Village in North East of England - Roman Invasion

[sueinsunnyspain]

My OH is having a senior moment and cannot remember the name of the village in the North east of England. The story goes that the villagers hid until the Roman soldiers had passed through the village. To celebrate their safety a villager rang the church bell, of course the soldiers heard the bells and returned to the village - you can guess what happened next. Please help put him out of his misery. TIA

[JackDanielsU]

Maybe it was Blanchland Abbey - Scots instead of Romans though?

The abbey granges were pillaged during the anglo-scots wars, in particular during 1327, but the abbey itself was apparently left unscathed. There is however a legend that during one raid in the area, the monks prayed that the abbey would be spared. Subsequently, a mist descended which shielded the valley and monastery from view and was overlooked by the Scottish raiders, who passed by. The foolish monks upon hearing this, proceeded to ring the abbey bells to signal to every one in the valley that it was safe, that the invaders had passed. During their celebration of bell ringing, the Scottish invaders heard the bells, turned around and ransacked the Monastery.

[heathfield]

In support of Jack's answer, wouldn't the Romans have established full control in the northeast of England long before any Christian churches were built? (Wikipedia - ''Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries.'')

[sueinsunnyspain]

That's the place - thank you.

[Andyvon]

It couldn't have been Romans. Britainnia was a province of the Roman Empire from 43AD until 410AD. Christianity wasn't adopted by the Roman Empire until 325AD and Christianity was only a persecuted minority cult before then. There certainly weren't any churches as we know them in Britain at the time and bells and bell towers were only adopted by churches in the Middle Ages. Christianity as we know it today arrived in Britain in 597AD when Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine here.

Your story Sue sounds like a muddled memory of one of the numerous Scottish incursions into England throughout the Middle Ages. It could however have recalled a Viking raid. Erik Bloodaxe often sallied forth from York to raid the surrounding area - although the locals invariably took cover and refused to fight.

In the 11th century Erik was known as the last of the real Vikings - but born a century too late! He would have made a great Viking warrior - but by the time he was king of York no one was interested in fighting. Erik would sulk in York for a few weeks then round up some halfhearted supporters to raid the surrounding area. However, everyone fled or hid until Erik had left and he could never find anyone to fight him. Erik would burn some crops and houses, kill some livestock - then mope back to York and sulk for another few weeks until his next foray.

Your story sounds more like the village avoiding Erik and his gang. Churches were certainly established at the time as was bellringing.