If ever you doubted the importance of water to communications and power in Anglo-Saxon England take a look at this map. I haven’t a clue of its date* (after Hild’s time; I found it on the Toast), but it gives a window into the relationship between navigable rivers and coastlines and important/fortified settlements.
I spent many hours today searching for some sort of map–a sketch would do–of the Tyne**, its estuarine channels, and Arbeia as Hild might have known it. Obviously something from the seventh century would be ideal, but I’ll settle for anything from the first millennium CE.
Anyone?
* See comments below: it’s by Matthew Paris and made in the 13th century.
Nicola Griffith 
Oh ho ho. Already got this on Twitter:
http://www.hadrianswallquest.co.uk/sites/default/files/Horsley%20map%20from%20F%20Graham.jpg
But now, of course, I WANT MOAR! A notion of the geography and geology, particularly as regards navigable waterways, of everything east of the Pennines between, say, Humber and Tweed. In the 7th C of course…
The image in your post is by Matthew Paris and thus thirteenth century. See this BL page.
(To me, Hild has something of a thirteenth-century-backwards-compatible feel. This is a good thing.)
If you delve into Matthew's maps in particular, also consider the material at Parkerweb, a Stanford/Cambridge partnership. This link ought to go to M, and then scroll down for MSS 26, 16, 56, and 348; the description and images ought to be accessible without fee.
Oops, “skg” is me–I hadn't realized that my old Blogger profile was still set to show initials only.
Many thanks for that.