Place record MDO45102 - Battle Of Aclea AD 851

Alleged site of a battle recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Chronicle records a battle at "Aclea" in AD 851, in which the Danes, having crossed the Thames into Surrey, were defeated by Aethelwulf's West Saxons. Not surprisingly, the scene of the battle is usually identified with Ockley in Surrey rather than Oakley in Dorset (Oakley Down, in Sixpenny Handley and Wimborne St Giles parishes). The latter is referred to as "Aclee" in AD 956.

Oakley (SU 0117) is referred to as "Aclee" in the Shaftesbury Cartulary of AD 956. <3>

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for AD 851 records a battle at "Aclea", in which the Danes who had crossed the Thames into Surrey, were defeated by an army of West Saxons led by Aethelwulf. The scene of the battle is usually identified with Ockley in Surrey, but W H Stevenson, followed by Crawford, believed that an entry "Be Sudan Wudigan Gaete aet Aclee on West saexum" in the Durham Ritual refers to Woodyates (SU 0219) and Oakley on the boundary of Handley and that it was here that the battle took place. <1-2, 4>

Whitelock, Dorothy (Rev, Trans), 1961, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (revised translation), 42 (Monograph). SDO19860.

<1> Crawford, O G S and Keiller, A, 1928, Wessex from the Air, 175 (Monograph). SDO12591.

<2> Fagersten, A, 1933, Place-names of Dorset, 97-8 (Monograph). SDO17521.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1937, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1936, 116, 118, (G B Grundy) (Serial). SDO39.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213528 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 6 2023 2:36PM