Dear Bernard Cornwell,
Reading your Last Kingdom books again. Just brilliant and thank you.
I was very interested to read of your link with Uhtred via your family surname of Oughtred. I think I can make a similar link with Hering son of King Hussa of Bernicia. Surnames as we know them did not exist then, but personal names did. Hussa ruled from 596 – 603 and then Aethelfrith of Northumbria took Bernicia and Hering was forced to flee to the Scots. He sought help from Aedan of Dalriata and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that “Hering son of Hussa led a raiding army there” Hering and Aedan fought and lost the Battle of Degsastan in 603 and “after that, no king of the Scots dared lead a raiding army into this nation”. So what happened to Hering? There is a story here!
The personal name of Hering does occur in Icelandic sagas such as that of Grettir the Strong where he is a skilled rock climber and “Easterner”. The name is also found in place names such as Herringby in Norfolk where the earliest form is shown as Haeringr-by. It is also possibly the origin of Harringay in London.
I know Benfleet and Essex well and searched for your holed stone at Thundersley. I only found a small stone shaped like a skull, but there is a large holed standing stone at nearby Hockley. perhaps it has been moved there.
Best wishes,
Peter herring
PS another link – i was born just ten days before you in February 1944!