Editing Repton (section)

==History==
[[File:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - hreopandune (British Library Cotton MS Tiberius A VI, folio 12v).jpg|thumb|left|The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' points to ''Hreopandune'' as king [[Æthelbald of Mercia|Æthelbald]]'s resting place]]
Christianity was reintroduced to the Midlands at Repton, where some of the [[Mercia]]n royal family under [[Peada of Mercia|Peada]] were baptised in AD&nbsp;653.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christianity in Repton |url=http://reptonchurch.uk/ChristinR.htm |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=reptonchurch.uk}}</ref> Soon a double [[Repton Abbey|abbey]] under an [[abbess]] was built.

In 669 [[Chad of Mercia|St Chad]], the [[Bishop of Mercia]], translated his [[Episcopal see|see]] from Repton to [[Lichfield]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE SEE OF MERCIA {{!}} Orthodox Britain {{!}} Holy Metropolis of Mercia |url=https://www.orthodoxbritain.co.uk/the-see-of-mercia |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Metropolis of Mercia |language=en}}</ref> [[Offa]], King of Mercia, seemed to resent his own bishops paying allegiance to the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] in Kent who, while under Offa's control, was not of his own kingdom of Mercia.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}} Offa therefore created his own [[Diocese of Lichfield|Archdiocese of Lichfield]], which presided over all the bishops from the [[River Humber|Humber]] to the [[River Thames|Thames]]. Repton was thus the forebear of the archdiocese of Lichfield, a third archdiocese of the English church: Lichfield, the other two being Canterbury and York. This lasted for only 16 years, however, before Mercia returned to being under the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

At the centre of the village is the [[Church of England parish church]] dedicated to [[Wigstan|Wystan (or Wigstan)]] of Mercia.<ref name="Pevsner303">Pevsner & Williamson, 1978, page 303</ref>

The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' also reports that 873–874 the [[Great Heathen Army]] overwintered at Repton. The first indications of Viking presence at Repton were discovered by accident in the late 17th century by Thomas Walker who found a pit of bones in the vicarage garden. A hogback tombstone was discovered sometime during 1801–1802 in the western part of the churchyard.  An extensive programme of archaeological excavations, led by Martin Biddle and his wife, Birthe, that took place between 1974 and 1988 led the Biddles to identify the Viking camp with a D-shaped earthwork that they identified on a bluff, overlooking an arm of the River Trent. In more recent times the view that the entire Viking army spent the winter in this small (0.4 ha.) D-shaped enclosure has been challenged.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hadley |first1=D. |last2=Richards |first2=J. |title=The Viking Great Army and the Making of England |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |date=2021 |pages=82–85}}</ref> 

A new set of excavations led by Cat Jarman and Mark Horton began in 2015 with a geophysical survey of the vicarage conducted which revealed new structures.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jarman |first=Catrine |date=2018 |title=Resolving Repton: Has Archaeology Found the Great Viking Camp |journal=British Archaeology |pages=28–35}}</ref> During the 2016–2017 excavations, ground-penetrating radar surveys revealed more possible structures that were subsequently excavated and proved to be grave deposits. These contained a number of pits and stone features such as broken quern stones and a fragment of a carved sandstone cross shaft.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jarman |first=Catrine |date=2018 |title=The 'Great Army' at Repton and The New Archaeology Of Viking Campaigns |journal=The SAA Archaeological Record |pages=19–22}}</ref>

The Biddles also re-opened a mound containing a mass grave containing the remains of at least 264 individuals which they also believed to be associated with the Viking army. The bones were disarticulated and mostly jumbled together. Forensic study revealed that the individuals ranged in age from their late teens to about forty, 80% were male where sex could be determined. Five associated [[Penny (English coin)|pennies]] fit well with the overwintering date of 873–874 and this date was later confirmed by a reassessment of the radiocarbon dates.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hall |first=Richard |title=Viking Age Archaeology |series=Shire archaeology |year=2010 |publisher=Shire Publications |location=Princes Risborough |isbn=978-0-7478-0063-7 |pages=14ff}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Jarman|first1=Catrine L.|last2=Biddle|first2=Martin|last3=Higham|first3=Tom|last4=Ramsey|first4=Christopher Bronk|date=February 2018|title=The Viking Great Army in England: new dates from the Repton charnel|journal=Antiquity|language=en|volume=92|issue=361|pages=183–199|doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.196|s2cid=29165821 |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free}}</ref>

An early 18th century account describes how, in the last quarter of the 17th century, Thomas Walker, a workman looking for stone, opened the mound and found the skeleton of a "nine foot tall" man in a stone coffin in the remains of a building. According to the account, human bones had been neatly stacked around the coffin.<ref>[[Martin Biddle|Biddle, M.]] and [[Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle|Kjølbye-Biddle, B.]], 1992, 'Repton and the Vikings.', ''Antiquity'', 66, (1992), 36–51.</ref>