The ''Tewingas'' were a tribe or clan of

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom o ...

, whose territory was centred on the settlement of

Welwyn Welwyn is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the villages of Digswell and Oaklands, Hertfordshire, Oaklands. It is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, ...

in modern-day

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, the site of an early

Minster church Minster is an honorific title given to particular churches in England, most notably York Minster in Yorkshire, Westminster Abbey in London and Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire. The term ''minster'' is first found in royal foundation charte ...

, and the nearby settlement of

Tewin Tewin is an English village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England between the towns of Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Welwyn (village) and the county town Hertford, it is within commuting distance of London. Tewin Wood is a very affluent re ...

. Its name means either "the people of Tiwa" or "the worshippers of the God Tew". The tribe and its territory is mentioned in an Anglo Saxon charter of c.945. Its heartland was in the valley of the

River Mimram The River Mimram is a river in Hertfordshire, England. Geography The river valley known locally as the Mimram Valley is named after the River Mimram, which rises from a spring to the north-west of Whitwell, in North Hertfordshire, England, and ...

on well-drained soils. The area shows strong continuity with earlier settlements, with the Welwyn area including an earlier Iron Age ''

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretchi ...

'', a Roman small town and several Roman villas.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Heptarchy Peoples of Anglo-Saxon England History of Hertfordshire Anglo-Saxon England