Offa’s Dyke Journal has reached volume 5. This latest is free in PDF, and includes one article of local interest… “Treaties, Frontiers and Borderlands: The Making and Unmaking of Mercian Border Traditions”. In this it’s interesting to learn that Staffordshire pottery appears to have bank-rolled the defence against the Vikings…

Working at pace on multiple fronts, [Queen] Aethelflaed frequently used the Mercian royal tradition of ‘common burdens’ [to raise funds] for military works [which were raised from centres] such as Stafford, known for its ninth-century kilns.