Cymenshore
Cymenshore was a place in Southern England where, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ælle of Sussex landed in AD 477 and battled the Britons with his three sons Cymen, Wlencing and Cissa, after the first of whom Cymenshore was held to have been named. The spelling Cymenshore is a scholarly modernisation of the Old English Cȳmenes ōra, which is now lost. Its location is unclear but was probably near Selsey.
Etymology
The earliest surviving manuscript to contain the name is the late ninth-century Manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which gives it in the form Cymenesora. Outside the Chronicle, what is generally believed to be the same name is next attested in a thirteenth-century manuscript: this includes a copy of a charter adapted from a charter issued in 957, which gives the form on Cymeneres horan and also a copy of a forged charter purporting to date from 673 but perhaps originally composed in the tenth century, which gives the form in Cumeneshore. These and other spellings in late manuscripts are generally accepted by scholars to derive from an Old English place-name, now lost, whose Old English form was Cȳmenes ōra.The first element of Cȳmenes ōra is thought to be an Old English personal name that in proto-Old English would have had the form *Cȳmīn, deriving from the same root as the later Old English adjective cȳme combined with the diminutive suffix *-īn, in the genitive case. Although in early Old English this name took the form *Cȳmīn, by the eighth century, the -n had been lost: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle talks about a person called Cymen not because that was a form of the name current in the ninth century but because a scribe inferred the form of the person's name from the more archaic place-name.
Like several other Old English words that are found in place-names, the second element of Cȳmenes ōra is an Old English word that was probably a loan-word from Latin. The Latin word ōra meant "border, brim, edge, margin, end, boundary", and was used amongst other things to denote coastline. In Old English, this word had two quite different senses: "shore, foreshore" and "a hill shaped like an upturned canoe, featuring a long tract of flat land along the top, with a rounded shoulder at one or both ends". It is possible that the stretch of low ground along the coast from Southampton to Bognor was called ōra "the shore", and that district names including that word were used by the various coastal settlements, such as Ower near Southampton, Rowner near Gosport, Copnor in Portsmouth, Marker in West Thorney, Itchenor, Chalder Farm, Keynor Farm, Honer in Pagham, Bognor—and potentially Cȳmenes ōra.
Role in foundation myths
The account of Ælle and his three sons landing at Cymenshore in 477 appears in the common stock of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a body of material compiled and composed in the ninth century, some 400 years or more after the supposed events.The legendary foundation of Saxon Sussex, by Ælle, is likely to have originated in an oral tradition before being recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. According to the Chronicle, ''Cymenshore is named after Cymen, one of Ælle's sons; some historians, however, have concluded that this figure was invented by scholars in the Chronicle tradition from the place-name and that the actions attributed to him have no historical basis.
From the collapse of Roman administration in Britain until the embedding of Christianity among the English during the seventh century, there is a dearth of surviving written material. This lack of primary sources has made it difficult for historians to verify or disprove the Chronicle
Location
The location for Cȳmenes ōra is traditionally identified with Selsey Bill, a tradition based on a place called Cumenshora in the boundary clause of an Anglo-Saxon charter. There is no archaeological or historical evidence for the settlement of Anglo-Saxons in the Selsey/Chichester area before the sixth century. Archaeological evidence does support the settlement of Saxons in East Sussex during the fifth century and Jutish settlement, also datable to the fifth century, West of Chichester, in neighbouring Hampshire around the Meon Valley.Evidence for Selsey area
The Selsey area, is traditionally the most popular candidate for Cymenshore. The tradition is based largely on two charters that refer to a place with a similar name in the boundary clause to that cited in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The charter that defined the land award to Wilfrid at Selsey, in the 7th century, by King Caedwalla is actually a 10th-century forgery The relevant section of the forged charter, says :and the translation is:
A further source is from the Charter of Byrhthelm, which is believed to be genuine and is to do with some land that had been seized from the See of Selsey, it confirms that the boundary is from Wytherings Mouth and Cymenshoran in the east to Hormouth in the west:
Rumbruge/Rumbridge is believed to have been an islet and trading port off the southwest coast of the Manhood Peninsula, that has long since succumbed to the sea and Wytherings mouth was part of what is now Pagham Harbour.
The Owers
Just off the tip of Selsey Bill, to approximately SSE, are groups of ledges and rocks known as the Owers.Outer and Middle Owers
Some historians such as Hunter-Blair identify the Outer Owers and Middle Owers as the landing place for Ælle. This is problematic, however, as according to SCOPAC the coastal erosion pattern means that this section of the Owers would not have been part of the shoreline for at least 5000 years. The Outer Owers are approximately off Selsey Bill and the erosion pattern suggests that the shore would have been seaward 5000 years ago.The Mixon
To the south of Selsey Bill lies the Mixon rocks.Selsey Bill was part of the Chichester Iron-Age oppidum. The centre was superseded by the Romano-British Belgic tribal civitas at Chichester. Evidence for Selsey’s past importance is provided by the many Atrebatean coins that have been discovered along the Selsey shoreline over the years. The quantity of coins and the discovery of waste gold found have suggested that there was a tribal mint at Selsey, the only other mint for this tribe was at Silchester.
As the Mixon, south of Selsey Bill, would have been within the old oppidum's territory, W.A.R. Richardson speculates that it could be the site of Cidade Celha and therefore Cȳmenes ōra. The archaeological evidence demonstrates that the Mixon would have been the shoreline during the Roman occupation, with it not being breached by the sea until the 10th or 11th century. As late as the 17th century, it was reported that the remains of the "ancient little city" could be seen at low tide.
Keynor
The Manor of Keynor is situated at the western end of Pagham Harbour. Selsey-based historians Edward Heron-Allen and Francis Mee favour the Keynor area of Sidlesham for Cymenshore; they suggest that the name Keynor is derived from Cȳmenes ōra. However, Margaret Gelling asserts that Keyn-or actually means Cow-Shore in Old English.Pagham Harbour
Pagham Harbour currently is a nature reserve, however in earlier times was a working harbour with three ports, one at the western end at Sidlesham Mill known as Wardur, one at the entrance to the harbour known as Charlton and one on the Pagham side known as the Port of Wythering.The port of Wardur was part of 'New Haven' a development in the Middle Ages. The Port of Wythering was overrun by the sea in the 13th century and the whole harbour eventually silted up and ceased to be navigable, except for small craft.
West Wittering
West Wittering has been cited by some early cartographers and historians as the site for Cymenshore. For example in his Britannia Camden said:Also Morden's map of 1695 shows Cimenshore being adjacent to the Witterings.
However, other historians have posited that siting Cymenshore off West Wittering as mistaken and was probably due to a mistranslation of the charter. The charter itself, in the original early English describes part of the boundary of the land as .. Wedering muðe... Wedering was the port of Withering a village, now lost, at the entrance to what is now Pagham Harbour. It is possible that earlier historians had translated Wedering incorrectly, as Wittering.