Click the Map to see Calchfynedd's place in Britain

Calchfynedd is a very mysterious British kingdom mentioned in a few old Welsh poems. Historians don't know much about it. It is thought that it roughly covered Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, North Buckinghamshire and South Oxfordshire. The name is pronounced 'Calk-vineth'. It means 'Chalk Mountains' which refers to the Chiltern Hills. There is a faint tradition that Dunstable & Northampton were its most important towns. There was also a cathedral at Weedon where the great Welsh saint, Cadog, was bishop. The area may have been ruled by the people of London after the Romans left Britain. It was on the edge of many Saxon regions though and may have been left leaderless. In the early 6th century, the region was probably taken over by a prince named Cynwyd and his band of warriors. His cousins had thrown him out of his homeland in the Pennine Hills up North. The Saxons of East Anglia may have built the Devil's Dyke in order to keep him out of their kingdom. However, Calchfynedd only lasted about 50 years! Cynwyd's family was wiped out when his son, Cadrod, was defeated in battle by King Cuthwulf of Wessex in AD 571. The Mercians moved south to take over Calchfynedd. They called the southern part of the kingdom 'Chilternset'.