Yeavering

Royal seat of the Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, England, in the 7th century AD and site of an impressive group of buildings. Great timber halls and a semicircular timber grandstand for meetings and assemblies have been excavated. Of the smaller buildings uncovered, one is thought to have been converted from a pagan temple into a church. It has advanced our knowledge of Saxon timber architecture.

With Cheddar, Yeavering in Northumberland is one of the two sites in Britain most convincingly identified as Anglo-Saxon palaces, and fortunately both have been competently excavated. Despite difficult soil conditions at Yeavering, the archaeologists were able to distinguish a series of construction and destruction sequences, while the overall plan revealed a group of 20 buildings overshadowed by a large timber fort which seems to have been laid out by King Edwin (r. 616-32). In the 7th century there was a dominant timber long hall, from which extended a number of smaller halls at regular intervals; another building has been inter preted as an early Northumbrian church. The most unusual and spectacular structure found at Yeavering, however, is the large semi-circular timber grandstand. This was undoubtedly used for meetings and assemblies, and it may have been from its platform that Paulinus preached in 627.