Penda - the last guardian of the Great Sacred Grove

Mercia, the central part of Anglo-Saxon England, quickly became Christian after the death of Penda in 655. So he is deemed to have been the last pagan king of England - although in reality the Isle of Wight and parts of Sussex weren’t converted until the 680s.
But looking at things a different way, Penda was also the last of the Defenders of the ‘Old Ways’. And most likely had sworn an oath to protect the important pre-conversion sacred places. Which included what may have been the most important of such places in the whole of England.
My suggestion that the Great Sacred Grove was known to Anglo-Saxons as an 'eahl' is supported by the survival of two minor place-names in Wymeswold parish: 'alhfleetford' and 'alhfleetthorn'. Presumably what is know the River Mantle - which has its source near Six Hills - was once known as the 'eahl fleet'.
And there is the unanswerable question as to whether Wymeswold - originally Wigmund's Wald (but always pronounced 'Wymund's Wald) was named after someone called Wigmund. Or was originally the 'weoh (or wig) mund wald'. In other words, either the area of woodland protected by weohs or land for the benefit of the weoh mund - the 'shrine guardian'. As an adjacent parish is called Prestwold - the priest's wood, i.e. land for the benefit of the priest (presumably based at the lost church at Verementon) then continuity from pre- to post-conversion 'shrine guardian' seems plausible.
correction:
Harrows are typically about 100 acres (40 hectares), not as stated in the video.
update:
The script of this video became the basis of an appendix to a free PDF available here: www.hoap.co.uk/earliest_churches_in_notts.pdf
Further reading
Bob Trubshaw Souls, Spirits and Deities (Heart of Albion 2012; revised 2016); online at www.hoap.co.uk/...
Bob Trubshaw The Especially Sacred Grove (Heart of Albion 2012; revised 2016 and 2020); online at www.hoap.co.uk/...
Bob Trubshaw Continuity of Worldviews in Anglo-Saxon England (Heart of Albion 2013; revised 2016); online at www.hoap.co.uk/...
Acknowledgements
This video is based on many ideas and remarks in David Petts’ books Christianity in Roman Britain (Tempus 2003) and Pagan and Christian: Religious change in early medieval Europe (Bristol Classical Press 2011).
The insight about Tacitus’s key omission is in Ronald Hutton’s book Pagan Britain (Yale University Press 2013). Without this insight much of my research into continuity of worldviews in the conversion era would not have come about.
Thanks to Ian Brown for encouragement and specifically for recognising that Penda risked ‘oathbreaking’ if he converted to Christianity.
Thanks also to Rob Almond for sharing his research into his family name.
The stained glass window depicting the death of Penda at the Battle of the Winwaed is in Worcester Cathedral.