PROFESSOR Harding's further evidence [Globe, January 8] for Bromborough as the site of the decisive battle is fascinating and persuasive, as his work always is.
The mysterious word "Dingesmere" across which the defeated Danes and Scots fled, might indeed be a corruption of "Thingesmere" the "marsh by the Thing".
My thought is that the river between Wirral and Wales was then, as now, simply called "Dee", and the single letter "D" was then so pronounced.
I understand "ing" to be a word meaning "belonging to", and "mere", as Prof Harding's excellent books point out, is a corruption of "melr", meaning a sandbank.
Could not the Chronicler simply mean that they fled, literally, "across the sands of Dee"?
Since the estuary, from Thurstaston to Parkgate, provided sheltered landing beaches suitable for ships of the period, it would be a logical place for the invasion fleet to be beached, ready for evacuation should the English win the day.
Frank Nance, Wallasey
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