Ancient Cleveland England

                   THE ANCIENT VIKING NAMED AREA

      OF CLEVELAND IN THE NORTH EAST OF ENGLAND

The area of north east England, named Cleveland was originally named by Viking immigrants, the exact date of naming is not  known.  But most likely it was named during the earliest Viking visits to the north east shores of England. The first  raids by the Vikings on the north east coast are recorded in the  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle  as being 793 AD at Lindisfarne.
The horrific Saxon stories surrounding this early raid have in all probability been stretched far beyond the truth. In my mind  similar to the way the Wolf earned its bad reputation i.e.  it was only ever guilty of being what it was a wolf.

My reason for mentioning the earliest recorded raid at Lindisfarne, is to show that the raid was long before the Vikings inhabited what we now know as York.  The Vikings occupied York   Jorvik  in 865 AD, after a large Danish Viking army had landed in East Anglia.
 Yet its fact the Vikings were long acquainted with the North East coast of England and the land beyond ( Cleveland ) long before this date .  There should then be no dispute when I state, that the City of York in name did not exist before 865 AD and is a lot younger in name than Cleveland, and Cleveland is far older than the later Yorkshire county name . 

 


   Cleveland as far as I can make out either translates land of rolling hills or Cliff land, I personally opt for the latter, but this is another jigsaw that needs solving.  Regardless of which translation is correct, it seems the early Angle Vikings  named the area of ancient Cleveland, telling us it is much  older than the relatively modern named area called Yorkshire, therefore making Cleveland possibly the oldest surviving  Angle Viking named area in England.  

This map shows no mention of the North riding of Yorkshire, but does identify Ancient Cleveland, and note the Esk valley is within its area. 

    
                                                               

                               ODIN'S SEAT - ROSEBERRY TOPPING - ODINSBURGE

                  Below is Wikipedia's report on the Roseberry Topping it is correct in the main part, although it wrongly refers to  Roseberry Topping - Odin's seat,  being part of the much younger English named county of Yorkshire. The hill now called Roseberry topping was and still is part of the older Angle Viking named Cleveland Hills, in the ancient Cleveland.

Roseberry Topping

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Roseberry Topping
Roseberry Topping as seen from the north
Elevation	320 m (1,050 ft)
Prominence	81 m (266 ft)
Location
Location	North York Moors, England
OS grid	NZ579126
Topo map	OS Landranger 193

Roseberry Topping is a distinctive hill on the border between Ancient Cleveland and the latter named area of North Yorkshire. It is situated near Great Ayton and Newton under Roseberry. Its summit has a distinctive half-cone shape with a jagged cliff, which has led to many comparisons with the much higher Matterhorn in Switzerland.^[1] It forms a symbolic image of the area and featured as the logo for the now defunct Cleveland.
At 1,049 feet (320 m), Roseberry Topping is the highest hill on the Cleveland Hills.

The hill is part of the Cleveland hills. It is formed from sandstone laid down in the Middle and Lower Jurassic periods, between 208 and 165 million years ago, which constitutes the youngest sandstone to be found in any of the National Parks in England and Wales. Its distinctive conical shape is the result of the hill's hard sandstone cap protecting the underlying shales and clays from erosion by the effects of ice, wind and rain.
Until 1912, the summit resembled a sugarloaf until a geological fault and possibly nearby alum and ironstone mining caused its collapse.^[1] The area immediately below the summit is still extensively pitted and scarred from the former mineworks. The summit has magnificent views across the Cleveland plain as far as the Pennines on a clear day, some 40 to 50 miles (60 to 80 km) away.

[edit] History

Aerial photo of Roseberry Topping

The Bronze Age Roseberry Topping hoard

The Roseberry area has been inhabited for thousands of years and the hill has long attracted attention for its distinctive shape. A Bronze Age hoard was discovered on the slopes of the hill and is now in the Sheffield City Museum. It was occupied during the Iron Age; walled enclosures and the remains of huts dating from the period are still visible in the hill's vicinity.
The hill was perhaps held in special regard by the Vikings who settled in Cleveland during the early medieval period and gave the area many of its place names. They gave Roseberry Topping its present name: first attested in 1119 as Othenesberg, its second element is accepted to derive from Old Norse bjarg ('rock'); the first element must be an Old Norse personal name, Auðunn or Óðinn, giving 'Auðunn's/Óðinn's rock'. If the latter, Roseberry Topping is one of only a handful of known pagan names in England, being named after the Norse god Odin and paralleled by the Old English name Wodnesberg, found for example in Woodnesborough.^[3]