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T an early time in the Saxon period the district which is now Gloucestershire became a frontier country. It was opened to settlement on the east of the Severn by the victory of Ceawlin, King of Wessex, at Deorham in 577. The Severn then became the boundary between the Britons and Saxons, and the county was down to a late period considered to be within the Marches of Wales. The Gloucestershire country east of the Severn, which was originally part of Wessex, became later on separated from it under the rule of Ceolric of the West Saxon royal house, and was subsequently absorbed by Mercia. This is of interest in pointing to the direction from which this county probably received its earliest Saxon settlers. The early administration of this district appears to have been connected with Gloucester, Berkeley, Tewkesbury, and Cirencester. There was an extensive administrative area attached to Tewkesbury as late as the Norman survey. The Berkeley administrative area was also large, and was known for many centuries as Berkeley-herness. This name appears to be Scandinavian, and, like those of Inverness in Scotland, Agremundreness in Lancashire, and Holderness, the Berkeley district as a separate area may have had a Scandinavian origin.

In Gloucestershire, as in the northern counties, the evidence of earlier Scandinavian settlers is much mixed with Rh