the 9th century when Viking longships sailed up the River Trent to Repton.

The Vikings invaded during a time when the country was still a collection of kingdoms. The Trent Valley landscape is at the centre of what was then known as the Kingdom of Mercia. In 873AD the Vikings took up winter quarters in Repton, following which they drove out the Mercian King.

Although there was never a strict border between Saxon England and the Danelaw (land controlled by the Vikings) due to the state of flux the country was in during this period, a rough divide can be observed in the landscape approximately east and west of the River Trent in modern day place names. To the east are places influenced by Old Scandinavian, where ‘holme’, meaning island, can be seen in Catholme and Broadholme and ‘-by’, meaning village, can be seen in Derby and Ashby. To the west we can see the influence of Old English where ‘-ton’ meant village and can be seen in Burton, Hatton and Stretton. The dialect boundary is perhaps the most noticeable inheritance of the Danelaw, whereby the area strongly inhabited by the Vikings has a distinctly ‘northern’ accent, very different to the Saxon Mercian areas to the west.

The video shows a 360° artistic interpretation of the landscape near St Wystan’s Church, Repton. See how the River Trent has moved around the landscape over the centuries. Here Viking raiders are invading the local area to overwinter at the church, which used to be much closer to the river.