THE CAVE VILLAGE OF WOOKEY

skeleton have yet been found. Other human bones, remains of men of massive build and of babies whose teeth were still concealed in the bone of the jaw, are flung pell-mell among the broken marrow-bones of animals used for food. There can be no doubt that, at a late stage in the history of the village, the inhabitants were reduced to cannibalism, perhaps in consequence of the straits to which they were driven by invaders. This was probably at the time the lake villages were sacked, and probably their enemies were the warlike Belgae, who appear to have captured the fortress of Worlebury, built on the extremity of the Mendip Hills overlooking the present town of Weston-super-Mare, and no doubt the other fortified camps along the northern side of the hills. Worlebury was afterwards seized by the Romans. Whilst the people in the lake villages were a race of peaceful shepherds and farmers, the cavemen were evidently not unprepared to put up a fight. At any rate the entire absence of weapons observed there does not hold here. Among others, there have been found an iron spear-head and arrow heads blunted at the point, as if discharged in an attai k on the fastness.

But the interested reader must be referred for a more exhaustive ,account of these prehistoric finds to Mr. Balch's well illustrated monograph, “Wookey Hole,” and for information on the contiguous region on the north to the proceedings of the Speleological Society attached to the University of Bristol. Records also exist of the important explorations carried out at an earlier date in the caves of Uphill, Bleadon, and Banwell, as well as of Boyd Dawkins’s work at Goatchurch, in Burrington Combe. Much more will doubtless come to light in the future. The most likely spots are small early man in Britain but a sketch of the discoveries and possibilities in the West of England, one of the richest archaeological fields in Britain, where there is room for much methodical spadework. Everything outside is of necessity treated in a few words. Most of the material mentioned mar be seen in one or other of the local museums.This is a time of extensive public-works and it is likely that prehistoric objects are turned up from day to da)'. It would be of value if record of such finds were sent as they occur to the local Museum Curator or to the Secretary of the local Archaeological Society, or to the Secretary of the Spelaeological Society. At present such material is usually destroyed or dispersed. It is this failure to record, together with casual or inexpert excavations, which so hampers the progress of the study of earl)' man in this district. These papers first appeared in the Western-Daily Press last Autumn, and it is to the Editor, Mr. W. E. Stone, that we are indebted for permission to reprint and for the use of three blocks. The remainder of the blocks were loaned by Professor E. Fawcett, President of the Speleological Society of Bristol University and the Committee.

September, 1927.

Clifton.

THE OLD STONE AGE.

River-Drift Man.

is known of the first men in these islands. The skull found at Piltdown, in Sussex, is certainly human, although the jaw associated with it is chinless and the canine teeth would not be out of place in a great ape. The favourite weapon or tool of the Piltdown man and those who followed him was a pear shaped instrument of chipped flint, often weighing several pounds, which, designed for everything, was variously used as bandaxe, knife, dagger, scraper, and root grubber. These implements were best preserved in the silt and shingle left by ancient rivers, and from this drift they are now dug together with the bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and other beasts which tell us that the climate was genial. Tidal action in the Severn and the rivers that empty therein has always been more vigorous than along the shores of the Channel and North Sea, consequently the drift was often washed away and, therefore, few hand-axes have been found near Bristol. There are specimens from the Avon and Walton Bay in the Bristol Museum ; and at Preshford, Twerton and Taunton, hones of these animals have been discovered. Recently two hand-axes were discovered in St. Anne’s Park, Bristol.

Neanderthal Man.

Neanderthal man, successor of the river-drift man, was less ill favoured; that is, he went through life with a great shelving brow, a retreating forehead, a receding chin, and a stooping gait. He was enough of a man to employ fire and to have an organised religion, as ceremonial interments made in French caves demonstrate. His remains have been unearthed in the Channel Islands and in Rhodesia, in Gallilee and in Gibraltar; but so far none have turned up in England, though his stone weapons are not uncommonly found along the Thames. It is possible that he dwelt in a cave, now quarried away, at Uphill. During his stay in Europe the climate grew cold. At about 12,000 B.C. a new race, better adapted to withstand the cold, arrived in Europe, and under the impetus of their competition he disappeared, leaving no descendants.

Cave Man.

Under the name of Cave Men the new folk are now familiar to everyone. They camped in the open country or lodged in caves where their remains and effects are best preserved. The stone implements used by the invaders were first studied from a cave at Aurignac, in the South of France ; whence the earliest men of the new type are known as Aurignacians, just as the inhabitants of Britain, affected by Roman thought and culture as they were during the occupation of this island, were Romans. The Aurignacians of Britain lived in Paviland Cave in Gower, near Swansea, and at Langwith in Derbyshire. Their stone implements are small, skilfully wrought, and there seems to have been an instrument for each purpose ; for they had knives, scrapers, planes, awls, and graving tools. They also fashioned bone, ivory, and antler into javelins and other weapons of the chase.

The Aurignacian race varied greatly, but notwithstanding these differences the man himself was in all bodily essentials modern ; the first ancestor whom we may recognise. He existed by hunting the beasts that ranged England in his day, and they were a pretty formidable hill of fare. There was the woolly mammoth, larger than the African elephant of to-day, the woolly rhinoceros, the cave lion, the cave bear (a super grizzly) and ox, bison, elk, and reindeer, to name a few. In some caves there are literally tons of bones which have been split for the easier extraction of the marrow. When we consider their miserable weapons and scanty resources, and realise that they and their successors not only endured the struggle with weather and beasts but found it in themselves to make ornaments, to engrave their weapons, and to paint impressionistic pictures of bison, horse, rhinoceros, and lion on the walls of the inner recesses of their cavern dwellings—pictures that can hold their own with most modern work—easy statements on the advance of mankind seem grave impertinences.

A hunting people takes up a lot of room. In the Old Stone Age the population of Britain can never have exceeded a few thousands who followed the untamed herds in their quest for pasture, slew indiscriminately when they were able, and fell back on roots or went hungry when the hunting was bad. Moreover, in Britain, life was more rigorous than on the Continent and leisure for artistic effort was limited, so that only a few moderate engravings have been found here. It is noteworthy that in these days certain types of stone implements which were peculiar to the island began to appear, and seem to indicate, if not a national feeling, a certain unity of thought among the scattered tribes which wandered here 12,000 years ago. It is hard to affirm with confidence that any of the implements found hereabouts are Aurignacian. Some fiom Banwell and Loxton-in-Mendip probably belong to this period.

—King Arthur’s Cave.

The Solutreans.

In the 60’s Sir William Boyd Dawkins, while excavating a cave at Wookey Hole, came across some heart-shaped flint implements with delicate scaling on their surfaces. In 1899 similarly scaled implements were discovered in Uphill Cave, and last year others

Fig. 2a—Upper Palaeolithic Implements from King Arthur's Cave.

were found by the Spelaeological Society in King Arthur’s Cave, Symond's Yat on Wye. In each case they were found with abundant remains of food animals ; hyaena and horse predominating, rhinoceros being next favourite. Now these scaled implements are very like specimens found with the same animals in France, Spain, Germany, Poland and Russia. This new culture of scaled stone is known as the Solutrean ; from Solutre in France where a vast number of typical implements were unearthed. It is now known that between 10,000 and 9,000 B.C. a hunting folk advancing from the Fast pushed through Europe to Spain, making a sort of racial corridor. That this race ever reached England or even France is uncertain; but their influence went before them and their beautiful and striking flint work replaced the Aurignacian technique. For some unknown reason the intrusion also temporarily quenched the artistic spirit. Some authorities maintain that the Solutreans are the direct ancestors of the fair men of North Europe. It seems that the new culture prevailed only as far as Mendip. At Symond’s Yat and elsewhere to the north and west the native Aurignacian survived unaltered, though a few implements were scaled in the Solutrean manner.

The Magdalenians.

The most important inhabited caves in this district are Gough’s Cave, Cheddar, and Avcline’s Hole, Burrington Combe, which is still being explored by the Spelacological Society. The former was occupied the earlier since the hyaena found there is absent from the latter, but otherwise there is a resemblance between the contents of both. There are also indications that whereas when Gough's Cave was occupied the conditions were extremely severe, the Aveline’s Hole men lived when the English climate was as warm and even wetter than at present. A beautiful six-barbed harpoon of stag-antler found in Aveline’s Hole dates its occupation near 6,500 B.C. A rudely engraved reindeer antler from Cheddar certainly belongs to the same epoch. The flint implements are all of one culture : they belong to the native Aurignacian which had resurged from the north and west, eradicating from Mend ip every vestige of the invading Solutrean Culture. Amongst other tilings a number of sea shells and some deer teeth, drilled for stringing together as a necklace, were found at Burrington.

—Upper Palaeolithic Implements from Gough’s Cave, Cheddar.

The importance of these two caves is found in their content of human remains. The Cheddar skeleton is almost complete. Aveline’s Hole has yielded bones of at least twenty individuals. Ornaments show that some, at least of these were buried with ceremony. The most striking feature of the remains is their con. formity to modern types. Not one of these folk would arouse comment if, in modern garb, he passed through the streets of a seaport town. Such differences as we meet are slight. Their incisors did not overlap, as ours do, but met edge to edge : a gritty diet had worn down their molars to an extent rarely encountered nowadays : and their shin bones were flattened. There is no trace of the overhanging brows and rugged ferocity of feature wherewith the novelist loves to invest the cave man.

The facts arc that these Mendip cave men and women were little people, low of stature, slender of limb, smooth featured, not very muscular, hardy ; but still subject to some ills with which we are acquainted. In general appearance they resembled the inhabitants of Corsica and Sardinia, except that one meets with broad heads amongst them.

They probably made up for lack of inches in agility Their chief prey and staple food was the giant red dear of the new forests, that everywhere were growing and they successfully ran him down without even the aid of a dog. The rhinoceros was about to vanish, hut reindeer and brown bear provided a change of diet, and they were fishers as well as hunters. Recently it has been shown that this race occupied Britain with little change until the rise of the

Roman Empire, and to-day it constitutes the matrix of the English people.

Several other caves in the district were occupied by Palaeolithic man, but unfortunately their excavation was so badly performed that the evidence derived from them is of small value.

Flint Knives from a Cheddar Cave. Natural Size

t

TRANSITION TO A SETTLED LIFE AND THE NEW STONE AGE.

At the end of the Old Stone Age men were living m small

as witchcraft, has survived in remote districts to the present day.

Of the strange shadowy period that followed we know very

Africa and poured into Spain. l cj predecessors, living chiefly on fish and snails.

Enoland was now joined to the continent, and there were forests " tT o Rv S 000 B C the new men were settled along its

unchanged, on the flanks of Plynlimmon and in other.emote places.

The Mesolithic Period

The new

The newcomers are best distinguished by their works It is

sites; for that is the name of this per lod.

—Pygmy Flints from Rowberrow Cavern

One such site was discovered by Mr. T. F. Hewer in the platform outside King Arthur’s Cave, Symonds Yat. It is now in the early stages of investigation, but already a number of these pygmy tools, which were used as harpoon barbs, have been found. Other flint implements of new types, polished pebbles and utilised bones, occurred in fair quantity. The great and unfamiliar beasts of the Old Stone Age had vanished, leaving ox, horse, giant-deer, swine, and beaver ; and these, together with fish and mussels from the Wye beneath, formed the food supply. Some survivals of Palaeolithic types were found among the flint implements, but as yet it is too early to hazard an opinion as to whether the. King Arthur’s Cave folk were of a surviving Palaeolithic stock, or new-comers, or a mixed tribe.

More is known of the Continent in these days. In France the magnificent naturalistic art had gone. The fishermen were very numerous and in the cave of Mas d’ Azil over a thousand of their rough harpoons came to light. On the shores of the Baltic other men were now building-villages, literally on rafts, and had begun to tame the dog; the first domestic animal. This rude civilisation reached Yorkshire. The kindred French culture spread to the Highlands.

The New Stone Age.

The taming of the dog made the keeping of flocks and herds possible, thus revolutionising human life to an extent which has never happened before or since. By 5,000 B.C. the first men of the broad headed Alpine Race from whom most modern Frenchmen are derived were in central Europe, and others swarmed after them driving sheep and oxen and bringing a knowledge of agriculture. By 3,000 B.C. they were established in large villages that possessed pottery, corn and fruits. Civilising influencescrept into Britain more tardily, but by 2,500 B.C., when there had long been cities in Egypt and Mesopotamia,the natives of this land were forsaking their fishing settlements on riverside and shore, were gathering flocks and herds to themselves, and were breaking in small hillside patches to tillage. Sometime between the end of the Old Stone Age and this date Britain had finally become an island.

The true Neolithic period is the period of the chipped or polished stone axe, earthenware and husbandry. There is reason to believe that in Britain it lasted from 2,500 to 1.800 B.C. Of the early years little remains outside the great and imposing flint mines of Grime’s Graves in Norfolk and Cissbury in Suffolk. A small flint factory of this date at Thatcham near Newbury has supplied material which suggests that Baltic influences were coming in. But in the West there is nothing we can confidently assign to this period. We may be sure that people lived here, but their relics have yet to be discovered.

The difficulty of realising the position of the British Isles in the Neolithic period when political organisation, as it is now understood, began to appear, is vast. To-day in all humility we may say that England is the hub of the earth ; the port and clearing-house of the Old World up to and including India. But this status only began with the discovery of America, and was only consolidated after Waterloo. In some way allied to this geographical promotion is the rise of our cultural importance in the widest sense. We may be as insular as we please in the Hebrides or the London suburbs, but Shaw and Shakespeare are popular dramatists in Germany today, a Middlesbrough firm is building a bridge across Sydney Harbour, and Bristol aeroplanes are flown all over the earth. Not one of these happenings is accidental; there are contributory racial and environmental factors, as anyone can see.

Early in the New Stone Age Britain was about as important in the general scheme of things as Papua is to-day. Its life was a dim sluggish reflection of the daily round in the outer world.

Towards the end of the third millennium B.C., the possession of flocks and herds and the practice of agriculture had had its effect and the erstwhile hunters had formed large tribes with powerful religious organisations. The old nomadic life had erased and each tribe was settled in a district which belonged to it. Men no longer depended on the day’s effort and the day’s luck for the day’s food.

Megaliths.

At this point there was a great quickening of the communal life which is revealed to us by7the new culture of megaliths or mighty stones. The British megaliths closely resemble French examples. Vessels and implements like others found along the Mediterranean were found within the latter, and these in turn are related to certain Egyptian forms of known date. 2000 B.C., the approximate earliest date of these monuments in Britain, has thus been arrived at.

Single stone monuments or menhirs are not common in this district, but a stone in Armoury Square, Stapleton Road, Bristol, the poor remnant of a block that once was much greater, may be one. In that case its position near the centre of a city is surely unique. There is reason to believe that the stone on Redland Green

is a fallen menhir. The circular stone temples at Avebury, Stonehenge, Rollright and Stanton Drew are famous enough to need no description. Dolmens or table stones are box like chambered tombs which once were covered by earthen mounds. There are examples at Druid Stoke and on Broadfield Down.

1 he best known and commonest megalithic monuments are the long-barrows. These mounds are between 50 and 200 feet long and 30 and 80 feet wide. Usually the east end is the higher and wider. In most Cotswold examples there is a portal at this end which gives . access to a chambered passage wherein the remains rested. The

sides of the barrows are often retained within dry walling. Perhaps no two long barrows are identical any more than two churches. 1 hei e aie at least ten of these overground family vaults in North Somei set, including those found by Mr. E. K. Tratman at Felton, Kedhill and Priddy. More than 60 Cotswold examples are known including the group of five round Avening, near Nailsworth, and eight at Upper Swell in the extreme north-east of Gloucestershire.

The idea of building chambered tombs came from France and perhaps Denmark: two regions which already were in contact with Britain. But it was an age of invention and foreign ideas were t soon adapted to native conditions and tastes. Thus long barrows

and great stone circles are British developments which are rare or absent in France.

The Stone Axe.

The polished stone axe, a far more efficient implement than anything which came before, belongs to this period. Mr. Alfred Selley who has searched the ground hereabouts for a life-time, and knows more of the local distribution of flints than anyone else, has found by the frequency of polished axes on high-ground, something of the haunts of the axe-men. Abbot’s Leigh, Failand Hill, WraxaM Hill, Walton Hill, Bishopsworth and the Mendip plateau were centres of their population. A polished and perforated stone macc head was found on Winterbourne Down ; very few polished stones have been discovered on the Cotswolds.

As a rule the migration of the axe-men to the unforested and healthier uplands was pretty general, but one axe was found on low ground at Portishead. Some years ago Mr. Selley took several others from the rubbish heap of a neolithic fishing village at Shirehampton which was half obscured by Avon mud. Scrapers, chipped knives, arrowheads, and coarse potsherds, most of which are now in the Cambridge museum, were in the same heap. Other flint axes have been turned up from time to time in the Glastonbury fens, often

along with bronze weapons. These, together with fragments of polished tools from bronze-age barrows excavated by the Spelaeo-logical Society, show that this most efficient tool remained in use long after the (Ylegalithic period.

Neolithic Dwellings.

Most of our knowledge of these folk is drawn from tombs and therefore is very one-sided. Recently, several late Neolithic cave dwellings have been explored in Mendip. A party from Downside Abbey found in a fissure at Nettlebridge near Shepton Mallet a number of broken human bones of modern type together with vessels decorated all over with the impressed thumbnail; a motif which has survived on Scotch shortbread. The exploration was never completed.

In the Outlook Cave, Ebbor Gorge, Mr. Balch has found human bones, thumbnail pottery, part of a polished stone mace-head, a triangular flint arrowhead, and many bones of domestic beasts. In another dwelling place of the same age, beneath an overhanging rock in the same gorge, he was fortunate enough to obtain a stone axe with a ground blade, a large oval scaled knife, and more thumbnail pottery.

—Rowberrow Cavern.

D' ■ Tayloi s labours in Rowberrow Cavern have supplied a round bottomed Neolithic bowl with an overhanging rim decorated with the “ maggot ” pattern, it therefore belongs to a well-known long-barrow type. Sherds of Beaker-warewhich

*

-Neolithic, Beaker and “ Food Vessel:sherds from Rowberrow Cavern

t

will be described later, were near it. With the pottery was a service of Hint implements wrought by shallow scaling, including part of a polished tool and barbed stone arrowheads. But undoubtedly the important feature of the industry here found was the presence of , pygmy flints (Fig. 7); though not quite the same as the earlier

pygmies from King Arthur’s Cave they are probably derived from the Arthursian industry. They suggest that the indwellers in Rowberrow Cavern were the descendants of men who dwelt in Britain in y. lardenoisian times. They in turn perhaps were derived from the

cave men of Old Stone Age.

. ^U'\ Cheddar, Aasalso produced an association of round

bottomed Neolithic pottery, sherds of Beaker-ware, finely scaled flint implements and small fragments of a polished axe. Soldier’s Hole in Cheddar Gorge has so far given us a set of stone implements including a polished axe and a chipped stone spear-head.

The most significant Neolithic site m this district was found by the Somerset Archaeological Society under an overhanging rock in. Chelm’s Combe, Cheddar, where round bottomed bowls and the bones of the men who used them had survived. One of the bowls is of a Spanish type. The Neolithic men who dwelt in these seven caves had domestic beasts, but they hunted freely to augment their food stocks.

Neolithic Man.

The description of the Palaeolithic man of Aveline’s Hole and Gough’s Cave could be used for the men from the Gloucestershire and Somersetshire long barrows and from Chelm’s Combe without much amending. Perhaps the main difference is that the long-barrow men had narrower faces than the cave men. Judging by the skeletons we have there is no reason to suppose that the long-barrow men were other than the descendants of the cave men. But this is a theory that needs testing by research in transitional stations.

A skull was taken from Bisley long-barrow upon which the dangerous and delicate surgical operation of trepanning had been successfully performed. >

It has been asserted that the Megalithic culture was carried across Europe by traders from the Near East who were in quest of gold, amber and pearls. They were dark broad-heads, and are known as Prospectors. Professor Fleure has discovered in Pembroke and South Cardigan, where Megaliths are numerous, numbers of men who may be their descendants. Never the less, no oriental Neolithic objects have appeared in the West of England and, moreover, the skeletons from the long-barrows all appear to belong to the distinctive native type.

At this period it is probable that work began on the gold bearing gravel of Wicklow. For centuries this was the most important gold-field in Europe and this may account for the enormous number of flint axes and early bronze implements found in Ireland. But there are few signs of the gold trade in these parts. >

Trade there was: no one can walk across a ploughed field on Mendip without discovering a flint implement or flake. No flint is found naturally in the district, therefore, the presence of such enormous quantities on the land is testimony of settled conditions and an interchange of commodities in the New Stone and Bronze Ages.

Die Megalithie stage certainly lasted into the early Bronze Age; the occurrence of Beaker-ware with Neolithic pottery is good evidence of that. Stonehenge itself was raised after the close of the New Stone Age. It is now well-known that the inner circle of blue stones was brought thence from Pembrokeshire. Perhaps they were ferried across the Severn estuary to Uphill or Worlehury and toiled along Mendip to the Wiltshire Downs by devout herdsmen.

—Merlin s Cave, Symond's Vat.

THE BEAKER FOLK.

Towards the end of the Megalithie period a great drought in-Russia, like that which had such terrible results some years since, set in motion a fair skinned people who lived in the Ukraine. They seem to have violently intruded on their neighbours, killing the men and marrying with the women ; then local pressure, or the impulse to adventure, set them on the road again. By their skeletons and by the distinctive objects they left behind they can be traced to Bohemia, and from thence to many places. The branch which concerns us moved along South Germany, and made its way up the Rhine to the shores of the North Sea. By 1850 B.C. they had crossed to Britain, and for many years their incursions continued ; not as invaders, for their numbers were relatively small, but as the prototypes of the colonists of New England.

The characteristic vessel which this colonising people always made and left in their graves and dwelling sites, whereby we may trace them throughout their wanderings, is the beaker ; a well-made pot of good yellow or red earthenware, always decorated ,. usually in zones or bands.

Unlike Neolithic men the Beaker-folk never built long barrows, but threw up round mounds over their stone-lined graves or cists. (Fig. 11., 1). From their bones we know a good deal about their appearance. They were stalwart broud-heads, their more powerful muscles were scaffolded upon rugged frames, and their features were the reverse of suave.

The inlets and rivers from Southampton to Aberdeen let the Beaker-folk into Britain. They swarmed up the Thames, and strongly established themselves on the unwooded chalk uplands of Wilts, Yorkshire, Derby, and Aberdeen. Until recently it was believed that they had avoided this district entirely, but within the past few years the Spelaeological Society has found their pottery at Blackdown, Rowberrow Cavern, Tvning’s Farm, and Sun Hole, Cheddar, in Mendip ; at Nailsworth, and at Symond’s Yat. The same ware was discovered in the Chelm’s Combe rock shelter. Some years ago Mr. St. George Gray excavated a great round barrow at Wick, near Stogursey, and found therein three beakers and skeletons, and some elaborate flint daggers. Thus there is every reason to believe that the Somerset hills were strongly colonised, forming a link between the settlements of Wilts and those of South Wales. Only a few beakers have been found in Ireland..

There is every reason to believe that in the south and east of this country, at least, the Beaker-folk constituted themselves an aristocracy which led and ruled the less vigorous but far more.

numerous dark, long-headed natives. How they established their rule we can only conjecture, but whatever their status was there was undoubtedly a great increase in prosperity and population in their day, which lasted until 1,500 B.C.

The Beaker-folk were always out-numbered by the natives, especially in the North and West, and gradually they were absorbed. To-day folk of this type are most frequently found in Aberdeenshire, Northumbria, Derbyshire, and the Bala Cleft in North Wales, where there are also many evidences of their early occupation. Charles Darwin was a counterpart of this very fine type. In the South they contributed strains to the population, but such have been obscured by later invasions.

THE BRONZE AGE.

Researches in Egypt have made it clear that the discovery of bronze and its possibilities had been accomplished by 2,800 B.C. The knowledge was slowly carried across Europe so that by 2,000 B.C. (?) it had been introduced into Britain. Primitive bronze daggers are sometimes found in Beaker graves. It gradually came into general use, displacing more and more flint implements; but the revolution that it effected in the way of living was more tardy. The people still avoided the swampy, forested valleys, with their wild beasts and ague, and dwelt on the bare uplands. In fact, in Britain during the early Bronze Age life was confined to the hills more than at any other period. The vast labour required to hew down trees with small bronze or stone axes kept the damp wooded Midlands almost uninhabited.

The church is believed to have Roman origins in connection with a local villa and the dedication to Julian the Hospitaller may support this claim. A statue of St Julian holding an oar is displayed in a niche above the porch. It is known that Wellow was granted to monastery of St. Andrew at Wells, now Wells Cathedral, in 766 by the King of the West Saxons. In 1117 it was given, along with Frome to an order of Augustinian Canons at Cirencester (now Cirencester Abbey by Henry I.

This affiliation is confirmed by a charter signed by Edward III in 1337. In 1369 Sir Thomas Hungerford bought Wellow and rebuilt the church which was consecrated on May Day in 1372 by John Harewell, Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Statue of St Julian holding an oar

The Porch has a 14th-century oak door. The east end of the south aisle bears a scratch dial of a Sundial. The octagonal south rood stair turret dates from around 1450 however most of the chancel is from a 19th-century refurbishment. The nave includes a clerestory which was added around the middle of the 15th century along with the Rood Screen. The font dates from around 1250 but has undergone several restorations. The Hungerford Chapel contains 15th century wall paintings of Christ and the twelve apostles dating from the 15th century and several monuments to the Hungerford family.

The 84 feet (26 m) west tower, which was built around 1475,[3] has three stages, set back buttresses with off-sets which turn into diagonal pinnacles in upper stages. There is an embattled parapet with pinnacles. The square stair turret on the south-east corner terminates as an octagon. There is a three-light window to the bell chamber with cusped heads and a similar but larger window with transom to west.

"WELLOW, a hundred in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Camerton, Charterhouse-Hinton, Comb-Hay, Corston, Dunkerton, English Combe, Farleigh-Hungerford, Forscote, Newton St. Loe,Norton St. Philip, Tellisford, Twerton, andWellow; comprising 21,900 acres."

Medieval packhorse bridge overWellow Brook

There is a low water crossing (Irish Bridge) and late mediaeval packhorse bridge overWellow Brook.

A little further west is theNeolithicchamberedtombknown asStoney Littleton Long Barrow.The Long Barrow, which is also known as Bath Tumulus and the Wellow Tumulus, is aNeolithicchamberedtombwith multiple burial chambers.[4]The barrow is about 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 15 metres (49 ft) wide at the south-east end, it stands nearly 3 metres (10 ft) high.[5]Internally it consists of a 12.8 metres (42 ft) long gallery with three pairs of side chambers and an end chamber. There is a fossilammonitedecorating the left-hand doorjamb. The site was excavated by John Skinner in 1816-17 who gained the entry through a hole originally made about 1760. The excavation revealed the bones (some burned) of several individuals.[6]

The parish gave its name to theWellowHundred.[7]

On 26 June 1685 theDuke of Monmouth's rebellious forcesmade their way fromMidfordtoNorton St. Philipafter failing to advance intoBristolandBath. Their exact route is subject to conjecture, but it is widely assumed that they would have taken their heavy cannons via the Wellow and Norton Brook valleys rather than tackling the steep ascent toHinton Charterhouse, and that Baggridge would have been used as a vantage point for surveying the route ahead.

In the 1880s and 1890s a small mine extracting and dryingFuller's earthwas situated between Wellow and Stoney Littleton and also on Hassage Hill.[8]

InWorld War IIthe Wellow valley became part of theGHQ stop line green, with defences intended to isolate southern England in the event of German invasion. The remains of a number of type 24pillboxesand anti-tank cubes can be found in various riverside locations both upstream and downstream of the village.

Disused signal box on theSomerset and Dorset Joint Railway, now privately owned

Wellow Station, on theSomerset and Dorset Joint Railway, opened in 1874 and closed in 1966. The station building was converted into a house by the artistPeter Blakeand his then wifeJann Haworth, in the mid-1970s. The railway followed the route of theRadstockarm of theSomerset Coal Canal. Although the Camerton branch of the canal was very successful, the Radstock branch was not, mainly because its connection to the main line atMidfordinvolved transhipment via a tramway, and it carried very little traffic. The canal was mainly obliterated by the railway although a sharp bend (still in water) at St Julian's Well, and a tunnel, were bypassed by the viaduct over the foot of Bull's Hill. The railway trackbed East of the village is now part of national cycle routeNCR 24, the Colliers Way. From April 2013 the route has a level connection beyondMidfordtoBathvia theTwo Tunnels Greenway. This project was partially funded by auctioning King Bladud's pigs, 104 sculptures decorated by different artists, which were exhibited throughout the Bath area in 2008. Wellow hosted several pigs, including the most expensive of all which was decorated byPeter Blakeand housed in the village pub, the Fox and Badger. The cycle route continues westward via Wellow High Street and minor roads to Stoney Littleton andShoscombebefore rejoining the former railways toRadstockandFrome.

Governance[edit]

Theparish councilhas responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council advises the local planning authority on applications and works with the local police, unitary council officers, andneighbourhood watchgroups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of public facilities, such as thevillage hallorcommunity centre,playing fieldsandplaygrounds, as well as consulting with the unitary council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.

Pig sculpture in the centre of the village

The parish falls within theunitary authorityofBath and North East Somersetwhich was created in 1996; Bath and North East Somerset's area covers part of theceremonial countyofSomersetbut it is administered independently of thenon-metropolitan county. Fire, police and ambulance services are provided by theAvon Fire and Rescue Service,Avon and Somerset Constabularyand theGreat Western Ambulance Service.

Between 1974 and 1996 Bath and North East Somerset carried out district council functions only, county council services being provided byAvon County Council. Before 1974 the parish was part of theBathavon Rural Districtof Somerset.[9]

The parish falls within the constituency ofNorth East Somersetin theBritish House of Commons, and is also part of theSouth West England constituencyof theEuropean Parliamentwhich elects sevenMEPs.

Geography[edit]

Fox and Badger pub

Nearby are theHinton HillandCleaves Woodsites ofSpecial Scientific Interest.

Wellow Brookrises near Ston Easton Park in the village ofSton Eastonand flows east toMidsomer Norton. West ofRadstock, it is joined by theRiver Somerand a tributary fromKilmersdonto the south. It then flows through Wellow before joining theCam BrookatMidfordto formMidford Brookwhich joins theRiver Avonclose to theDundas Aqueduct.

Hinton Hillis of importance to studies of thestratigraphyof theMiddle Jurassicof theBathdistrict, and the BritishBathonianas a whole.[10]

Cleaves Woodis an ancient, semi-natural deciduous woodland onOoliticLimestone. It has a high diversity of tree and shrub species and a large population of the nationally scarce plantSpiked Star-of-Bethlehem(Ornithogalum pyrenaicum)also known as Bath Asparagus. There are also areas of grassland which is lightly grazed by rabbits and is a mosaic of close grazed and rough swards, and wetter areas.[11]The scarce plants found here include theFly Orchid[12]andWild Daffodil.[13]The habitat diversity of the site has resulted in a richinvertebratefauna, including two nationally rare insects: thebeetleOsphya bipunctataand thehoverflyCheilosia nigripes. Twenty-seven butterflies have been recorded from the site including the nationally scarce species,Duke of Burgundy Fritillary(Hamearis lucina). The nationally scarce moth,blomers rivulet(Discoloxia blomeri)has also been recorded on the site. Other nationally scarce species include the snailEna montana, the hoverflyXanthogramma citrotasciatum, and a number of beetle species.[11]

Religious sites[edit]

Wellow Church

The parishChurch of St Julian, Wellowat Wellow has origins before the 12th century although the present building dates from 1372. The west tower has three stages, set backbuttresseswith off-sets which turn into diagonalpinnaclesin upper stages. There is an embattledparapetwith pinnacles. The square stairturreton the south-east corner terminates as an octagon. There is a three-light window to the bell chamber with cusped heads and a similar but larger window withtransomto west. It is a Grade Ilisted building.[14]

Metal.

The earliest bronze axes were flat plates of the shape of polished stone axes. More of these specimens are found in Ireland and England than anywhere in Europe, testifying to the importance of the Wicklow gold-field and the density of the population here in the early metal ages. Some years ago Mr. O. G. S. Crawford prepared a map of the finds of flat axes made in this country. Most discoveries were made in open chalk or limestone districts such as Salisbury Plain and Mendip, but further, many axes were strung out along lines of great length which appear to indicate ancient trade I'outes. One such route runs from the region of Southampton, through Winchester, Newbury, Cirencester, Worcester, and Shrewsbury, to Warrington, where other routes join it. There is reason to believe that the chief port for the Irish gold-fields was in the neighbourhood of Warrington.

Flat axes have been found locally on Bannerdown, near Bath, and in the gorges of Ebbor and Cheddar. A small hoard of axes of an early type, which was discovered at Coombe Dingle by a schoolboy, is now in the Bristol Museum.

—Socketed Axe from near Chipping Sodbury and a Spear-head from Yeovil.

The wealth of the middle and late Bronze Age may be judged from the numbers of more evolved weapons and implements found about the country, among the localities being Edington, Draycott, Ax-bridge, Brean Down, Hutton, Banweli, Tickenham, Cheddar, Pri’ddy, Compton Martin, Radstock, Camerton, Solsbury Hill (Bath), the city of Bristol, Floating Harbour, Avonmouth Dock, Westbury-on-Trym, and Chipping Sodbury. In other places implements have been found and straightway consigned to the melting-pot. In some

places isolated spearheads or axes were discovered, but at Compton Martin, Priddy and the Edington turbaries, hoards of weapons, hidden and forgotten by merchants or founders, have come to light. The sole surviving axe from Compton is of Breton type and presumably was traded over from Brittany before 1,000 B.C.

—Bronze Axe. Compton-Martin.

The Round Barrow.

The Bronze Age is the period of the round barrow. These burial mounds are found everywhere in the district and are spoken of as “ toots,” “touts,” “tuts,” or “tumps.” In size they range from examples like Mill Tut Barrow, between Westbury-on-Trym and Southmead, w'bich is seven feet high and about seventy feet across (Fig. 75) to the little mounds on Kingsweston Down, which cannot be seen when the grass is long. Bodies were no longer buried in the rough stone coffers or cists of Beaker times, but were cremated. Often the ashes were gathered into large decorated urns of coarse earthenware and these were inverted and placed on the ground and the earth piled over them (Figs. 7 7., 4, and 12., 2 and 3.)

Some years ago an archaeological survey of North Somerset was begun by the Spelteological Society, and the results are published from time to time. In the small area between Priddy and Cheddar Mr. Tratman found seventy-tw'o round barrows, the majority of .vhich had not been previously recorded. Another score were discovered in the region between Filton, Red hill and Cleeve. Altogether in the district the number runs into several hundreds; there is hardly an upland skyline that is not broken by one or more

of them. If the British Bronze Age lasted from 1,800 B.C. to 700 B.C., and every mound was heaved over the remains of a notable person, the density of the upland population in those days was very great.

Barrows at Tyning’s Farm, Mendip.

An interesting group of five harrows has been excavated by Mr. R. F. Read and others at Tyning’s Farm, Charterhouse, Mendip. One contained burnt bones and little else ; another had been disturbed. There were two interments in the third. The oldest interment of burnt bones had been made in a pit along with hone stones and a flint scraper. In the secondary interment the burnt bones of a woman and young child were contained in an inverted urn which culturally had descended from the Neolithic bowls of the pre-Beaker period . Among the bones was a bronze awl of early date and part of a necklace (Fig. 12, 6). This is only another instance of the respect accorded to women in prehistoric times. Probably it was not until historic times that their sex was regarded as the inferior.

The form of the urn, which is a pure native product betraying no trace of Beaker influence, is evidence of a remarkable reestablishment or revival of native life and culture. As soon as the Beaker immigrants were absorbed their culture was lost in a resurgence of native culture and art that had been developing quietly in such remote districts as Wales and the Northern hills, which were virtually immune from foreign influences. This is another instance of the native feeling—insularity, if you will -of these parts. Three thousand five hundred years ago, whatever the political subdivisions of the land were, the people were one. Stonehenge may have been erected in the period of this resurgence.

To the archaeologist vanity is a virtue; it behoves hirn never to pass a jeweller’s shop without a gesture of profound respect.

The jet beads from this urn are tokens of a trade between Somerset and the North-East coast and, moreover, a settled country in between at the very dawn of the period. With the jet were corrugated tubular beads of turquoise paste of a type common in Egypt after 2,500 B.C. They inform us that Britain was no longer isolated.

The First Horsemen.

The south barrow is larger than the others. The cremated bones were buried in a decorated urn of fairly late date and small cairns, each covering some object such as a flint saw,

scraper, or knife, were buried in the mound. One such cairn was piled over the skull of a very old horse. We know that about 1,100 B.C. a tall, fair, long-headed folk who probably spoke Gaelic and-were the first horsemen to reach this country, spread over Europe from the Danube valley and established themselves as an aristocracy over the short, swarthy people they found living here. They carried leaf-shaped swords of types which may be seen in the Bristol Art Gallery. They were attracted by 1 rish gold. Amongst other things they began to reclaim the valleys for agriculture. The pottery was made soon after this invasion.

This barrow contained several arrowheads and some hundreds of flint implements demonstrating that right dow n to the end of the age the employment of metal did little to limit the use of stone tools. However, the tools are of types different from those made in the Stone Age

The remaining harrow at Tyning’s Farm is a very curious affair. Evidently the men who raised it hit on the happy idea of making the greatest show for their labour by piling earth on a grave mound erected by long-forgotten people. A rough platform of stones was exposed when the turf was removed, and immediately below the stones were two plain bucket-shaped urns filled with calcined human bones. They belong to the extreme end of this period or to the dawn of the succeeding Iron Age, and are dated at about 700 B.C. The core of the barrow contained fragments of Beaker ware which were perhaps a thousand years older than the latter interments; and, most interesting of all, four pygmy flints.

The pottery from another Mendip harrow suggests that during the peaceful middle Bronze Age the inhabitants of Somerset were in closer touch with the North of England than with the adjoining districts to the south

We know very little of the dwelling-places of these folk. Caves were still occasionally occupied, as pot-sherds anil other material found in Cheddar Gorge, Chelm’s Combe and at Symond’s Yat show, But the material is rather scanty and does not completely supplement the evidence from burial mounds However, we know that at the end of the period—that is after the fall of Troy anil the foundation of Rome—the descendants of the Neolithic men were prospering under the rule of more robust aristocrats. They grew corn, spun yarn and wove it into cloth, and wrought bone and metal. They had commenced the conquest of the valleys and had built some of the smaller hilltop camps.

THE IRON AGE

The Halstatt Period.

Iron was brought into this country by folk who landed on the South coast, notably at Hengistbury, near Christchurch, where one of their trading stations has been excavated. They followed in the wake of the bronze swordsmen, establishing smithies and a new agricultural system wherever they went. The classical station of the period is Hallstatt, a cemetery on the banks of the Danube, and the typical British station is All Canning’s Cross ; a village site near Avebury excavated by Mrs. Cunnington. A few weapons and other edged tools of bronze were in use at All Canning’s, but the great majority were of iron.

Flint Implements and Weapons from the Tyning’sFarm Barrows.

The villagers dwelt in rectangular huts, eighteen feet long, and round these huts there were many potsherds and other discarded rubbish. This material shows that these people were identical with the latest Bronze Age folk; their pottery cannot be distinguished from the ware of that age ; and there was evidently no destruction of native culture following the introduction of iron. Even domestic beasts such as the sheep, which is of the deer-like type now surviving on Soay Island, near St. Kilda, are the beasts of the preceding stage. Tillage was on the up-grade, and corn was ground in very rough trough-like mills or querns. The village was not on the high ground, but a considerable way down the slope of the valley, so that the lowlands were then being reclaimed. Spinning and weaving had attained a fair development. The skulls of these folk show no variation from long-barrow types, and there is every reason to suppose that the manifold details of the new culture were introduced by traders.

It is hard not to believe that there was some invasion of the land in the centuries following 700 B.C. Many iron swords of Central European types have been found here at various times, notably in the Thames. The distinctive pottery from Deverel Barrow, Dorset, now in the Bristol Museum, which belongs to this period, is certainly influenced by the Centra! European culture. But any such invasion was not on a large scale and had little influence on the racial types of the West.

Mr. Tratman has recently found traces of these, the first iron using folk, in barrows on Kingsweston Down . Others dwelt in caves at Rowberrow and Cheddar, and it may he that the first builders of Worlebury lived at this time, for their pottery has been found on the hill. At Slaughterford, near Chippenham, in a very narrow and dangerous rift, Mr. Hewer had the good fortune to uncover many human bones of long-barrow type which were associated with a few sherds of Halistatt pottery and much kitchen refuse. The series of canine jaws found there hear testimony to the importance of the dog at that day. The Slaughterford dog was large and unspecialised, doing duty as hound, terrier, or mastiff. The earliest fancy breeds date from considerably more than a thousand years later.

-Halstatt Bowl from Kingsweston Down,

The La Tene Period.

Recently excavation by Dr. Clay at Fifield Bayaniand Swallow-cliffe Down, Wilts, has revealed two villages which date from after All Cannings and show that earlier native customs reasserted themselves. In these two localities the folk dwelt in circular pits, 15ft. in diameter and 8ft deep, hewn out of the massive chalk, like the

dwellings of the Neolithic people. These dug-outs were roofed over with conical brushwood thatching so that the villages had the appearance of a great bee farm.

From 300 B.C. onwards tribes of stalwart fair-headed men, known as the Belgae, crossed from north France and Belgium, and poured into Britain. Though they did not exterminate the native folk they soon dominated the south and east, and made, perhaps greater changes in the racial constitution than all the previous invaders had done. They pressed on down the Thames valley and along the south coast. Before the Roman occupation they had occupied Wilts, but apparently came no nearer the Bristol Channel; though they dominated the whole of England and Wales politically.

—Shackles : Read's Cavern.

The Lake Villages.

One of the outstanding events in British archaeology in the past half century was the excavation of Glastonbury lake village by Dr. Bulleid and Mr. St. George Gray. From time to time so much has been written of the structure and appearance of this village that it is now familiar to most of us. A sister village at Meare, about a mile away, is being uncovered and is supplementing the story with its evidence. Lake villages existed in Switzerland as early as 3,500—4,000 B.C., but until Hallstatt invaders displaced the Swiss villages nothing of the sort was known in Britain. After a journey via Brittany, that lasted some hundreds of years, descendants of

the Swiss refugees reached Ireland and south-west England, and taught the natives — for the Glastonbury men were of the ancient long-barrow or Mediterranean stock-—their ways and the Brythonic or Welsh tongue.

The two villages were constructed of thousands of tons of stone, timber and clay, which was carried from firm ground in little dug-out canoes and dumped in the lake. The mass was kept within bounds by oak piles. On this artificial island was piled the clay and wood which formed the foundation of circular skep-shaped huts.

After vast labour undertaken with the most primitive appliances, the most impressive feature is the artistic spirit that is caught and reflected at every facet of the life of these folk. Every vessel is of simple form, yet effective and artistic ; and a large proportion are inscribed with Celtic designs. This art, which was not truly on the lines of native tradition but was derived from Armorican or Breton sources, was immediately taken by the folk to their hearts so that in Great Britain, and Ireland it lived through incessant invasion for above a thousand years.

The earliest date of the foundation of Glastonbury is 300 B.C., and, therefore, we see the art in its first development, purely geometrical and decorative, without the utilisation of beasts and figures that came later. Moreover, one feels that much of the work was as experimental as Elizabethan verse, and thence that there was no stagnation of spirit in those times. At present it suffices to say that Celtic art is the art of movement, as contrasted with the classical ideal of formal perfection, and as such is amazingly “modern.” ft is more abstract, yet in regard to technique and medium the Celt always betrays himself as the complete realist. Whereas even the commonest classical design, even when painted oi' incised, is made to simulate some original in the round and requires a number of details to further the illusion, the Celtic design is always an end in itself, is severely economical, and leaves no space for fussiness.

The men of Glastonbury were considerable craftsmen who knew of the lathe and the rotary corn-mill hut were without the potter’s wheel. Many weaving-combs, bobbins anti spindlc-whorls were found in the debris from their huts, therefore, the ancient inhabitants of Somerset were not as naked as Caesar would have us believe. It is pleasing to catalogue their vices. They knew the dice-box anti decked themselves with very beautiful glass beads, many of which were coloured with the favourite Celtic blue, and, as an offset to the razors which had been used by men for some hundreds of years, the women treasured bronze mirrors and berouged themselves.

Mendip Caves.

Caves were still occupied at Cheddar, and Mr. Batch has found much intimate and valuable material in Wookey Hole. Read’s Cavern, near Burrington, discovered in 1919 by Mr. R. F. Read', and excavated by Dr. Palmer and Mr. Tratman, was used between 100 B.C. and 1 A.D. ; probably by families from the adjoining Dole bury Camp. It yielded some fine examples of smith’s work 20t21 and 22) and an interesting list of domestic animals. Sheep was the most numerous, pig was common, and there were a fair number o_f oxen like Kerry cattle ; but the Celtic horse, which was like the Exmoor pony, was scarce. Wild animals, such as deer were now quite negligible as food.

Decorated Vase: Read’s Cavern.

Other finds of this people and period have been made at Worle-bury and Dolebury. Many years ago a hoard of superb enamelled Celtic bronzes was discovered in the Polden Hills. This collection, the finest in the country, is now in the British Museum. Some of the objects show signs of the encroaching Roman influence. Enamelled bronzes have also been found at Clevedon, while the magnificent bronze collar from Wraxall, now in the Bristol Museum, is illuminating to all whose business it is to handle curves. The famous engraved mirror from Birdlip is now in the Gloucester Museum.

Hill-top Forts.

It has long been known that the hill-top camps were completed before the Romans came. Almost every hill of tactical importance in this region is surmounted by one. The Observatory Hill Camp, Clifton, and Stokeleigh are familiar to all. They should not be regarded as fortifications in the modern military sense, but rather as safe places wherein the folk could stay in security and the cattle be driven in times of stress. It must be remembered that the lowlands had only been occupied recently, and a hold was still retained on the uplands. Possibly the hill-top camps were still regarded as permanent homes, and even may have been regularly occupied for months of the year.

It needs little imagination to see that the land was densely peopled when the camps were built. Their great walls and ditches are the result of infinite labour. When excavating the vallum at Bury Hill the writer formed the opinion that all was done without bustle and on sound engineering principles.

Through Mr. Crawford’s aerial photographs we are now learning something of Celtic Agriculture. Field systems, like patchwork squares, have been revealed, and they certainly have a strong affinity with the systems employed in Ireland and Brittany up to last century.

THE ROMAN OCCUPATION.

After the invasions of Julius Csesar, intercourse with the Continent waxed greater considerably influencing every-day life on the South coast, and what is now East Anglia. Of this influence there is no local instance, unless it is to be found in the brooches from the Polden Hills which are hinged in the Roman manner. Otherwise industry and culture remained unchanged.

Implements of Bone and Antler from Read’s Cavern.

St Al l. OF ATIMETRES

The Belgic immigration continued, affecting the South as far as the Cotswolds and Poole Habour. It is this influx which brought about the remarkable change in the physique and head form of our people which is so evident in Roman times. Hitherto, the great mass of the folk had been short with slight frames, very long heads, and delicate features; in Romano British villages the skulls are larger, lower and broader ; much nearer in form to English heads of the present day ; while the bones are from stronger frames. The fair headed Belgae were abler administrators than the natives, and before long they had extended their influence across the Midlands into Wales. Recent work seems to show that other intruders, of German or Scandinavian type, early forerunners of the Anglo-Saxon invaders, had settled at some points along the Hast Coast.

Conquest and Occupation.

The Claudian invasion took place in A.D. 43 ; by A.D. 50 the Severn Shore was occupied and the conquest of South Wales had begun. Probably the line of small Roman camps or signal stations overlooking the coast from Brent Knoll to Gloucester were constructed while the campaign was in progress. The power of the invaders was soon established in this district, as pottery of the First Century found at Sea Mills, Wmterbourne, and at a few points on the Mendips betokens.

With the exception of the extreme West, there is hardly an acre of Britain which will not yield some fragment of Romano British pottery to the searcher ; and this district is not unexceptional. It is well-known that at Sea Mills there stood an important station which was the point of embarkation for those who wished to cross to the legionary fortress of Caerlocn. 1 he site which is on rising ground a few yards south of the Trym is steadily being covered up by road making or building operations. 1 lie absence of tesselated pavements and the scarcity of luxury articles tends to show that it was purely a commercial or military station.

Pottery, coins and other material were Iound in great abundance more than a century ago, when the foundations of Gloucester Row and Sion Hill, Clifton, were excavated. This appears to indicate the site of a village, but, of course, no systematic investigation on the site was tarried out at the time. Mr. Selley states that some years since, when the foundations of the Bristol Hippodrome were put in, a pebble track, running in the direction of the Floating Harbour, was uncovered. At the same time lie procured some potsherds and an undoubted Roman fibula, which are now in the Cambridge University Museum. For many years past Roman potsherds, coins, and tiles have been turning up from time to time on the site of the new housing estate on Bedminster Down, and though no excavations were made, there is no shadow of doubt that a Roman building stood here.

It may have stood on the line of a road from Dundry Hill, on past the Tramway Centre and Cotham, to the arm of the Julian Way that led to Sea Mills; but at present this is mere conjecture. But whether or no there was a road, a rectangular Roman building stood on Dundry Down, on the very crown of the hill, as potsherds and bronzes from adjoining molehills testify to this day.

Roman Villas.

Of true Roman villas, as distinguished from the rude native erections, the nearest example to home is the villa at Brislington. This was excavated 20 years ago, and the objects therefrom are now in the Bristol Museum. The discovery of others in Keynsham Cemetery and in the Somerdale works is fresh in everyone’s mind. Like those at Newton St. Loe and Lansdown, they are probably connected with the Spa at Bath.

There is another group of villas in North Somerset, with examples at Shipham, Banwell, Congresbury, Wrington (2), Yatton and Cambridge Batch, Flax Bourton. A third very numerous group stands around Somerton, in the South of the county, but from thence to the west no more examples are known. It seems that the extreme West was never thoroughly settled. Perhaps it was always open to attacks by seafaring raiders who used Ireland as an advanced base. On the Cotswolds, along the line of the Fosse Way, which runs from Exeter to Lincoln, there were dozens of villas; in fact, more than in any other district in Britain. The Roman regarded these genial slopes much as the modern Englishman regards the country round Torquay or Bournemouth.

Mendip Lead Mining.

No account of the district is complete without mention of the lead mines round Charterhouse on Mendip. These were worked for the Emperor by native labour. A typical pig of lead, stamped with an Imperial die, is now in the Bristol Museum; and others have been discovered elsewhere in the country. The metal was not only carted overland to Winchester, but was taken along Mendip and transhipped, either at Uphill or at Worlebury. These mines were deemed worthy of special roads and a system of defence. They confer on the district its main archaeological interest, for otherwise it was not of first-rate industrial or military importance, but rather a pleasant place to live in for the discriminating Italian or prosperous Briton.

A number of great hoards of Third Century coins were discovered about the commencement of last century in high ground round Failand, and a further hoard was found at Portbury three years ago. They are evidence of an unrecorded invasion from the West which, for a time, terrified the inhabitants and swept the Roman power from the very walls of the great fortress'at Caerleon. According to some authorities, the decline of the Roman power is perpetuated in the Wansdyke, which runs from Portbury, past Lower Failand, thence to Maes Knoll and past Bath into Wilts. When it became imperative to abandon all projecting corners of the Empire, thereby shortening the line of defence, it was this line which, standing as a bulwark, kept the pirates from Ireland from the rich lands and towns of the South.

Effect of the Roman Occupation.

The Romans had little or no effect on our racial constitution and, moreover, bequeathed to us very few institutions. Even their roads soon fell into disuse and were forgotten. It is among the villages and settlements of those folk who came least under Roman influences that the student of our people gleans the most useful information. The Imperial civilisation with its neat town-made ware, all made to pattern, swept over the rustic life like a tide, almost drowning the magnificent Celtic art. Yet at the end of the First or the beginning of the Second Century, the art had begun to show signs of revival. The struggle between the intruding and native spirits was long, and probably unconscious. Yet in the end, the native spirit had recovered some of its old sway. The potters acquired new and improved techniques of fashioning and firing and wedded to them their native art ; producing vessels which in beauty of form, and beauty and vigour of decoration, are superior to the by no means contemptible classical vessels brought in from the Continent. Shreds of such vessels manufactured at Castor, near Peterborough, and in the New Forest, are constantly turned up in this district.

Moreover, the metal workers, especially in the North and West, returned to their native arts and fashioned jewellery and other articles which are entirely Celtic in design and tradition. In the Bristol Museum a number of these examples are displayed from Kingsholm, Gloucester ; Camerton, and Charterhouse. The enamelled brooches betray an intense love of bright colours, and the dragon motif has a quite unclassical vigour.

Again, a few sculptures found in Bath, Cirencester, and elsewhere, are Celtic in their fierce intensity or subtle suggestion of local traits. Nothing could be further from the classical instinct.

Whatever chance there was of the survival of the Latin tongue and of Roman institutions in these Islands, were destroyed by the Anglo-Saxon invasion. Had the invasion come from the West a Romance tongue might still be employed in East Anglia. But the Welsh language survived in the West and Celtic art proceeded touaids its highest expression in Ireland.

When the Angles and Saxons invaded England they did not exterminate but subjugated the Celtic folk they found here.

In course of years the two peoples interbred and it is to the surviving native element that we should attribute the strono mason,

ATHELNEY

VERY near the point where the Tone runs into the Parret is a place called Athelney.

It is not a village, or even a hamlet, but lies in the pleasant parish of Lyng.

More than a thousand years ago it got the name it still holds, which means the “ Isle of Nobles

It is not an island now, but a gentle rising ground, not high enough to be called a hill, surrounded with miles of level moor.

But once it was one of the green spots upon the fen of which you have heard, though it must have been very small.

Nobody could get to it except in a boat. But it was there that King Alfred went into hiding with a small band of his most faithful nobles, and so it got its

In this lonely place he was so secure that his people, hearing nothing of him, believed he must have been killed.

On the island lived a swineherd, who willingly gave shelter to his countrymen in distress, without dreaming that the king was under his roof.

So here Alfred remained hidden for several weeks, all the while preparing a plan to drive the Danes out of his kingdom.

It seemed almost hopeless, but he did not give up. He sent the nobles in disguise to one place and another to quietly gather together the scattered Saxons, and to bring him back news of what the enemy was doing.

You may believe he was very thoughtful and sad.

The hut of a swineherd in such a place must have been very humble indeed. Most likely it had but one room, name. with a hearth-stone in the middle of the floor, and a hole overhead to let out the smoke. Being on a fen it would have been thatched with sedge, and the floor was only the bare earth trampled hard. The swineherd went away to his pigs. There were no wild animals on so small an island, and the followers of the king caught fish in the rivers and broad lakes. But Alfred, for fear he might be

discovered, remained on the island, and an amusing story if; told of how the king one day got into serious trouble. It was baking-day, and the goodwife of the hut had made her cakes and laid them down on the ashes to be baked. The cakes must have been round and flat, a shape more easily cooked in the days before ovens. They were a bread made of some coarse flour or meal; and the word ban been used in the west of England almost to the pre

Athelney is located between the villages ofBurrowbridgeandEast Lyngin theSedgemoordistrict ofSomerset, England. The area is known as the Isle of Athelney, because it was once a very low isolated island in the 'very great swampy and impassable marshes' of theSomerset Levels. Much of the Levels are below the level of high tide. They are now drained for agricultural use during the summer, but are regularly flooded in the winter.

Athelney is around 6 miles fromNorth Petherton, where theAlfred Jewel(anAnglo-Saxonornament dating from the late 9th century) was discovered in 1693.

Location of Dolebury Warren in Somerset

Dolebury Warren , also known as Dolebury Camp , is a 90.6 hectares or 224 acres biological Site of Special Scientific Interestandancient monumentnear the villages ofChurchillandRowberrowinNorth Somerset, part ofSouth West England.

It is owned by the National Trust, who acquired the freehold in 1983, and managed by theAvon Wildlife Trust.

Standing on a limestone ridge on the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, it was made into ahill fort during the Iron Age and was occupied into the Roman period.

The extensive fort covers 9.1 hectares (22 acres) with single or double defensive ramparts around it.

The name Dolebury Warren comes from its use during the medieval or post medieval periods as a rabbit warren.

The topography and differing soil types provide a habitat for an unusually wide range of plants, attracting a variety of insects, including several species of butterfly.

Dolebury Warren overlooks the villages of Churchill and Rowberrow and provides good visibility across the surrounding lower lying areas as far as theBristol Channel. The highest point, at the eastern end of the site is 183 metres (600 ft)OD, with the hillfort being up to 50 metres (160 ft) below this. It is the starting point for the Limestone Link, a 36 miles (58 km)long-distance footpath which ends at Cold Ashton in Gloucestershire.

The fort covers an area of 9.1 hectares (22 acres) and commands views over the surrounding countryside.

The hill fort is bivallate on three sides and a single rampart on the southern side which is protected by a steep slope.

It is almost rectangular with the longest axis from east to west being 487 metres (1,598 ft) long and 200 metres (660 ft) from north to south, surrounded by a rampart which is around 4 metres (13 ft) high and 12 metres (39 ft) wide.[9]It was protected by a limestone rampart with a ditch and counter scarp on all sides but the South. There is an inturned entrance on the West and an annexe of 0.4 hectares (0.99 acres) protecting the easier Eastern approach.[10]

The name Dolebury means the idol hill from the Old English dwoland beorg.

Hill forts developed in the Late Bronzeand Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC.[12]The reason for their emergence in Britain, and their purpose, has been a subject of debate. It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe, sites built by invaders, or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture. The dominant view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron led to social changes in Britain. Deposits ofiron orewere located in different places to the tin and copper ore necessary to make bronze, and as a result trading patterns shifted and the old elites lost their economic and social status. Power passed into the hands of a new group of people.[13]Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe believes that population increase still played a role and has stated "[the forts] provided defensive possibilities for the community at those times when the stress [of an increasing population] burst out into open warfare. But I wouldn't see them as having been built because there was a state of war. They would be functional as defensive strongholds when there were tensions and undoubtedly some of them were attacked and destroyed, but this was not the only, or even the most significant, factor in their construction".

The southern ramparts

Various artefacts have been uncovered representing the long period of occupation of the site at Dolebury Warren. These include flintwork from thePalaeolithic, bronze spearheads, Bronze Age pottery, andRomanpottery and coins.[9][15]There is evidence of occupation of the site during theIron Age. The defences andCelticfield systems there date back to the 7th century−3rd centuryBCE, though they might mask earlier developments.[17][18]The hillfort was occupied until approximately 100BC, though it is possible that it was reoccupied in the Roman and post-Roman periods.[18]The archeological consultant Peter Leach has suggested there may even have been a Roman Temple built within the hillfort, while aerial photographs suggest the probable remains of an Iron Age or Roman coaxial field system.[20][21]Local historian Robin Atthill also suggests that Dolebury may have re-emerged as an important centre of population in the 5th century.[22]

Looking west towards the highest point

Medieval[edit]

In the medieval or post-medieval period, the remains of the hillfort were used as arabbit warrenwhich was used to breed rabbits, providing valuable meat and fur. Many warrens were surrounded by banks or walls to prevent the rabbits from escaping; escaped rabbits caused damage to nearby farmland and meant a loss in profit.[23]The warren at Dolebury is completely enclosed by the substantial ramparts of the Iron Age hill fort and thus provided an ideal location to breed rabbits. The presence ofpillow moundsand vermin traps demonstrate man's management of the site for husbandry.[24]Ridge and furrowagriculture has also been identified, from aerial photographs, within the fort.[25]Some of these structures, along with earlier Iron Age features, have been damaged by subsequent quarrying which may have been forlead,ochreorcalamine.[26][27]The site was described byJohn Lelandin the 16th century.[28]A three-storey building, believed to be the warrener's house and possibly a watch tower, surrounded by a garden, was in ruins by 1830.[29][30]

19th and 20th centuries[edit]

The site was visited in the early 19th century byJohn Skinnerand surveyed in 1872 byCharles William Dymond.[15]In 1906 the Mendip Lodge Estate, which included Dolebury Warren, was sold.[31]It was first scheduled as anancient monumentin 1929.[9][32]In 1935 Dolebury Camp was bought by Miss V. Wills of theW.D. & H.O. Willstobacco company to prevent development.[33]Dolebury Warren was notified as aSite of Special Scientific Interestin 1952.[34]The freehold of 92.657 hectares (228.96 acres) was acquired by theNational Trustin 1983 from A. G. Gosling, D. F. Gosling and J. M. Kent, and is managed by theAvon Wildlife Trust.[35][36]

Ecology[edit]

Dolebury Warren

Site of Special Scientific Interest

Area of SearchAvon

Interest Biological

Area 90.6 hectares (0.906 km2; 0.350 sq mi)

Notification1952

Natural England website

The site of the fort and warren is now grassy slopes which attract a wide range of wild flowers and butterflies.[37]The differing soil types provide suitable habitats for bothacid-andlime-lovingplants.[4]Kidney vetch(Anthyllis vulneraria),harebell(Campanula rotundifolia) andwoolly thistle(Cirsium eriophorum) thrive on the dry stony soils.Heath bedstraw(Galium saxatile) andwood sage(Teucrium scorodonia) are found in more acidic areas. The higher areas supportbell heather(Erica cinerea),western gorse(Ulex gallii) andcommon heather(Calluna vulgaris). Trees and shrubs include thewayfaring tree(Viburnum lantana),guelder rose(Viburnum opulus),whitebeam(Sorbus aria),privet(Ligustrum vulgare) anddogwood(Cornus sanguinea).[34]

Scarce plants found at the warren includeknotted pearlwort(Sagina nodosa),[38]andslender bedstraw(Galium pumilum).[39]Butterflies recorded here include thesmall blue(Cupido minimus),marbled white(Melanargia galathea),dingy skipper(Erynnis tages),grizzled skipper(Pyrgus malvae),small pearl-bordered fritillary(Boloria selene), andwall brown(Lasiommata megera).[37][40]

See also[edit]

List of hill forts and ancient settlements in Somerset

the agent which causes death asiant sy'n achosi marwolaeth

Slayer = llofrudd

'Murderer's spring/stream'.the agent which causes death asiant sy'n achosi marwolaeth

Murderers were often drowned in streams, but it has been suggested that in this case that spring or stream in questioned was considered poisoned or contaminated.

Elements and their meanings

bana(Old English) A slayer; the agent which causes death.

wella(Anglian) A spring, a stream

.aloud for a complete investigation and thorough planning. Another Cleeve Abbey, almost, is perhaps asking to be added to our national treasures.

UPHILL(D., Opopille—? Hubba s Creek:cf.Pylle, Pille=creek. The Knoll close by explains the popular corruption).—The only thing “uphill” is the remains of the originally Norman church on the end of the knoll. There is a ferry (6d.) across the Axe to Brean Down. The chief interest of Uphill is purely anti­quarian. It is fairly certain that under the name of Axium this was the harbour from which much of the produce of the Roman lead mines on Mendip was exported.

The land route was by the road which has been traced for fifty-five miles from Uphill to Old Sarum, near Salisbury.

It isa pretty piece of roadbetween Bleadon Hill, practically Mendip end, and the sea flats.

Just beyond Bleadon village a bridge crosses the Axe, and a minute later on the left Crook’s Peak opens up, as it looks across to the group of pines that marks out Bleadon Down.

BANWELL — About five miles E. of Weston is Banwell;

but the most effective way to see this picturesque village leaning up against Ms island hillock is to approach it from the N. across the flats, when there comes into view a noble lofty church and an old turreted building to the E. of it. Ilanwell is quite rich in interest: it has, besides the < liurch and old manor-house, a prehistoric camp, a trackway, called a Roman road, a mysterious turfiioss,and some caves. It is, moreover, the site of ain son monastery given by Alfred to Asser, like Congrcsbury.

The churchis fine. Its tower, with

three miles S. of Congresbury is Churchill, under the prehistoric camp of Dolebury. There is another Camp at Dinghurst, W. of the Bristol road, and two miles W. of that yet another at Banwell. Nearly every convenient promontory hill hereabouts seems to have been fortified before the Romans came. The village is very pleasing. Inthe church, the north aisle has a good roof and there are carved bench-ends and a squint, and on the floor of the S. aisle is a brass (i 5 72) to Ralph Jenyns and his wife. It is said that these were the ancestors of the Sarah Jennings who became Duchess of Marlborough, and that the Duke was descended from the Churchills of the old mansion of Churchill. But I cannot vouch for this story.Dolebury Campis to the E. of the curve in the Bristol road before it forks to Shipham and Sidcot. It is a very remarkable work on the summit of the hill, some 20 acres in extent, the defences consisting on the N. side of two fosses and two valla, “a double line of gigantic stone embankment”, says Mr Hadrian Allcroft, “some 550 yards in length, representing a truly enormous amount of labour. On the southern side the hill is so steep that one vallum only was deemed sufficient protection”. At the Eastern end, the weakest part, the two valla reappear and reach “an amazing size”. The entrances are W. and N.E. I nside, the camp area is divided by four parallel banks, but these are quite possibly comparatively recent work. Generations of miners have dug here for minerals. Leland quotes an old rhyme:

“If Doleberie dygged were,

Of golde shuld be the share”.

When, after a long and obstinate conflict the Saxons finally conquered the

Waelas

and it is more than probable that the forts and strongholds of the Dumnonian chiefs and princes would, like the ports, harbours and forests of Dumnonia, pass direct into the keeping of the Wessex kings and so , in time , become ancient demesne of the Crown Vetus dominicum Coronae.

Such, indeed , seems to have been the fate of the domain of East and West Camel which , for centuries , figures as part and parcel of the “ Eorinsecus ” or outer Hundred of Somerton, the erstwhile capital of the “ Sea moor settlers.”

At Domesday, Queen’s Camel, (as East Camel appears to have been named), was in the hands of Queen Gytha, Harold’s wife,

like Puriton (Peritona), the port on the Parret, leading to the Poldens and Glaston.

This territorial nexus, linking the reputed stronghold of King Arthur with the Saxon Royal demesne and so with Domesday may have a real historical value.

If King Arthur was really slain in this part of Somerset, the story of his conveyance to Glaston across the flooded moors and meres, and perhaps by the Brue or Parret river would be obvious and simple.

The coast voyage from Camlan in Cornwall was both long and arduous for a wounded man.

In Somerset near Glaston the boat used might have been one of the boats called “ bargiae ” of the great Abbey itself— constructed for river navigation.

In Cornwall and in the neighbourhood of the famous Castle of Tintagel and its primitive harbour of Bude, (useful for Severn trows or light-draught ships of ancient pattern), the continuity of, first, British and then Saxon Royal or princely possession, may be even more striking.

The “ Hundred of Stratton ” in Triconshire, i.e. Cornwall, appears in King Alfred’s will as a Royal Saxon holding bequeathed by Ethel-wolf to his sons.

This would take us back to a.d. 800, nearly three hundred years before Domesday. That portion of Cornwall which included Tintagel the reputed birthplace of “ Rex Arturus ” descended to “ Rex Aelfredus ” and constitutes now what is probably the oldest “ membrum ” of the history in Somerset is unbroken and impressive.

Wookey Hole and Cheddar and the rock shelters in ebbor and the other gorges and cliff-faces, are among the earliest homes of prehistoric man in these islands. Paleolithic flint implements have been found alongside bones of mammoth, sabre-toothed tiger and hyena.

these relics were left in places like the Bridged-Pot Shelter in the Ebbor gorge, countless ages ago when the carboniferous forests had not yet become the Mendip coalfields.

Then, about seven hundred b.c. the Bronze Age gave us a civilisation which flourished in the Lake Villages near present-day Glastonbury. These people knew how to work metals and produce weapons superior to those manufactured from raw flints.

They became a trading centre for northern Europe, safe in the fastness of their sea-lakes. As their houses on stilts tank into the fen, yet another layer became embalmed in the peat, preserved for excavation in our own day. I have held in my hand a bone wraving-comb, ornamented with a free curvilinear design, which had lain In (lie peat since its owner dropped it long before the coming of Christianity In these islands.

Other Bronze and Iron Age Celts have left their signatures on the landscape itself,

in the great tumuli of Priddy Nine Barrows and the ramparts of earthworks like Dolebury,

Cadbury (near Tickenham) and Cadbury,

the reputed Camelot (near Sparkford), Maesbury, Worlebury and Castle Neroche.

On remote Exmoor they left us Cow Castle, near Simonsbath, and Mounsey and Brewer’s Castles beside the Barle at dulverton. They left us “castles” and storage pits at Penselwood and

the Caractacus Stone above Winsford.

They left the well-known stone circle at Stanton Drew above the Chew Valley not many miles from Bristol and a remote and much smaller one on the heathery moor above withypool.

There is a chambered Long Barrow at Stoney Littleton, near Bath and Standing Stones at Orchardleigh near Frome.

These ancient cultures were abandoned or destroyed by pressure from other tribes, possibly the Belgae themselves fleeing before the power of Rome.

When Somerset itself became part of the Roman Empire, the lake villages were abandoned and forgotten until our own time.

The varied stones, which are the “bones” of a county, have given Somerset its contrasts in both scenery and architecture.

Exmoor and Brendon gives us hard Devonian sandstone and slate, and the heavy, solid, low buildings to withstand exposure to westerly winds and sometimes heavy rainfall.

Around Taunton and in the Quantock area, the soil is a rich Devonian red, and many of the cottages and churches (Wiveliscombe, Milverton, Bishop’s Lydeard, of a warm pink sandstone.

The Somerton area near the fossil-rich quarries of Keinton Mandeville abound in dignified blue-grey buildings with farms and barns on a generous scale.

The gentle Poldens which undulate out into Sedgemoor country south of Street, reveal cream and pink strata above Compton Dundon, where alabaster is quarried. Doulting stone, from the south-eastern edge of Mendip, was used in the building of Wells Cathedral, and has given us mellow towns like Bruton and pretty villages like Compton Pauncefote.

The carboniferous limestone of Mendip besides the caves and gorges, well known to the tourist, gives rise to the collieries of Pensford, Mid-somer Norton and Radstock, but the occasional pitheads and slag-heaps are well absorbed by this hilly, well-watered area.

Mendip

is also rich in lead, copper, manganese, mica, quartz and many other minerals.

The golden Ham stone of the Yeovil area,

towards the sea is now the pleasant little village ofUphill. It is situated close to the mouth of the river Axe,where the Romans had a portand shipped the lead that was mined upon the hills. Now one day a party of Danish pirates from the Holms swooped down upon that shore ; and the people of the country, seeing their boats approach, took to flight. But the Danes burnt and robbed all their dwellings, and then followed them inland, killing everybody they could find. Only one old woman remained near where the village had stood, and she was too lame to run away. However, she managed to hobble into some place of concealment and remained a day or two without being found. At last, finding herself likely to be starved, she came out of her hiding-place, meaning to throw herself upon the mercy of the Danes. But on the beach nobody was to be seen. The boats of the sea-robbers were still there, but every man had gone after the Saxons, eager to slay and plunder. So that cunning old woman found a hatchet, cut all the cables and set the boats adrift, and very soon every vessel was carried far away upon the tide. Then the Saxons called their neighbours to their aid, and the Danes could not save themselves because they were not able to get back to the Holms. Now during the time King Alfred was at Athelney a sea-king called Hubba came into the Severn Sea with a great strength of ships. It is very likely that he held the mouth of the Axe as a harbour; for in an ancient writing the village of Uphill is calledOpopilla,and as Pill is a word meaning a creek, Uphill may easily once have meant Hubba’s creek or harbour. Moreover, at Bleadon, a short distance up the Axe, is a spot now called Hobba’s boat. It Inis been thought this was once Hubba’s boat. So it seems likely that Hubba held the river mouth as a haven from which to sail out upon his raids. But now Hubba was in league with Guthrum, and bent

AXBRIDGE.—And so, in two miles, to Axbridge, the last of these places under the Mendip massif proper. There is a distinct air of antiquity about Axbridge under its bare shoulder, Shute-Shelve Hill, but its antiquity is hardly attractive.It was a borough under Edward the Confessor, and held its own for centuries till its Corporation was dissolved in 1886.On the W. side of the market place and on the S. side of the Winscombe road (opposite the Lamb Hotel) is a group of old houses with good wooden window frames.The interesting church (St John Baptist) stands high and is approached by a long flight of steps.The choir is accommodated under the triple-windowed tower, so that the sanctuary is proportionately long.Features to be remarked are: the elaborate plaster roof (1636) of the nave, with pendants, the Prowse monument in the S. chancel aisle, a good carved font, an old building called the Treasury S. of the West door, and a hole in the N. wall connected with a cell outside, over which there is now an iron grating. WINSCOMBE (? Winds Combe).— 'Westward of Axbridge the Mendips begin to peter out in gradually narrowing islands—Winscombe Hill with the well-known landmark of Crook’s Peak at its western end, then the long Bleadon Hill with the Roman road along it, Uphill, and finally the mile-long promontory of Brean Down. Mendip is fortified to the very last: there is a camp on the seaward verge.The Lake Villages.
One of the outstanding events in British archaeology in the past half century was the excavation of Glastonbury lake village by Dr. Bulleid and Mr. St. George Gray. From time to time so much has been written of the structure and appearance of this village that it is now familiar to most of us. A sister village at Meare, about a mile away, is being uncovered and is supplementing the story with its evidence. Lake villages existed in Switzerland as early as 3,500—4,000 B.C., but until Hallstatt invaders displaced the Swiss villages nothing of the sort was known in Britain. After a journey via Brittany, that lasted some hundreds of years, descendants of
the Swiss refugees reached Ireland and south-west England, and taught the natives — for the Glastonbury men were of the ancient long-barrow or Mediterranean stock-—their ways and the Brythonic or Welsh tongue.
The two villages were constructed of thousands of tons of stone, timber and clay, which was carried from firm ground in little dug-out canoes and dumped in the lake. The mass was kept within bounds by oak piles. On this artificial island was piled the clay and wood which formed the foundation of circular skep-shaped huts.
After vast labour undertaken with the most primitive appliances, the most impressive feature is the artistic spirit that is caught and reflected at every facet of the life of these folk. Every vessel is of simple form, yet effective and artistic ; and a large proportion are inscribed with Celtic designs. This art, which was not truly on the lines of native tradition but was derived from Armorican or Breton sources, was immediately taken by the folk to their hearts so that in Great Britain, and Ireland it lived through incessant invasion for above a thousand years.
The earliest date of the foundation of Glastonbury is 300 B.C., and, therefore, we see the art in its first development, purely geometrical and decorative, without the utilisation of beasts and figures that came later. Moreover, one feels that much of the work was as experimental as Elizabethan verse, and thence that there was no stagnation of spirit in those times.At present it suffices to say that Celtic art is the art of movement, as contrasted with the classical ideal of formal perfection, and as such is amazingly “modern.” ft is more abstract, yet in regard to technique and medium the Celt always betrays himself as the complete realist. Whereas even the commonest classical design, even when painted oi' incised, is made to simulate some original in the round and requires a number of details to further the illusion, the Celtic design is always an end in itself, is severely economical, and leaves no space for fussiness.
The men of Glastonbury were considerable craftsmen who knew of the lathe and the rotary corn-mill hut were without the potter’s wheel. Many weaving-combs, bobbins anti spindlc-whorls were found in the debris from their huts, therefore, the ancient inhabitants of Somerset were not as naked as Caesar would have us believe.It is pleasing to catalogue their vices. They knew the dice-box anti decked themselves with very beautiful glass beads, many of which were coloured with the favourite Celtic blue, and, as an offset to the razors which had been used by men for some hundreds of years, the women treasured bronze mirrors and berouged themselves.
Mendip Caves.
Caves were still occupied at Cheddar, and Mr. Batch has found much intimate and valuable material in Wookey Hole. Read’s Cavern, near Burrington, discovered in 1919 by Mr. R. F. Read', and excavated by Dr. Palmer and Mr. Tratman, was used between 100 B.C. and 1 A.D. ; probably by families from the adjoining Dole bury Camp. It yielded some fine examples of smith’s work 20t 21 and 22) and an interesting list of domestic animals.Sheep was the most numerous, pig was common, and there were a fair number o_f oxen like Kerry cattle ; but the Celtic horse, which was like the Exmoor pony, was scarce.Wild animals, such as deer were now quite negligible as food.
Fig. 21-Decorated Vase: Read’s Cavern

Axbridge is a town in Somerset, England, on the River Axe, near the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. Its population according to the 2011 census was 2,057.

History

Axanbrycgis suggested as the source of the name, meaning a bridge over the River Axe, in the early 9th century.

Early inhabitants of the area almost certainly include the Romans (who are known to have mined lead on the top of the Mendips) and, earlier still, prehistoric man, who lived in the local caves and whose flint tools have been found on the slopes of the local hills. The history of Axbridge can be traced back to the reign of King Alfred, when it was part of the Saxons' defence system for Wessex against the Vikings. In the Burghal Hidage, a list of burhs compiled in 910, it was listed as Axanbrycg. A listing of Axbridge appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Alse Bruge, meaning 'axe bridge' from Old English isca and brycg.

It was part of the royal manor of Cheddar and part of the Winterstoke Hundred.

Church of St John the Baptist, Axbridge Former Axbridge railway station

It was granted a royal charter in 1202, when King John sold most of the royal manor of Cheddar to the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Axbridge grew in the Tudor period as a centre for cloth manufacture, This was reflected in its early royal charters allowing it to hold markets and fairs, and become a royal borough. It even had its own mint, with coins showing the town's symbol: the Lamb and Flag.^[7]Trade was possible as the River Axe was navigable to wharves at Axbridge.^[8]

Later the town's importance declined, which led to stagnation and the preservation of many historic buildings in the town centre. These include King John's Hunting Lodge (actually a Tudor building) which is now used as a museum.

Axbridge is a very old borough and sent members to parliament in the reigns of Edward I and Edward III.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries iron ore was extracted from the hill above and east of Axbridge.

Axbridge railway station, on the Cheddar Valley line, opened on 3 August 1869. It closed to goods traffic on 10 June 1963 and to passengers on 9 September 1963. The route of the railway is now the A371 Axbridge bypass, but the station buildings and goods shed still survive.

Church of St John

Main article: Church of St John the Baptist, Axbridge

The 13th-century parish Church of St John is a grade I listed building.

Work on the current building began in the early 15th century, and grew from an earlier building dating back to about 1230. The church is built of limestoneand decorated with Doulting stone, while the steps are an interesting example of dolomitic conglomerate, which is known as puddingstone.^[24]The crossing tower is over 100 feet (30 m) high, and holds six bells, one of which dating from 1723 was made by Edward Bilbie of the Bilbie family .The statue on the east side is that ofSt John the Baptist. On the west side is a king — perhapsHenry VII, which would place it after 1485. The north-aisle ceiling retains some mediaeval painted panels, and amongst the carved bosses is the head of aGreen Man, with leaves sprouting around his face.^[26]The nave roof is Jacobean and dates from 1636.^[24]Restoration was undertaken in 1888 byJ.D. Sedding, who contributed the fine parclose screens.

Status of settlement

In contrast to the much larger settlement ofCheddarimmediately to the south east that remains a village, Axbridge is a town. This apparently illogical situation is explained by the relative importance of the two places in historic times. While Axbridge grew in importance as a centre for cloth manufacture in theTudorperiod and gained a charter fromKing John, Cheddar remained a more dispersed dairy-farming village until the advent of tourism and the arrival of the railway in theVictorian era.^[27]

Workhouse

The Axbridge Union workhouse was erected in 1837 on the south side of West Street in Axbridge. The Poor Law Commissioners authorised expenditure of £4,496 17s 6d on construction of the building, which was intended to accommodate 250 inmates. It was designed by Samuel T Welch, who was also the architect of workhouses at Wells and Clifton. By 1929 the workhouse had become officially known as Axbridge Poor Law Institution.^[28]

Events

On the Saturday of the first Bank Holiday weekend in May, the annual Somerset Showcase took place. This includes craft displays and market, farmers' market, entertainment, exhibitions and live music in the evening. September sees the annual Blackberry Carnival, Fair in the Square and Harvest Home, which was introduced in 2007. Other events throughout the year include the Progressive Supper and Santa in the Square. Since 2009, a Concert by Candlelight has been held in the Church of St John the Baptist to coincide with Earth Hour, when people try to reduce their electricity usage.

Axbridge hosts one of the few remaining historical pageants in the UK every 10 years. This started in 1967 in celebration of the opening of the bypass. The next pageant was in 1970 and there has been one every decade since then except the 2020 pageant which was delayed until 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pageant features a cast of 300 and charts the town's history in 15 scenes featuring battles, riots and fights with live music, horses and livestock, plus a train and vintage cars. The 2022 pageant programme was expanded to be a small festival with live music in the evenings.^[29]

Axbridge Cricket Club was established in 2004, and plays around 35 friendly matches per season. The club also enjoys an annual club tour and plays other friendly sides around the Somerset county.

The town holds a farmers' market in The Square on the first Saturday of each month.

Charterhouse, also known as Charterhouse-on-Mendip, is ahamletand formercivil parish, now in the parish ofPriddy, in theMendip HillsArea of Outstanding Natural Beauty(AONB) in theSomersetdistrict, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The area between Charterhouse andCheddar Gorgeincluding Velvet Bottom and Ubley Warren is covered by theCheddar ComplexSite of Special Scientific Interest. In 1931 the parish had a population of 68.^[1]

Name

The name is believed to come from theCarthusianorder ofChartreuseinFrance, which was established inWitham(nearFrome) in 1181 and formed a cell at Charterhouse in 1283 with a grant to mine lead ore.^[2][3][4]

History

See also:Charterhouse (Roman town)

Roman lead mines at Charterhouse

There is evidence, in the form of burials in local caves, of human occupation since the lateNeolithic/EarlyBronze Age.^[5]A 2024 study of bones from a mass grave found in caves at Charthouse Warren in the 1970s suggests that 37 people were massacred in a violent cannibalistic event occurring between 2200-2000 BC.^[6]

Theleadandsilverminesat Charterhouse were first operated on a large scale by theRomans, from at least AD 49.^[7]At first the lead/silver industries were tightly controlled by theRoman military, but within a short time the extraction of these metals was contracted out to civilian companies, probably because the silver content of the localorewas not particularly high.^[8]There was also some kind of'fortlet'here in the 1st century, and anamphitheatre.^[9]The Roman landscape has been designated as aScheduled Ancient Monument.^[10]

The parish was part of theWinterstokeHundred.^[11]

Charter-House-on-Mendip was an extra-parochial ville,^[12]from 1858 Charterhouse was a civil parish in its own right, on 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Blagdon and Cheddar.^[13]

After theDissolution of the Monasteries, it was granted to Robert May who constructed a substantial house here and one of his descendants John May becameHigh Sheriff of Somersetin 1602.^[3]

There is further evidence of mine workings in themedievalandVictorianperiods,^[14][15]some of which survives within the Blackmoor Nature Reserve owned by Somerset County Council. There is also evidence of a rectangular medieval enclosure.^[16]

Caves

There are severalcavesin thelimestonearound the village includingManor Farm SwalletandUpper Flood Swallet.^{[citation needed]}

Church

Church of St Hugh, Charterhouse

TheChurch of St Hughwas built in 1908 byW.D. Caroe, on the initiative of the Rev.Menzies Lambrick,^[17]from the former welfare hall for the lead miners. It is a Grade II* listed building. A cross in the churchyard^[19]and the churchyard wall^[20]are also listed buildings.

The roof-truss, screen,rood, andaltarare all made of carved whitened oak.

PILGRIMS IN OLD BRIDGWATER

A WAVE of the magician’s wand and time has become merely relative !We are in another and an earlier age. It is an age when the Church domi nates men’s minds, and authority prevails over reason; when opinion
rashly expressed is punishable by torture and death ; when it is believed that the sun moves round the earth and that geese grow on trees; when each borough lives to itself, and no trade is allowed to encroach on another; when pencraft flourishes, and men create theperfect Gothic cathedral. It is an age of credulity and ignorance, but it is an age of wonderful artistic creation.

 THE GLASTONBURY ROAD
To-day is the feast of St. John before the Latin Gate, and the hawthorn is in full bloom. Early this morning we tasted the hospitality of the Abbot of Glastonbury, and trod the king’s road through the monastic manors. Behind
us the Polden hills are fretted with the
moving arms of a dozen windmills.
We have heard the bell of Horsey
chapel calling the hour of terce : we
have left behind the old manor-house of
Sydenham, finding the way now easier
for sore feet by reason of the timely
bequest of some pious burgess who left
money to pave this causeway.
For some time the spire of the
Blessed Mary Virgin has beckoned to
us across the moor, the frowning walls
of the Castle have grown more and
more imposing, and at length we see
before us the welcome door of the
Hospital of St. John the Baptist, which
stands beside the East Gate of the
town, and offers the weary pilgrim rest
and refreshment within.
One of the brethren, clad in his over
mantle with the distinguishing black
cross on his breast, is just returning un
A HOSPITAL GARDEN 9
der the town gate from the Castle where
he has been saying mass in the Lord's
Chapel. Short, spare, keen-eyed, and
with a whimsical smile, he greets us and
himself invites us to enter the Hospital.
We follow him under the friendly lintel
and he leads us through the refectory,
the dining-hall of the Brethren and
their guests, to an inviting and restful
garden. Here he bids us rest on a
broad bench which runs the whole
width of the building.
It is a delightful corner, this old gar
den, stored with the memories of three
centuries. The flower-bed is crowded
with herbs of healing. The sound of
bees is in the air. A row of hives skirts
the low wall beyond which lies the garth
where the Brethren find their last
resting-place.
At the far corner of the
bench on which we are stretching weary
limbs, a Brother sits faced by a dozen
small boys reciting with monotonous
drone their morning lesson in grammar.
These are poor scholars picked out from
among his flock by the rector of the
schools and sent down to the Brethren
day by day for instruction, and, in the
10
MEDIEVAL MEDICINE
case of seven of the poorest, for dinner
also. At the other end of the bench sits
a Brother deeply buried in his book, to
whom comes a woman, soft-footed,
somewhat sour-faced, but of decent and
most cleanly appearance. Will Brother
John say what medicine she is to give
old Robert Mustard who is a good deal
worse this morning and as yellow as
his name.
“ Let him drink sorrel, plantain and
chickweed tempered with old ale, morn
and even; ” answers Brother John
gruffly, without moving his eyes off his
book, “ and if that suffice not to remove
the jaundice, take wormwood and
seethe it long in water, and wash him
with that water thrice right well, and
give him to drink ivory shaven small in
wine, which I will myself prepare.’"
The woman curtseys, and departs to
find out what medieval medicine may
haply avail for the sufferer.
Meanwhile Brother Nicholas, whom
we met first, has ordered food to be
brought to us, and on the bench beside
us are placed a loaf of bread, ale, and a
dish of sprats. The fish had been
THE MASTER
11
brought in early this morning from the
mouth of Parrett, the cook tells us, and
mighty toothsome we find them to
hungry pilgrims.
At noon, after a prayer said in the
chapel of the Brethren, we pay our duty
to the Master, a courtly and benevolent
gentleman, fit to be the chief ecclesiastic
in this flourishing town. He would fain
hear the. latest tidings from Glastonbury
and Reading and we give him what
news we have of these abbeys, and from
the great world beyond; in return he
tells us something of the history of his
House and finally dismisses us with his
fatherly benediction. Brother Nicholas
conducts us to the door leading direct
into the street called Eastover, for the
Hospital has entrances both within and
without the town gate. Here he gives
us his directions and blessing.
“ Pass over the Great Bridge," says
he, pointing up the street, “ and turn to
the left into Damyet. Avoid Vrogges-
lane which runs up the riverside, neither
turn ye into Cronile’s lane, but go
forward till ye come to the place where
four ways meet near by the South Gate.
12 JUGGLERS IN EASTOVER
There, at the corner of Damyet and St.
Mary Street, will ye find a hostel called
George’s Inn. The host will give ye
good food and lodging. Farewell.”
So to the Great Bridge we go. But
what a commotion fills the street from
one end to the other! From every
house and every garden flutter the
women and girls. Joan calls to Margery,
and Margery to Alice, and twelve-year
old Alice struggles along under the
weight of fat baby Christine. But never
a Mary among them, mark you ! nor
will you find one if you search all
through the town. That name is much
too sacred in this age to give to small
sinners such as these ! ’Prentices down
tools, journeymen hurry after them,
even the masters follow, though more
sedately. All Eastover has clustered
together like a swarm of bees. And all
for what! To see a dancing bear, and a
juggler standing on his head, playing a
rebek! We saw the rascals some days
ago, and know all their tricks by heart,
and elbowing through the happy throng,
we pursue our way, and at length arrive.
This bridge, great as they call it,
THE GREAT BRIDGE 13
small as we deem it, is a thing of much
importance for this old river-port. It is
the centre round which its activities
circle.
It is the hub of this small
universe. Long, long ago, when it was
but of wood, it gave a name to the place.
Walter or Water, the Flemish lord, to
whom Norman William gave the manor,
added his name to that of Bridge.
In time, we are told that William
Briwer, who in King John’s days found
ed the borough, began this fine three-
arched bridge of stone on which we are
standing. Certainly he was a great
builder.
He built that great castle
which looms before us, and he built the
Hospital for the Augustinian Canons in
which we have this morning found
refreshment for soul and body.
Yet if you will stand in this angle of
the parapet, where we shall be safe from
any passing putf or waggon, and if you
will lean over, you will see carved in the
stone a representation of one of those
tripods for holding a pot or a kettle
known as a trivet. It is one of those
' ancient, silent names ’ which speak to
the unlettered more clearly than carved
A sall two-wheeled cart.
14
THE BRIDGE CHAPEL
words. It tells us that the bridge was
built at the expense of some member or
members of the Trevet family, who
lived in this neighbourhood.
Remember that, in this age, this is an
act of piety. To build a bridge or
repair a road, and thus help God s
pilgrims is a holy deed. Close to us is
a small Chapel built actually on the
bridge, which places the structure
under the protection of one of the saints,
and where offerings for its maintenance
are collected. It is served, not by our
friends of the Hospital, but by the Grey
Friars, whose acquaintance we have
yet to make.
There are dwelling-houses on the
bridge beside the Chapel, and at one of
them the tollman will collect our
bridge-pennies as we, pass his door.
I said that the bridge is the hub of
the town. Truly, we are in the midst
of a busy scene, and from our point of
vantage can see much of what is going
on around us.
On the stone Slip, which has but
lately been built, and which is destined
long to outlive the bridge itself, lies a
EFFIGIES EN ROUTE 15
barge. A crowd, almost as large as
that which we have seen in Eastover, is
collected on the quay and is looking
down on the work of a group of labour
ers, who are directed by a master mason
in charge of the operation. They have
brought from a ship, which has come up
the river on the last tide, two stone
effigies swathed in straw. The faces
and hands, however, are visible, and we
see that the Bristol carvers have
fashioned here a Knight and his Lady,
with faces and hands turned towards
heaven. The labourers are now lifting
them into the flat-bottomed barge. On
the next tide they will be carried up
to Taunton, and thence will make their
final journey in a waggon to the church
for which they are destined.
Below the bridge, moored against the
quay-side lie ships, not a few. That
fine vessel Le Gabriel de Bridgwater
belongs to Master Dennis Dwin, the
Irish merchant. She is unloading her
cargo of woad, a blue dye-stuff for the
use of the Bridgwater cloth makers.
The town crane is busy hoisting it

St Cuthbert Out, sometimesWells St Cuthbert Out, is acivil parishin theMendipdistrict ofSomerset, England. It entirely surrounds (but does not include) the city and parish ofWells. According to the 2011 census it had a population of 3,749.

The parish is named for the Church of St Cuthbert, Wells and was created in 1866. The historic ecclesiastical parishof Wells St Cuthbert had been split into two, with the Wells St Cuthbert In parish covering the area inside the city of Wells (except for the small area covered by the cathedral's liberty of Wells St Andrew).

Somerset Historic Environment Record

24336

Site Name: King's Castle enclosures, iron age defended settlement, Wells

SCHEDULED MONUMENT: King's Castle enclosures, Iron Age defended settlement [No:24024]

Civil Parish: St. Cuthbert Out

Grid Ref: ST 568 456 (ST 54 NE)

The public accessibility of this site is unknown or has not been checked.

Please ask locally and do not visit without permission. [Information last updated on 21 May 2003]

An unusual site consisting of a line of at least three conjoined stone-walled enclosures extending WSW along a ridge. The interior is overgrown, heavily wooded and quarried. The W enclosure is defined by a stone bank with ditch on E side, with a central causeway entrance. The S bank continues E to form the S sides of the middle and E enclosures, but at reduced scale.

The central enclosure is defined on the N by recent walling The E enclosure is defined on its W side by a bank with ditches on both sides. On the E side a bank with an internal ditch has a staggered junction with a bank running E, fading at the edge of wood. The form of the site suggests a multi-phase settlement with a field system extending to the E. {1}

Reports of hut circles are probably quarry pits.

Two connected enclosures separated by a partly open area, occupying the flat crest of a narrow elongated hill which is the western end of a ridge outlying the Mendip Hills. The site consists of a well-defined enclosure on the west tip of the hill,

a larger less well-defined secondary enclosure on the east, and a similar sized area of land between the two, open-sided to the north. The main enclosure is of sub-circular plan, enclosed by a bank. Across the ridge the bank is 0.7m high with an external ditch 0.5m deep.

Elsewhere the bank is up to 0.5m high enclosing the tip of the hill behind, with internal quarry ditches on the north and south. The area enclosed is 0.38ha. The entrance to the interior consists of a simple causeway and gap 4.5m wide on the top of the ridge on the east. Facing this enclosure about half-way along the ridge is a cross-ridge work with a bank 0.4m high and a ditch 0.5m deep on its west. This has an entrance on the top of the ridge,

consisting of a simple causeway and gap 3m wide. To the north of this entrance there is a low counterscarp bank outside the ditch and a shallow ditch behind the main bank.

Behind this cross-work to the east is the secondary enclosure of 0.64ha.

This consists,

along the north and south sides, of a terrace or double scarp, up to 4m broad and 0.7m deep on the south-east though shallower on the north and absent for a short stretch behind the cross-bank on the south.

At the far end of the southern side the terrace gradually becomes a ditch 0.3m deep with external bank 0.5m high, turning in to form part of the eastern end of the enclosure.

The same happens on the north side though the features are less well pronounced and the change more abrupt. The two banks join at a staggered junction at which the southern bank turns east to run along the ridge of the hill for 40m. There is no apparent gap at this end of the earthworks.

The hill becomes constricted to a neck at this point beyond which the hilltop opens out again, and there are further earthworks of a field system and cross-work which are broadly contemporary. The terrace defining the southern side of the enclosure continues westwards beyond the cross-work towards the main enclosure, creating an open sided space between the two,

delimited on the north side by the natural scarp of the hill.

A trackway 6m broad, terraced into the hillside, leads up into this area, entering it on the north-west under the lee of the main enclosure. The interior of the site is uneven in places, due partly to later small-scale limestone digging or prospecting pits,

but possible house-circles are present within both enclosures. There is also a more modern small rectangular drystone ruin in the east ditch of the main enclosure. A ruined wall of drystone boulders runs up along the centre of the approach trackway and along the northern edge of the site. {4}

Scheduling revised with new national number on 16 August 1994. {6}

The site is being managed as ancient woodland and is in generally good condition.

The Iron Age settlement and field system, centred at ST 568 456 could not be observed during a recent survey of aerial photographs and lidar in the Mendip AONB due to it being masked by tree cover.

1 Detailed records -Burrow, I. Hillfort and Hilltop Settlement in the First to Eighth Centuries AD.(1981), 253-254. British Archaeological Reports 91.

2 Mention -Page, W. Victoria History of the County of Somerset. Vol. 2 (1911), 529.

3 Detailed records -Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division record card. Record ID: ST 54 NE 7 (1967) Location: HER files.

4 Detailed records -Preece, A.King's Castle enclosures, Iron Age defended settlement.(1993) unpublished Monuments Protection Programme report for English Heritage. Location: Verbal, electronic or direct entry, no source retained.

5 Sketch plan -Preece, A, English Heritage. King's Castle Wells 1:2500. (1993) Location: HER file. HER digital source: 24053.

6 Correspondence -English Heritage to Somerset County Council. (26/9/1994) Location: HER files.

7 Detailed records -Graham, A (Alan). English Heritage Field Monument Warden (23/7/1998) Location: HER file. HER digital source: 22869.

8 Verbal communication -Truscoe, K (Krysia). Somerset County Council Heritage Service (14/09/2007). Location: Verbal, electronic or direct entry, no source retained

9 Aerial photographs -Mendip AONB lidar ST 5644. (April 2006) Location: National Monuments Record, Swindon

10 Mention -Cottrell, T.A Study of Relict Landscape -Field Systems at Furzey Sleights and Lyatt, Dinder, Somerset.(1997) MA dissertation, University of Bristol. Location: HER files under PRN 23373.

"ABDICK and BULSTONE HUNDRED, in the southern part of Somersetshire, bounded on the N. by North Carry hundred, part of Somerton hundred, and Pitney hundred;

on the E. by East Petherton and South Kingsbury hundreds; on the S. by part of South Petherton hundred and part of East Kingsbury hundred;

and on the W. by Taunton and Taunton Dean hundreds It contains the parishes of Ashill, Beer-Crocombe Bickenhall, South Braden, Broadway, Buckland St. Mary, Cricket-Malherbe, Curland, Curry-Malet, Curry-Rivel, Donyatt, West Dowlish, Drayton, Earnshill, Fivehead, Hatch-Beauchamp, Ilminster,

Ilton, Isle-Abbots, Isle-Brewers, White-Lackington, Puckington, Staple-Fitzpaine, Stokelinch St. Magdalen, Stokelinch-Ottersay, and Swell."

"ANDERSFIELD HUNDRED, in the county of Somerset, is bounded on the N. by Cannington hundred, on the E. by Whitley hundred, on the S. by North Petherton hundred, and on the W. by Taunton Dean hundred; and comprises the parishes of Broomfield, Creech St. Michael, Enmore, Goathurst, and Lyng, with parts of Durleigh, Chilton Trinity, and North Petherton.

The area of the hundred is about 11,000 acres."

"BATH FORUM HUNDRED, one of the 40 hundreds or subdivisions of the county of Somerset,situated in the eastern division of the county, and bounded on the N. by the county of Gloucester, on the E. by Wiltshire, on the S. by the hundred of Wellow, and on the W. by the hundred of Keynsham. It contains the city of Bath, and the parishes of Batheaston, Bathford, Bathwick, St. Katherine Freshford, Kelston, Langridge, Lyncombe and Widcombe, Moncktoncombe, North Stoke, South Stoke, Swainswick, Weston, and Woolley. It comprises an area, exclusive of the city, of about 15,600 acres."

"BEMPSTONE HUNDRED, one of the 40 hundreds or subdivisions of the county of Somerset, situated in the eastern division, and bounded on the N. by the hundred of Winterstoke, on the E. by the hundred of Wells Forum, on the S. by the hundreds of Glaston-Twelve-Hides, Whitley, and Huntspill and Puriton;

on the W. by the Bristol Channel, and on the N.W. by part of the hundred of Brent-with-Wrington. It contains the parishes of Allerton Chapel, Biddisham, Breane, Burnham, Mark, Weare, and Wedmore, and comprises an area of about 24,530 acres."

"BRENT-CUM-WRINGTON HUNDRED, one of the 40 hundreds or subdivisions of the county of Somerset, situated in the eastern parliamentary division of the county It is in two parts, which lie at the distance of several miles from each other; the Brent district being on the W. side of the Mendip hills, and surrounded by the Bristol Channel and the hundreds of Bempstone and Winterstoke; the Wrington district being bounded on the N. and E. by the hundred of Harteliffe-with-Bedminster, and on the S. and W. by the hundred of Winterstoke. The parishes contained in the hundred are those of Borrow, East Brent, South Brent, Barrington, Lympsham, and Wrington.

The hundred spreads over an area of about 18,200 acres."

"BRUTON HUNDRED, one of the 40 hundreds or subdivisions of the county of Somerset, situated in the eastern parliamentary division of the county, and hounded on the N. by the hundreds of Wells-Forum and Frome, on the E. by the hundred of Norton Ferris, on the S.W. by the hundred of Catsash, and on the W. by the hundred of Whitestone. It contains the parishes of North Brewham, South Brewham, Bruton, Eastrip, Milton-Clevedon, Pitcombe, Upton Noble, and Yarlington. The hundred comprises an area of about 14,250 acres."

"CANNINGTON HUNDRED, one of the 40 hundreds or subdivisions of the county of Somerset, situated in the western parliamentary division of the county, and bounded on the N. by the Bristol Channel; on the E. by the hundred of North Petherton; on the S. by the hundreds of Andersfield and Taunton Dean; and on the W. by the hundred of Williton. It contains the parishes of Aisholt, Cannington, Charlinch, Fiddington, Otterhampton, Spaxton, Stockland-Bristol, Stogursey, Over Stowey, and Stringston. The hundred comprises an area of about 25,480 acres."

"CARHAMPTON HUNDRED, one of the 40 hundreds or subdivisions of the county of Somerset, situated in the western parliamentary division of the county, and bounded on the N. by the sea, on the E. and S. by the hundred of Williton Freemanors, and on the W. by Devonshire. It contains the parishes of Carhampton, Culbone, Cutcombe, Dunster, Exford, Luckham, Luxborough, Minehead, Care, Porlock, Selworthy, Stoke-Pero, Timberscombe, Treborough, Withycombe, and Wootton-Courtenay. The hundred extends over an area of about 60,350 acres."

"CATSASH HUNDRED, one of the 40 hundreds or subdivisions of the county of Somerset, situated in the east parliamentary division of the county, and bounded on the N. by the hundreds of Whitley, Glaston Twelve Hides, and Whitestone; on the E. by the hundred of Bruton; on the S. by the hundred of Horethorn; and on the W. by the hundred of Somerton. It contains the parishes of Alford, Almsford, Babcary, North Barrow, South Barrow, St. David Barton, North Cadbury, South Cadbury, Castle-Cary, Compton-Pauncefoot, Keinton-Mansfield, Kingweston, Lovington, West Lydford, Maperton, Queen Camel, Sparkford, Sutton-Montis, and Weston-Bampfield. The hundred extends over an area of about 25,300 acres."

"CHEW,a hundred in the north-eastern portion of the county of Somerset; contains the parishes of Chew Magna, Chew Stoke, Clutton, Dundry, Norton-Hawkfield, Norton-Malreward, Stowey, and Timsbury, comprising 15,120 acres. The deanery of Chew, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, includes the whole of the hundred"

"CHEWTON, a hundred in the N.E. portion of county Somerset; it contains the parishes of Brockley, Cameley, Chewton-Mendip, Chilcompton, Compton-Martin, Emborough, Farrington-Gurney, West Harptree, Hinton-Blewett, Kingston-Seymour, High Littleton, Midsomer-Norton, Paulton, Stone Easton, and Ubley, comprising, 31,580 acres. It forms part of the deanery of Chew."

"CREWKERNE, a hundred in the S. part of the county of Somerset, contains the parishes of St. George Hinton, Crewkerne, Misterton, Merriott, Wayford, and Seaborough, comprising 13,260 acres. Crewkerne gives name to a deanery in the archdeaconry of Taunton, and diocese of Bath and Wells."

"DUNKERRY BEACON, a hill in the county of Somerset, 7 miles S.W. of Dunster. It rises to the height of 1,700 feet, and commands a fine view of the surrounding country."

"EXE, a river rising in Exmoor Forest on the borders of counties Somerset and Devon. It was anciently called the Isca or Isaca, and after passing Exeter, falls into the Channel by a wide mouth at Exmouth Bar."

"FROME HUNDRED, one of the 20 hundreds or subdivisions of county Somerset, situated in the eastern part of the county, and bounded on the N. by the hundred of Wellow, on the E. by the county of Wilts, on the S. by the hundred of Norton Ferrers, and on the W. by the hundred of Kelmersdon. It comprises the borough of Frome-Selwood, and the parishes of Beckington, Berkeley, Cloford, East Cranmore, Elm, Laverton, Leigh, Luddington, Marston-Bigott, Mells, Nunney, Orchardleigh, Road, Rodden, Standerwick, Wanstrow, Whatley, Witham-Friary, and Woolverton. The hundred contains an area of 37,620 acres."

"GLASTON-TWELVE-HIDES, a hundred in the middle division of county Somerset, containing the parishes of Baltonsborough, West Bradley, Glastonbury, Meare, Nyland, West Pennard, and North Wootton, comprising together about 24,610 acres."

"HAMPTON, a hundred or liberty in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Bathampton, Charlcombe, and Claverton; comprising an area of 2,610 acres."

"HARTCLIFFE, a hundred in the county Somerset, contains the parishes of Long Ashton, Backwell, Barrow-Gurney, Bedminster, Butcombe, Chelvey, and Winford, comprising an area' of 19,440 acres."

"HORETHORNE, a hundred in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Abbas Combe, Charlton Horethorne, North Cheriton, Corton-Denham, Goathill, Henstridge, Hersington, Marston Magna, Milborne Port, Pointington, Sandford Orcas, Stowell, and Trent, comprising an area of 26,370 acres."

"HOUNDSBOROUGH, (and Barwick and Coker) a hundred in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Barwick, Chilton Cantelo, Chinnock (East, Middle, and West), Chiselborough, Closeworth, Coker, Hardington-Mandeville, Haselbury Plucknett, Norton-under-Hamdon, Odcombe, Pendomer, North Perrott, and Sutton Bingham, comprising an area of 18,890 acres."

"HUNTSPILL AND PURITON, a hundred in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Huntspill and Puriton, comprising about 6,800 acres."

"KEYNSHAM, a hundred in county Somerset .It contains the parishes of Brislington, Burnett, Chelwood, Compton-Dando, Farmborough, Keynsham, Marksbury, Nempnett Thrubwell, Pensford. Priston, Publow, Queen Charlton, Saltford, Stanton-Drew, Stanton-Prior, and Whitchurch, comprising 24,520 acres."

"KILMERSDON, a hundred in the county Somerset, contains the parishes of Ashwick, Babington, Buckland-Denham, Hardington, Hemington, Holcombe, Kilmersdon, Radstock, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, and Writhlington, comprising an area of 15,400 acres."

"KINGSBURY, a hundred in county Somerset, in six detached portions. It contains the parishes of Chard, Combe, Huish-Episcopi, Kingsbury-Episcopi, Winsham, Ash Priors, West Buckland, Fitzhead, Bishops Lydeard, Wellington, and Wiveliscombe, comprising an area of 36,690 acres."

"LANSDOWN HILL, near Prior Park, county Somerset, 2 miles S.E. of Bath. It rises to the height of 800 feet, and commands a view of 40 miles. On its summit are remains of a Saxon camp, also Beckford's Tower, and a column to Sir Bevill Granville, who fell in a battle fought here in 1643, in which Waller was defeated. On its slopes are a range of houses, St. Stephen's church, and a cemetery. The Petty family take from this place the title of marquis."

"MENDIP HILLS, a range of rugged heights in the northern division of county Somerset, between the rivers Axe and Yeo, and stretching from near Shepton Mallet to the coast. The hills, which consist chiefly of mountain limestone and Old Red sandstone, are broken with caverns and chasms, and were once covered with a dense wood. They are rich in lead, iron, calamine, manganese, red ochre, and other minerals.

Professor Ansted has recently (1862) discovered, at St. Cuthbert's, in the Mendip Hills, about three miles from Wells,

a deposit of lead-producing debris of old mines and lead washings of ancient miners, filling up the bed of a stream that flowed in former ages. This metallic slime, of exceeding richness, amounts, he says, to 600,000 tons, extends over 25 acres, to the depth of 30 feet, and is computed to be worth half a million of money for the lead which it contains."

"MERSTON, a deanery in county Somerset. See Marston Magna."

"MILVERTON, a hundred in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Ashbrittle, Bathealton, Kittisford, Langford-Budville, Milverton, Runnington, Sampford-Arundell, Stawley, and Thorn St. Margaret, comprising an area of 12,250 acres."

"NORTH CURRY, a hundred in the county of Somerset; contains the parishes of West Hatch, St. Gregory Stoke, North Curry, Thurlbear, and Thorne Falcon, comprising 12,940 acres.

"NORTH PETHERTON, a hundred in the county of Somerset, contains the town of Bridgwater and the parishes of Bawdrip, Chedzoy, Chilton Trinity, Durston, St. Michael Church, Pawlett, North Petherton, Thurloxton, and part of Wembdon, comprising an area of 23,150 acres, exclusive of Bridgwater.

"NORTON-FERRIS, a hundred in the county of Somerset, contains the parishes of Bratton-Seymour, Charlton-Musgrave, Chucklington, Kilmington, Penselwood, Shepton-Montague, Stoke-Trister, Wincanton, and parts of Maiden Bradley, and Stourton, comprising an area of 18,730 acres."

"PARRET, (or Perrott), a river rising on the borders of Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, and falling into the Bristol Channel at Stert Point, near Burnham lighthouse. It is navigable to its junction with the Yeo.

"PENNY-POUND, a barren spot on Sedgmoor, county Somerset, 4 miles S.E. of Bridgwater. It is situated near Weston Zoyland, at the place where Sir Thomas Fairfax encamped after the battle of Langport in 1645, and where the adherents of James II., under the Earl of Feversham, defeated the Duke of Monmouth in 1685."

"PITNEY, a hundred in the county of Somerset, contains the parishes of Langport-Eastover, Muchelney, and Pitney, comprising an area of 3,690 acres."

"PORTBURY, a hundred in the county of Somerset, contains the parish of Abbots Leigh, Bourton, Glapton, Clevedon, Easton-in-Gordano, Nailsea, Portbury, Portishead, Tickenham, Walton, Weston-in-Gordano, and Wraxall, comprising an area of 23,980 acres."

"RALEIGH'S CROSS, a meet for the West Somerset hounds, county Somerset, 4 miles N.W. of Wiveliscombe."

"SEDGMOOR,an extensive marshy tract in the hundred of Whitley, county Somerset, 5 miles S.E. of Bridgwater. The Duke of Monmouth was defeated here in 1685. It is celebrated in the scientific world as the spot where a base line of the Trigonometrical Survey was measured."

"SELWOOD, an extensive forest on the borders of counties Wilts and Somerset, between Westbury and Frome. It was called by the Britons Coed-mawr, or "the great wood," and by the Saxons Sealwuda, and is celebrated in history as being the retreat of Alfred the Great before the battle of Ethandune."

"SOMERTON,a hundred in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Aller, West Carmel, Charlton-Adam, Charlton-Mackrell, Kingston, East Lydford, Somerton, Long Sutton, and Yeovilton, comprising an area of 25,450 acres."

"SOUTH PETHERTON,a hundred in the county of Somerset, contains the parishes of Barrington, Chaffcombe, Chillington, Cricket St. Thomas, Cudworth, Dinnington, Dowlish Wake, St. Giles Knowle, Lopen, Niden, South Petherton, Seavington, Shepton-Beauchamp, and Whit-Staunton, comprising an area of 14,680 acres,

"STERT, (or Start), an islet in Bridgwater Bay, county Somerset, 7½ miles N. of Bridgwater, at the mouth of the river Parret.

"STONE, a hundred in the county of Somerset, contains the parishes of Ashington, Brimpton, Chilthorne, Domer, Limington, Lufton, Mudford, Preston, Plucknett, and Yeovil, comprising an area of 10,720 acres."

"TAUNTON,(or Taunton Dean), a hundred of county Somerset, contains the town of Taunton and the parishes of Angersleigh,

West Bagborough,

Bradford,

Cheddon Fitzpaine,

Combe-Florey, Corfe, Cothelstone, Heathfield, Hillfarrance; Hull-Bishop's, Kingston, Lydeard St. Lawrence, Norton-Fitzwarren, Nynehead, Cake, Orchard-Portman, Otterford, Pitminster, Rimpton, Ruishton, Staplegrove, Stoke St. Mary, Tolland, Trull, Wilton, and Withiel-Florey, comprising an area of about 41,000 acres.

"TINTINHULL, a hundred, county Somerset, contains the parishes of Ilchester, Kingston, Montacute, Northover, Stoke-under-Hamdon, Thorne-Coffin, and Tintinhull, comprising 7,450 acres."

"TONE, a river of county Somerset, rises near Brompton Ralph, and joins the Parret at Borough Bridge."

"WELLOW, a hundred in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Camerton, Charterhouse-Hinton, Comb-Hay, Corston, Dunkerton, English Combe, Farleigh-Hungerford, Forscote, Newton St. Loe, Norton St. Philip, Tellisford, Twerton, and Wellow; comprising 21,900 acres."

"WELLS-FORUM, a hundred, county Somerset, contains the city of Wells, and the parishes of Binegar, Cranmore West, Dinder, Evercreech, Litton, Priddy, Westbury, and Wookey; comprising 30,000 acres."

"WHITLEY, a hundred in county Somerset, contains the parishes of Ashcott, Blackford, Butleigh, Compton-Dunton, Cossington, Greinton, High Ham, Holford, Holton, Middlezoy, West Monckton, Moorlinch, Othery, Milton-Podimore, Shapwick, Street, Walton, Weston Zoyland, Wheathill, and Woolavington, besides King's Sedgmoor, comprising together 49,640 acres."

"WHITSTONE, a hundred, county Somerset, contains the parishes of Batcombe, Croscombe, Ditcheat, Doulting, Downhead, Hornblotton, Lamyatt, East Pennard, Pilton, Pylle, Shepton-Mallet, and Stoke-Lane; comprising 33,150 acres."

"WILLITON AND FREEMANNERS, a hundred in the N.W. division of county Somerset, contains the small market town of Watchet, and the parishes of Bicknoller, Brompton Ralph, Brompton Regis, Brushford, Chipstable, Clatworthy, Old Cleeve, Crowcombe, St. Decuman, where is the workhouse, Dodington, Dulverton, Elworthy, Exmoor Forest, Exton, Halse, Hawkridge, Huish Champflower, Kilton, Kilve, Lilstock, Monksilver, Nettlecombe, East and West Quantoxhead, Raddington, Sampford Brett, Skilgate, Stogumber, Nether Stowey, Upton, Winsford, and Withypoole; comprising 114,870 acres."

"WINTERSTOKE, a hundred in the northern division of county Somerset, contains the parishes of Axbridge, Badgworth, Banwell, Blagdon, Bledon, Charterhouse-on-Mendip, Cheddar, Christon, Churchill, Compton Bishop, Congresbury, East Harptree, Hutton, Kenn, Kewstoke, Locking, Loxton, Puxton, Stoke Rodney, Rowberrow, Shipham, Uphill, Weston-super-Mare, Week St. Lawrence, Winscombe, Worle, and Yatton, comprising 62,030 acres."

The Synod of Whitby 664

Celtic vs Roman

St. Hilda's Priory

Sneaton Castle, Whitby, Yorks.

Not to be reproduced without their permissionSynod of Whitby Mural

by Juliet MacMichael

in the St. Hilda Room

St. Hilda's Priory

Sneaton Castle, Whitby, Yorks.

The spreading of Christianity to the pagan settlers in Northumbria was not made any easier by the differing traditions of the Celtic monks who evangelised from Scotland with Irish roots, and the separate Roman mission of Pope St Gregory I the Great who commissioned Augustine to establish a mission in Kent.

The problem was that the Celtic traditions were sealed in a 'time capsule' of religious traditions that emanated from Columba when he formed a monastery one hundred years earlier, and most of the rest of the world (including apparently Ireland!) had moved on to adopt customs following more up to date and different Roman ways. Two pressing conflicts were the setting the date of Easter and also the form of tonsure (haircut) of the monks.

In the Celtic tradition the king was all-powerful (which suited the reigning king Oswiu) but now he had as his second queen Eanfled, a devout Roman Christian, where the head of the church was not the king but the Pope. Things might have been easier but for the fact that due to the differences in the calculation of Easter in the thirteen month lunar calendar, there could exist a situation in some years where Oswiu wanted to celebrate Easter at exactly the same time that Queen Eanfled was still fasting in Lent! The next occasion when this would happen was going to be 665 and that might explain why the Synod was called in 664!

Wilfrid, fresh from all his experiences of customs in Rome and Gaul, was an enthusiastic supporter of Roman ways. Oswiu's son Alhfrith, sub-king of Deira, and Wilfrid's friend, also became an enthusiastic follower of Roman traditions, just like his step-mother1Eanfled. Things started to get critical in 660/1when king Alhfrith removed the Celtic abbot Eata from the monastery at Ripon (one of the twelve grants of land made by Oswiu after his defeat of Penda in 655) and controversially installed Wilfrid in his place; furthermore it would appear that Alhfrith took the unilateral step of adopting the Roman ways in Deira, thus putting the kingdom out of kilter with Oswiu's Bernician part of Northumbria.

In 661 Finnan was succeeded as bishop of Lindisfarne by Colman, another Celtic monk from Iona and in the same year a Scottish monk Rohan strongly urged Colman to change to Roman customs throughout the land.

Oswiu, now seriously concerned about the religious differences that were threatening to destabilize his family and his kingdom decided to call a meeting of church leaders in 664 to resolve things once and for all. This became known as The Synod of Whitby as it was held atHilda'smonastery.

There are two known accounts of this great meeting, Bede's Ecclesistical History (III 25) and Eddius Steppanus's Life of Wilfrid. (C10). Bede did not start his Ecclesistical history until 731 whereas Eddius was with Wilfrid as his choir cantor and therefore his account should be fresher and not second hand. However the time differences are not so significant as Eddius did not write his account until many years later between 710 and 720 and often seemed to write through very rose tinted spectacles! In any event Bede's account is a much more robust and interesting read and the Synod meeting rises from the pages as a real courtroom drama.

Bede first set the scene where Agilbert, bishop of the West Saxons and friend of Alhfrith king of Deira and Wilfrid (recently made abbot of Ripon) was staying with them and, at the request of Alhfrith, Agilbert ordained Wilfrid a priest in his own monastery.

When the council meeting was called at Whitby, Bishop Colman, his Irish clergy, and Hilda supported the Celtic view whilst the Roman side was represented by Agilbert, one of his priests Agatho, Wilfrid, James the Deacon (formerly of Paulinus) and Romanus. The two kings Oswiu and his son Ahlfrith were present and the venerable bishop Cedd acted as interpreter.

After Oswiu opened the proceedings he invited Colman to make his case for continuing with the Celtic customs. Colman replied that he observed Easter as he had been instructed at Iona and cited that the method was that used by the evangelist John.

The king then asked Agilbert to expound on his method for the calculation and Agilbert, a Gaul, wisely suggested that Wilfrid speak as they both agreed on the method and that this would save going through an interpreter. Wilfrid then named all the major places in the world that the Roman method was adopted and intimated that it was only the Picts and the British who obstinately did otherwise and were 'foolishly attempting to fight against the whole world.' Colman objected to Wilfrid saying that they were foolish citing that they followed the apostle reckoned worthy to recline on the breast of the Lord (John).

At this Wilfrid explained that actually John celebrated Easter according to the decrees of Mosaic law from the evening of the 14th day of the first month (Nisan) irrespective of whether it fell on the Sabbath or not, whereas the Celtic calculation made Easter the first Sunday between the 14th and 20th day of the first moon. Wilfrid explained that the Roman calculation was based on Peter's preaching in Rome where he waited for the rising of the moon on the 14th day of the first moon and if in the morning it was the Lord's day, then Easter was on that day, if not, he waited for the first Sunday up to the 21st and began the Easter ceremonies the night before so it came about that Easter Sunday was kept on the first Sunday between the 15th and the 21st day of the first moon. Wilfrid then faced Colman and said 'in your calculation you follow neither John or Peter, neither the law nor the Gospel.'

Colman then said that Anatolius had decreed that the calculation should be between the 14th and 20th day of the first moon and that was what Columba had followed. Wilfrid then proceeded to show that actually the Celtic calculation did not follow the 19 year lunar cycle used by Anatolius and implied in effect that Colman did not know what he was talking about!

Wilfrid, by clever argument, was able to show that the Roman ways stemmed directly from St. Peter, holder to the keys of heaven, and a superior authority to the Irish Columba advocated by bishop Colman. Oswiu asked Colman if it was true that Peter held the keys to heaven to which Colman said it was true. Oswiu then asked Colman whether he had evidence that equal authority was given to Columba to which Colman could only reply 'Nothing'. Oswiu, who hardly wished to offend St. Peter lest he be denied passage to heaven, decided in favour of the Wilfridian party.

Hilda accepted the change to Roman ways but bishop Colman resigned his see and left Lindisfarne with many of his monks and returned to Iona.

Oswiu then appointed Eata, one of Aidan's '12 English Boys' as abbot and Tuda, another Irishman of the Celtic tradition but compliant with Roman ways, as bishop of Lindisfarne.

664 proved to be a cataclysmic year in more ways that one. Bede recalls that on 3 May there was an eclipse of the sun and later a plague that first ravished the south and then found its way up to Northumbria and led to the death of the newly installed bishop Tuda! Bede goes on to say that 'king Alhfrith sent the priest Wilfrid to the king of Gaul to be consecrated bishop for himself and his people'. This is a different and possibly more accurate interpretation to that offered by Eddius Stephanus in his Life of Wilfrid where he indicates that it was agreed Wilfrid should be made bishop and that Wilfrid argued for and gained the agreement of both Oswiu and Alhfrith to travel to Gaul to be consecrated in the Roman tradition by Roman rather than Celtic monks.

There is evidence of a growing rift between Oswiu and his son king Alhfrith as in 664/5 Ahlfrith wanted to go with Benedict Biscop on his second journey to Rome whilst Wilfrid was in Gaul, but Oswiu would not let his son go [LAWJ 12]. Another telling reference to a rift is in Bede where it says 'He (Oswiu) was attacked by the heathen people, the Mercians, who had slain his brother, and in addition, by his own son Alhfrith and his nephew Oethelwald, the son of his brother and predecessor.' [EH 3,14]

Evidently by the time of Wilfrid's return Alhfrith had disappeared from the history books and Oswiu had installed Chad into a newly restored see at York, but the ordination in Gaul and what happened on Wilfrid's return is the next story.

Suffice to say that in 664 at the age of 30 Wilfrid had made his mark in a most impressive victory at the Synod of Whitby. However, he had clearly nailed his Roman colours to the mast and started to generate a great deal of hostility and resentment from those who were affected by the change from Celtic to Roman ways; something that would cost him dearly later in his amazing life.

Peter Green

Notes:

Alhfrith (also known asAlchfrith or Ealhfrith) was a son of King Oswiu of Northumbria and Rieinmelth ofRheged.

Thepoint of reference to who was where we have them mentioned at Weston super mare in particular at worlebury camp somerset

The geography of this area must be much changed from3000yrs ago

From brean to bleadon to axe to cheddar to wells to glastonbury we have many old burial mounds suggeting to me that the neolithic living on this raised plateau looked over the somerset levels which were possibly uninhabitable.

The distance from south wales nowadays indicates that south gloucester being dobunni territory was around the river severn and that the mouth of the river and the levels mingle The burial cairn at stony littleton is similar to other cairns in gloucester Belas Knap is a neolithic chambered long barrow, situated on Cleeve Hill, near Cheltenham and Winchcombe, in Gloucestershire, England

With another cairn at the area behind Kelston nr Bath

THE MENDIP HILLS they are full of deserted camps and barrows that were once used and defended and meant something to someone of whom we may know nothing ; every height or headland is bastioned or crowned with the work of man, work that was already crumbling, nay, already a forgotten ruin, before the beginning of history.  These remain. But the work of the Romans, those deserted mines beyond Charterhouse, what is there left of them . What is there to be found of those two religious houses of the Carthusians, Charterhouse a cell of Witham, and Green Ore a cell of Hinton ?  Not a stone, not a single foundation.  For them no man can say here they stood or there. It is as though Mendip were outside History and Christendom.

And yet on a day of wind, a clear day after rain, this great plateau which a man fears almost as much as he loves is
capable of offering you endless reward.

On such a day Mendip awakes ; the thin grass laughs like an old man in the sun, the grey rock shines golden with lichen, the spare woods are filled with the strength and the joy of the wind, and suddenly you find as you come up southward out of the plateau on to the height, on to Beacon Hill or Pen Hill or Maesbury for
instance, all the world spread out at your feet.
It is a glory that passes and' yet cannot pass away.

For when, as a man, suddenly and without warning, after years of absence, I looked one evening from that great height, I saw not th is ; I saw my home.

Spread out beneath me lay a vast and mysterious plain, blue and grey and gold in the setting sun, and beyond far and far away the great hills of the West Country.

To one returning after long absence that view must always be the most beautiful and the most consoling in
the world, for it gives him at a glance all his childhood and his home.
Setting out from Chewton Mendip to explore the hills, one will take the straight road to Wells, passing Chewton Priory,
the seat of Earl Waldegrave, whose family has held Chewton so long. The Priory stands upon the site of a Benedictine house belonging to the monks of Jumieges; when the alien priories were suppressed the King, Henry V , granted this
appropriation to the Carthusian priory of Sheen, which he had founded in 1413.
Climbing steadily past the Priory, one comes to Green Ore, in about half an hour, and here the road to Wells

in the year 1900 in a few gigantic heaps of barren earth.

 For upon the Mendips as upon no other mountains in the world, perhaps because few are so old as they, man and his efforts fade into nothing; their futility is exposed by the emptiness of space and the passing of time.

And if, as he will, the traveller turns to the sky for assurance and for comfort that sky is too often a grey immensity of cloud, of great clouds hurrying no whither before the south-west wind, laden with the memory of the emptiness of the sea.
The loneliness of Mendip is a real loneliness.

A man turns to the sky because he must; he is shut away there from the great and fruitful world he knows, the towns, the villages, the ploughlands, and the steadings beneath him, not only by the height, but also by the breadth and flatness of the great plateau which
the roads, purposeless for the most part, shepherded by their loose walls of grey stone, traverse so swiftly, anxious only to pass on their endless ways. One is caught as it were in an empty space, a featureless desolation, a solitude that is like no other solitude.

A man there is utterly alone, he cannot stay, he passes on with deliberate step down the roads that only lead
away. And there is no one who has persisted in the exploration of these hills but has been astonished by their silence, the absence of trees, of cattle, of sheep, of all voices, and of the sound of bells, a sound, one thinks, that might break the spell that lies over all this great desolate upland.

Yet such a man will know too that Mendip has voices and sounds of its own that are a part of the silence.
For the hills of Mendip are hollow and are full of secrets; secret springs, secret underground rivers whose courses you may not know, but whose voices you may sometimes hear suddenly on a still day as you lie on the shady side of one of the many swallets or pits, a curious murmuring hollow sound, rising and falling; and sometimes as you pass by where no visible spring is to be found you will be drenched with spray suddenly in the face; but whence it comes you will not know.

It is not everyone who in such a loneliness can bear such music or encounter such natural malice and still remain in firm possession of his soul.
Yes, the hills are full of secrets; they are dreadful for they are very old ; they are full of caves where are mingled the bones of men and of beasts that are dateless and have no history;

Glaftonbury Abbeyfrom Interior Arcade saintMary’s Chapel

THERE is no religious foundation in England whose history carries us so far back as that of Glastonbury.

Its origins really are lost in the mists of antiquity.

True, in later times people became very precise about them, but when we come to test their assertions these melt away under the touch.

It is impossible here to write down all the mythical history that gathered about the place.

I will try to set down what is not seriously disputed, then notice some of the more famous of the legends.

Long before the Saxons (the English) came to this country—far back in the days of British princelings—some Christian missionaries built a little church of wattles in the district called Avalon. Whether that was in the second or third century or later, there is no way of telling. Not unnaturally the date was eventually put back to the firSt century.

The church was old in the time of St. Paulinus, Archbishop of York—that is, in the early years of the seventh century—and he cased it over with wood and lead.

From the first year of the same century 601 purports to come a grant made by a

King of Damnonia

the same word as Devon of the land called Ynyswitrin to the

“ old church,”

and an abbot, Worgret, is the head of the community.

A hundred years later (700 or so) King Ina gives a charter and builds what was then considered a great church, to the eaSt of the old one.

By this time we are well into the Saxon period, and you muSt note that there has been no word of devastation of the place by heathen Saxons. They were Christianised before they took over this part of the country. Thus Glastonbury passed intakt from British to English hands. It is the only foundation which did so.

That the history of the earlier centuries should be filled in a little was natural.St. Patrick and St. Benignus,his disciple, are credited with having sojourned here in the fifth century ; nay, the bodies of both were said to lie here . St Bridget came, and lived at Beokery, Little Ireland, another islet in (In marsh. And in the sixth century St. David (d. 546) came and built an addition to the Old Church at the eastern end. The dimensions of the addition were very precisely set down by the chroniclers of the Abbey.

Gildas, the historian, too, died and was buried here in 512.

Of these Statements (and there are more like them) the moSt credible is that about St. David. But all of these represent a truth, that Glastonbury was so sacred a resort in those centuries that the great lights of the Celtic Church would be likely visitors to it.

If traditions of this class are not fairly to be called fabulous, some, which crystallised later, are of that description.

William of Malmesbury, who saw the charter, says the king’s name was illegible, but I have seen it in Mr. Bligh Bond’s book given as Gwrgan.

G L A S T O N B U R Y ABBEY

Glastonbury Abbey was founded on an eminence above the meres by King Ine about the year 700.

Legend . tells that its history goes back yet further , that Joseph of Arimathealanded at Glastonbury bringing the Holy Grail with him, that he had been sent out by

St Philip, Christ’s disciple, to evangelize Britain, and that he built an oratory of wattle and sand, the venerable vetusta ecclesia.

Legend also identifies Glastonbury with Avalon and makes it the burial place of King Arthur.

With these traditions Glastonbury can in fairness be called the most famous of Britain’s monasteries. St Dunstan was a monk here, and then abbot.

He is said to have repaired the buildings which had been damaged by the Danes.

King Edgar made generous gifts towards Dunstan’s new works and was, when he died in 975, buried in the abbey.

After the Conquest a large scheme of rebuilding was set afoot , and probably completed by about 1120 or earlier.

All this was burnt in the disastrous fire of 1184. Immediately after a new vetusta ecclesia and a new abbey church were begun in axis with each other and carried on simultaneously, the former, St Mary’s Chapel, so rapidly that it could be consecrated in 1186, the latter more slowly.

The style was at the outset a Late Norman Transitional but seems to have changed at once into a well understood Early Gothic -probably under the influence of the designs of the great architect who began Wells Cathedral about 1180.

Work in the church went on into the middle of the C13 and beyond.

Under Abbot Fromond 1303-22 the crossing tower was completed and the E part of the nave vaulted.

Under Abbot de Sodbury 1323-34 the nave vault was completed,

under Abbot Walter de Monington 1342-74 the choir lengthened and re-faced and a retrochoir added, and finally under.

Abbots Richard Bere 1493-1524 and Richard Whiting 1524-39 an E chapel for the remains of King Edgar erected.

The whole church from the Edgar Chapel to St Mary’s Chapel was in the end c. 580 ft long nave, chancel, and retrochoir c. 375 .

The plan of the church will be described later, but a word must here be said of the church of King Ine and of St Dunstan,

i.e. of c, 700 and c. 950, of which excavations of 1928, etc., have revealed much.

The results have to be read;

they were unfortunately not left exposed.King Ine’s churchhad an oblong nave c. 42 ft long with the usual portions instead of aisles and with a chancel arch c. 14 ft wide.

The form of the chancel is unknown.

It was replaced by a square chancel in the c 8 or C9, when also further portions were built to the 1. and r. of the w end and perhaps a narthex or atrium.

St Dunstan extended the chancel yet further (21 by 17 ft) and added two more porticus to the 1. and r. of his chancel.

The chancel may have carried a tower.

The building according to the excavations must have been a group of loosely connected square and oblong chambers and cannot have possessed much architectural unity.

The surviving buildings are described in the following order:

St Mary’s Chapel, Abbey Church, Monastic Buildings.

They were all built of Doulting stone.

S t M a r y ’ s C h a p e l .

Begun in 1184 and dedicated in 1186.

A plain oblong, four bays long, with pronounced angle turrets -an early forerunner of Late Medieval Royal chapels.

With its decorative motifs and the relation of them to plain wall it is a Norman building

Secular Architecture:South Petherton, King Ine’s Palacebay-window

On the ground floor outside tall intersecting arches, on the upper floor big round-arched windows.

arranged at the w end in a generously spaced group of three.

The ornament on both levels is typically Latest Norman, that is zigzags and similar motifs crenellations with triangular merlons, etc.placed not parallel with the wall nor indeed at

right angles to it, but at an angle of 45 degrees.

The angle turrets also have intersecting arches.

Before beginning to watch for certain details which tend to disturb the so far simple evidence, a look at the roofless interior is to be recommended. Here also are intersecting arches, but they are enriched by medallions or paterae of foliage, and the foliage is of the Early Gothic stiffleaf variety.

The zigzag, lozenges, etc., however, remain what they are outside.

But, and this is the essential point, the chapel was vaulted, and the vaults are fully-understood Gothic.

Not only were they rib-vaults -there are after all plenty of Norman rib-vaults including some in Somerset parish churches, and including also the new building which was stylistically the most important for Glastonbury, the w end of Worcester Cathedral of c. 1175-80 -but they were consistently pointed as shown by the surviving pointed wall-arches or dosserets.

The transverse arches again have rich zigzag motifs set transversely.

Now to support these vaults the outside was given buttresses up to the height of their springing, and they are shafted in the angles with keeled shafts and have clearly crocket-capitals, that is the capitals of the French Gothic style of exactly that moment.

Thus Norman tradition and Gothic requisites of structure, and also Norman ornament and French Gothic ornament, stand side by side -kept so neatly separate that one is tempted to assume two masters, one who planned the Late Norman chapel, and a second who replaced him almost at once and rushed to apply the new Gothic methods and idiom as far as could still be done.

The gabled N and .s doorways would, in the opinion of most scholars, form part of this story; for they exhibit the same odd combination.

The general disposition is entirely in the Anglo-Norman and more specifically in West-Country traditions. Malmesbury of c. 1165 in particular ought to be compared.

There also figures are small and set in foliage trails and roundels, and no break by 9b capitals or abaci is made between jambs and arches.

The style of sculpture at Glastonbury on the other hand is not entirely Anglo-Norman.

The wedge-stones or voussoirs show details entirely Gothic, entirely French and hardly possible before c. 1230, that is the beginning of the w front at Wells.

What happened then? On the side the medallions were never completed. Only two are recognizable, the creation of Eve , and the Fall.

Could they not on the N side have been finished later than any of the other work? On the N side there are in the inner order of wedge-stones the Annmiciation, Visitation, Nativity, and the Magi with Herod.

In the next order the Magi (kneeling) can again be recognized, then the Magi asleep in their beds, and then the Massacre, with Herod on his throne and his soldiers in exact armour of the period. But there is also a woman milking a cow.

As antecedents for Glastonbury, Malmesbury and Worcester have been mentioned; and they seem indeed the immediate premisses, always subject of course to the possibility of others having been destroyed.

Malmesbury in the sixties has pointed arches in a Norman setting, Worcester in the seventies a combination of pointed and round, and in addition keeled shafts and zigzag at r. angles to the wall, just like Glastonbury, and moreover at Worcester the aisles are rib-vaulted, and the decorative motif of paterae occurs consistently.*

The Abbey C h u r c h was begun in the same year as St Mary’s Chapel, ie in 1184. How fast building proceeded, we do not know.

There is no early dedication recorded, and not enough remains to arrive at safe conclusions.

The plan of the whole church is laid out in the grass, easy to understand. St Mary’s Chapel is continued to the E in a galilee of the same width, a width slightly less than that of the nave of the church. The nave is accompanied by aisles and has nine bays.

On the s side was the cloister, on the N side a big porch of an internal depth equal to that of two bays of the nave. Crossing and transepts with E aisles and two E chapels to each transept.

Aisled choir of five bays and straight-ended aisled retrochoir of two bays, and then the aisleless Edgar Chapel of 87 ft length.

What survives, apart from the plan, is something of the outer walls of the c 14 retrochoir and the late c 12 chancel aisles, a large and tall fragment of the E crossing piers and adjoining transept walls, a three-bay stretch of outer wall of the s aisle, a substantial portion of the w front, and the outer walls of the galilee.

The late C 12 c h a n c e l has the same mixture of Norman and Gothic as St Mary’s Chapel, though the proportion between the two is now reversed.

There are still the old zigzags,

* For the Crypt underneath St Mary’s Chapel,

but the capitals are crocheted, and the arches are pointed with a purpose. The shafted windows also are pointed.

The aisle vaults rested on triple wall-shafts as at the w end of Worcester circa 1175-80, and the ribs had a similar profile too.

The retrochoir was added by Abbot Monington (1342-74), but he seems to have preserved the same composition at least for the aisles -see the wall shafts, though their bases give away the later date.

Abbot Monington also vaulted or re-vaulted at a higher level ? the chancel itself, and of the way in which he proceeded the blank panelling just E of the n e crossing pier is evidence .

There remain five tiers of small blank-arched singlelight panels.

So one has to assume an arrangement based on that of the Gloucester choir, whereby the new style was put as a veneer on the late C12 or early C13 walls, and the new higher and probably wider clerestory windows were made part of that grid.

As an early case of the Perp style in Somerset this choir must be remembered .

The Edgar Chapel was an oblong, built by Abbot Bere and enriched by an apse on the pattern of Henry 7,s Chapel at Westminster ? by Abbot Whiting immediately after.

The transept E side is most helpful in reconstructing the original appearance of the upper parts of the church of 1184,etc. The elevation consists of arcade, triforium, and wall

passage in front of the clerestory windows. The piers of the arcade consist of a large number of shafts grouped towards the transept cnave’ so as to carry with a central triple shaft

the transverse arch and the ribs of the high vaults, with further shafts for the moulded arcade arches, and with

one shaft between these two groups to carry a wall-arch taller than the arcade and lower than the high vault. This wall-arch frames arcade and triforium together -a peculiarity of some

earlier c 12 churches in England and Scotland of which Jedburgh and Oxford are the most familiar examples, whereas

Tewkesbury and Romsey are the examples nearest to Glastonbury. The arcade arches still have zigzag decoration. So have the arcade-cum-triforium arches. The small arches of

the grouped triforium -three to each bay -are trefoiled and not pointed. In the spandrels above lozenge-shaped paterae. The clerestory windows are shafted (shafts with three shaftrings) and flanked by smaller pointed arches with two orders

of shafts (also with shaft-rings). Square paterae above these

arches. The details of capitals, etc., here are clearly early c 13.

* Height of the chancel c. 90 ft.

lie further west than the cloister ranges, sw of St Mary’s Chapel. They are a fragment of the alm onry with part of a fine rib-vault and the complete abbot ’ s kitchen , one of the

best preserved medieval kitchens in Europe (for England cf. Durham and Chichester). The date of its erection is not known. The second half of the C14 seems most likely. The

kitchen is square in plan but with fireplaces fitting the four corners so as to result in an octagonal interior. Octagonal truncated pyramid roof with tall lantern, crowned by a

further truncated pyramid roof with a yet smaller lantern and a tiny octagonal pyramid top. The external square is heavily enforced by curved buttresses. The windows are Dec,

of two lights, and simple in design. The fireplaces are arched, and the arches slightly chamfered. In the kitchen the Abbey museum , with many architectural fragments, a large number

of tiles and a m onum ent of the early c 13 to an Abbot (William Vigor f 1223?). Above the head a cinque foiled gablette.

gatehouse. The Abbey Gatehouse faces Market Street.

There are two entrances, one for vehicles and one for pedestrians. Depressed two-centred arches, double-chamfered without capitals. Above the pedestrians’ entrance is a two-light

window, and this is repeated symmetrically further 1. Where the Porter’s House is attached to the Gatehouse. This is of two storeys and has a big canted central bay-window with

battlements. The front is of six lights, the canted sides of two each.

barn. Close to the se comer of the walled Abbey area. It

is of stone and has a length of three bays plus porch plus two bays. The arms of Abbot Bere date it as c. 1500 or a little later.

The porch arch is four-centred and double-chamfered and has no capitals to rest on. On the short sides one window each in

the gable which is in the shape of an arch head filled with three cusped spheric triangles. Interior with collar-beam roof.

St J o h n . A c 15 church. With few hardly noticeable exceptions built after the collapse in 1403 of the Norman crossing tower.

Its tall w tower with its lively crown announces the approaching town and has been alone in announcing it since the towers

of the abbey have disappeared. The tower is the second tallest of any Somerset parish church (134-2-ft high). It deserves

close study from near to. It has set-back buttresses with a first set of shafts carrying pinnacles above the ground-stage,

The nave continued this system, but from fragments found it is certain that, when the triforium stage was reached, the c 13 was over (ball-flower decoration in the triforium arches). All that remains in situ is the outer s aisle wall, and here the C13 design was kept for five bays. Then there is clearly a break in the treatment of the vaulting springers, and it is assumed that it marks the period ofAbbot de Sodbury, i.e. the second quarter of the c 14. The outer wall as preserved has windows, round-headed inside but pointed outside. The w wall of the nave has, to the 1. and r. of the w portal, trefoiled recesses of the same kind as in the transept triforium. The west portal is not high. It is covered by a depressed pointed arch of English

c 13 type. Above this towards the w is a tympanum, and doorway and tympanum are framed by a stately, finely moulded arch on four orders of shafts. The tympanum is decorated

by blank stepped arcading with foiled or cusped heads. The centre arch is trefoiled, those to the 1. and r. have two rising

foils or lobes each.

The west portal faces into the galilee . This has tall trefoiled blank arcading inside (shafts with shaft-rings), an elegant norman doorway with segmental head inside and two orders of shafts

outside, and upper windows re-made probably in the C15.

At about the same time a crypt was built beneath the galilee

and then also beneath St Mary’s Chapel. The details of the

latter are clearly Perp, but those of the former are equally

clearly of the C13. To realize this it is only necessary to examine rib profiles and wall-shaft profiles. The explanation

of re-used materials is not wholly convincing. The vault under

the galilee consists of oblong bays with a longitudinal ridgerib and a short transverse ridge-rib against the ends of which

run the diagonal ribs which rise from the four corners.

M onastic B uildings . The cloister was about 135 by

135 ft. On its e side was the oblong chapter house , on its

s side the refectory with an undercroft with a row of central

supports. O f the w side little remains, s of the w end of the

Refectory was the detached square m onk s * kitchen with

two curved projections at the sw and se angles and four

central supports. The E range was continued to the s beyond the s wall of the Refectory by the dormitory range, also with an undercroft with middle supports. The undercroft was subdivided into three rooms, s of the Dormitory are the visible remains of the drains of the RERE-DORTER or lavatories.

But the most considerable remains of the monastic quarters

and a second at the bell-stage. The w doorway is uncommonly

large, has tracery in the spandrels, big leaf sprays in one hollow

of jambs and arch, and a niche to the 1. and one to the r. There

follows a six-light w window again with two niches, and then

the display on the N and s sides starts also. Up the centres of

the s and N sides and up from the apex of the w window rise

triangular shafts ending in the intermediate pinnacles of the

crown. The next stage and the bell-stage are one composition,

both very tall. The lower stage of the two is covered with twin

two-light panelling with two transoms, and the vertical lines

o f this are then taken up at the bell-stage by two four-light

bell-openings with two transoms. On top of this stands the

crown. Battlements pierced by arcading in two tiers. Big

square angle pinnacles with crockets, accompanied by junior

pinnacles and in addition by one which stands free of the

corner corbelled out on a gargoyle. It is these projecting shafts

and pinnacles which tend to make the crown look exuberantly

top-heavy. The intermediate pinnacles on the middles of the

sides whose source has been traced down to lower stages are

also accompanied by junior pinnacles.

The s side of the church is all embattled, with pinnacles on the porch and the transept. The porch is two-storeyed with

niches and a lierne-vault. The lower storey dates from 1428,

the upper from shortly before 1498. The transept has a fourlight window to the s, a five-light window to the E. The s chapel, to distinguish it specially, has five-light windows on

s and E. Then follows the short chancel with its seven-light E

window. The tracery below the transom is curious and capricious. It has no exact parallel anywhere. The chancel has

some traces of the building preceding the present. They have

been uncovered both outside and inside. But the chancel arch

belongs in its date to the chapel arches and the aisle arcades, i.e. the C15. The nave appears tall with its clerestory -Tightsome’ is the word used by Leland for it. The arcade is of

seven bays and piers of standard section, with four hollows,

the four little round capitals of the shafts sparingly decorated

with rosettes. Between the clerestory windows on angel-busts stand shafts which carry the Somerset roof of c. 1495-1500, a specimen not particularly ornate. The arches into the chancel chapels are lower and four-centred. The arches into the

transepts with their plainer mouldings could be pre-1403.

T h e transepts certainly existed then; for not only does the existence of a Norman crossing tower make the exist­ door). -sculpture . Small Italian C15 marble relief of the

Nativity (s aisle). Bought in Sicily. -Small ivory Crucifixus, Italian?, Baroque, -pain t in g . On the altar of the s transept.

Christ Crucified, with the Virgin, St John, and Ecclesia and

Synagogue, German (?), late c 15. Early in the C20 the picture

was in the church of Pepinster near Liege, -stained glass .

Chancel N, a good collection of C15 glass, put together so as

to give the impression of a complete window. The kneeling

figures at the foot specially handsome. -Chancel s, rather

more a patchwork of original glass. -vestments . Pall of

Abbot Whiting, with Assumpton and floral sprays. It must: have been a fine piece of embroidery originally. -Gremial (Apron) of Abbot Whiting, with an extremely pretty spray of Tudor roses. -plate . Elizabethan Chalice by Ions of Exeter;

Salver by John Bignell 1725; Salver and Flagon by Gurney &' Co. 1744. -MONUMENTS. In the chancel N and s Richard Atwell f 1476 and Jane Atwell f 1485. He was a wealthy cloth merchant and no doubt helped to pay for the church. Two similar tomb-chests. The brass effigies are lost. Against both

tomb-chests small figures between the usual panels with shields. -John Camell, c. 1470 (s transept). Alabaster effigy.

Against the tomb-chest angels and camels. -Tomb-chest (n

transept), large and with open lid. Quatrefoils with shields on the sides. Saint Benedict . The church was rebuilt by Abbot Bere c. 1520. His initials are over the N porch and on a roof-corbel in the n

aisle, w tower with set-back buttresses, tall two-light bellopenings with transom and Somerset tracery, a shaft ending in

a pinnacle between them, battlements and big square pinnacles accompanied by pinnacles which continue long shafts standing on the buttresses. The interior has the tower arch panelled between thin shafts. Arcade of four bays with th

PRIDDY
possesses several fine ornaments, among them two ancient screens, one the rood screen still in position, and the other across the north aisle.

That across the south aisle is modern.
Here, too, is a curious stone pulpit and a very beautiful altar cloth of mediaeval needlework.
Priddy, as its little church would lead us to believe, is a very old place.

A chapel of Westbury, it was anciently a part of the estates of the Bishop of Wells, but in 1164 the rectory of Westbury, near Priddy, was added to the endowments of the Augustinian Priory of Bruton, by Bishop Robert.
T he Canons, in return, were obliged, among other payments, to
supply a wax taper to burn continually before the High Altar of the Cathedral Church of Wells.
In 1225 a curious murder was committed at Priddy. T he
account of the outrage runs: “ John Swete-bi-the-bone killed
Richard, the Shepherd, and fled. H e was o f the mainpast of
the Abbot of Bruere, in his sh'eepcote of Bridie (Priddy).
Therefore, he (the abbot) is in mercy, and he (John) is suspected, and no one else. Therefore, let him be exacted
and outlawed. He had no chattels.” This verdict was given at Ilchester Assizes, in 1225. To be of the mainpast of the abbot, was to have the abbot for surety; the abbot, therefore,
was held at the mercy o f the court.1
T he mention of Richard the shepherd brings us to the subject of sheep. A very peculiar and valuable breed once inhabited the Mendip Hills.

They bore a considerable resemblance to the Exmoor sheep and to the Dorsets.

Perhaps
they were an intermediate breed between the two. The horns were smaller and the countenance wilder, the sheep altogether
more diminutive and the wool finer, and the flesh more finely flavoured than the Dorsets. “ They were,” says Youatt, “ a hardy breed, and would thrive upon the poorest soil. They
covered the Mendips in immense numbers, and were alternately changed from the moors to the hills as the season
demanded. They bred, too, twice a year. When a considerable tract of the hills became enclosed the number of sheep
diminished, and the character little by little was changed.
T h e old wild Mendips were crossed with the heavier Devons and others, and the genuine Mendip sheep' became extinct.”
\See Rev. Preb. J. Coleman, “ Historical Notes on Priddy” (Som. Arch. Soc. Proc., LV , (ii), 13S et seq

MAESBURY CAMP  is crossed at right angles by the old Roman Road to the lead mines, and, perhaps, to Uphill on the coast. Turning along this road, to the left, on the hollow top of Mendip, in three
miles the traveller will come to Maesbury Camp, through which the Roman Way passes as a mere track, onward to Beacon Hill, where at the Inn, which sells as good cider as is to be had in the known world, the Roman Road is continued for half a mile as a modern highway, to be lost again at Long Cross, where the modern road swerves to the north for
Leigh-upon-Mendip and Frome. Maesbury Camp is chiefly celebrated for the great view it offers south and west of the county of Somerset.

It is an ancient fortress, how ancient who shall say, upon a hill top, with artificial defences following the natural line of the hill.
Its very name means hill-fort, and it must have been a very strong one.
Returning from Maesbury to Green Ore, one again follows the Wells Road for half a mile, and then turns westward, to the right, at Hill Grove, and, continuing past Hunter’s Lodge Inn, near which is one of the many Mendip caverns, one comes to Priddy. There is not, in all the Mendip country, a more desolate village than Priddy, yet it is the chief place upon these
heights.
T h e church, as indeed we might expect, is very plain, but
it contains a font of the eleventh century, though it is mainly,
as we see it, a building of the Perpendicular period. It
1 Prof. Boyd Dawkins assigns it to the Prehistoric Iron Ag e ; Mr.
St. George Gray to the Bronze Age “ and it may subsequently have been
occupied in the Prehistoric Iron Age. ” Only excavation can decide the
question.
“ We are at present only on the threshold of our knowledge as regards
the hundreds of camps, fortifications, and ancient enclosures with which
the whole of England is studded, and which as a rule occupy the most
elevated and commanding positions. . . . Wherever we find isolated
encampments of prehistoric date on the top of hills we may be pretty sure
that they were simply places of refuge for local tribes . . . to which they
resorted when attacked. Endeavours to differentiate the Stone A ge and
Bronze Age camps from Roman, post-Roman, and Norman camps in
Britain are for the future. . . . A s a rule the art of castramentation was
very much the same in all periods . . . the only real method o f throwing
light upon the subject is by means of the pick and shovel, provided these
potent instruments are wielded in the right manner.”— H. St. George Gray
in Som. Arch. Soc. Proc., 1903, pp. 27, 28.

"KEYNSHAM,

a hundred in county Somerset.

It contains the parishes of Brislington, Burnett, Chelwood, Compton-Dando, Farmborough, Keynsham, Marksbury, Nempnett Thrubwell, Pensford. Priston, Publow, Queen Charlton, Saltford, Stanton-Drew, Stanton-Prior, and Whitchurch,comprising 24,520 acres."

• was founded byWilliam, Earl of Gloucester, for the Augustinian Canons Regular around 1170 and survived until 1539. The remains have been designated as a Grade Ilisted buildingandScheduled Ancient Monument
• The abbey was founded following the dying wish of William's son Robert, although there had been a religious settlement in Keynsham during the 9th and 10th centuries.
• After thedissolutionin 1539, when the abbey and its possessions were surrendered toHenry VIII, the site was occupied by a house built by the Bridges family. In 1559 Thomas Bridges bequeathed stone from the late Abbey Church for the repair of the Bridge and causeway over the nearbyRiver Avon. The house built by the Bridges family was demolished in 1776.
• Thearmsof the abbey included six golden clarions or trumpets on a red ground, from the de Clares, Earls of Gloucester.[6]
• The site was excavated during the building of the Keynsham bypass in the 1960s. Amongst the finds was a fipple flute, a type of earlyrecorder.

Definition of medieval

The adjective medieval literally means “of the Middle Ages,” i.e., the period between antiquity (the Roman world) and the early modern era 

Common chronological range

Historians most often treat the Middle Ages as roughly the 5th century to the 15th century: from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (commonly dated 476) up to the Renaissance and early modern transitions around 1400–1500 

Standard subperiods and their usual dates

• Early Middle Ages: about 500–1000.
• High Middle Ages: about 1000–1300.
• Late Middle Ages: about 1300–1500.
  These are conventional labels; exact boundaries vary by region and by the historian’s focus 

What authors usually mean when they write “medieval”

• Broad cultural sense: the social, political, religious, and material world shaped by feudal institutions, Christendom, and post‑Roman societies in Europe between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance 
• In specialised works an author may narrow the term (for example, “medieval urban law” might mean 1100–1400), so check the author’s period definition in introductions or captions 

Origin and first use of the word

The English term derives from Latin medium aevum “middle age.” The modern English adjective (often spelled mediaeval earlier) was coined in the 19th century from that Latin phrase; recorded modern forms date from the early 1800s (commonly cited 1825 for the form medieval/mediaeval) 

Quick guidance for reading historical scripts

When you encounter “medieval” in a text, assume 5th–15th centuries unless the author states otherwise; for precise work always look for the author’s explicit chronological scope because usages and boundary years differ by topic and region 

Bronze Age time boundaries overview

The Bronze Age is a cultural-technical phase defined by the pervasive use of bronze (an alloy of copper with tin or arsenic), alongside associated changes in technology, trade, burial practice, and social organisation. Its absolute dates vary widely by region because metallurgy and associated cultural changes spread at different times. Below are commonly used regional ranges and practical guidance for tagging or labelling gazetteer entries.

Common regional date ranges

• Near East and Anatolia
  Early Bronze Age: c. 3300–2100 BCE; Middle Bronze Age: c. 2100–1600 BCE; Late Bronze Age: c. 1600–1200 BCE.
• Aegean (Greece and Cyclades)
  Early Bronze Age: c. 3000–2000 BCE; Middle Bronze Age: c. 2000–1600 BCE; Late Bronze Age: c. 1600–1100 BCE.
• Central and Western Europe
  Broad Bronze Age: c. 2300–800 BCE; subdivided (Early/Middle/Late) roughly as Early c. 2300–1500 BCE, Middle c. 1500–1200 BCE, Late c. 1200–800 BCE.
• British Isles (including Devon and Cornwall)
  Broad Bronze Age: c. 2500–800 BCE; Early Bronze Age often starts c. 2500–2000 BCE (after Late Neolithic/Beaker horizons), Late Bronze Age ends c. 800 BCE.
• South Asia (Indian subcontinent)
  Indus-related Bronze Age/Harappan: c. 3300–1300 BCE (mature Harappan c. 2600–1900 BCE); local Bronze-using traditions continue and overlap with early Iron use.
• East Asia
  Bronze Age in China: roughly c. 2000–771 BCE (Xia-Shang-Zhou sequences; Shang c. 1600–1046 BCE is strongly bronze-rich).
• The Americas and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa
  No true widespread Bronze Age phase comparable to Old World sequences; metallurgy often appears much later and in different forms.

Practical guidance for mapping and gazetteer work

• Use region-specific ranges rather than a single global boundary.
• For ambiguous or single-site reports, prefer relative labels: Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, or Bronze Age (broad)with a numeric range (e.g., Bronze Age c. 2500–800 BCE).
• Where chronology is uncertain, record both: cultural label(Bronze Age) and confidence/precision(e.g., high if radiocarbon dated; low if typological only).
• Include key local markers in metadata: metallurgy present; Beaker/urnfield/bronze-ritual features; radiocarbon dates range; typology links.
• Allow fields for overlapping phases (e.g., “Late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age transitional”) and for caveats like reuse or later disturbance.

Why ranges differ and how to communicate that

• Start and end dates depend on: first local alloy production; availability of tin or copper sources and trade; cultural adoption of bronze technologies; and the arrival of ironworking.
• Use wording that communicates variability: “Bronze Age (regional: c. 2500–800 BCE)”or “Bronze Age — British Isles convention: c. 2500–800 BCE”.
• When precision matters, attach dating evidence: radiocarbon ranges, stratigraphic context, or diagnostic artefact types.

Short recommended labels for database fields

• Period label: Bronze Age
• Region qualifier: e.g., British Isles
• Numeric range: e.g., c. 2500–800 BCE
• Subdivision: Early / Middle / Late (if known)
• Dating confidence: High / Medium / Low
• Dating evidence: Radiocarbon; typology; stratigraphy; historical reference

The suffix ‘ton’ constitutes a sort of test word,” says Mr. Isaac Taylor, “ by which we are able to discriminate the Anglo-Saxon settlements.”1 “A tun or ‘ton ’ was a place
surrounded by a hedge, or rudely fortified by a palisade”

The passage you quoted is part of the author’s argument that Plympton’s name is unmistakably Anglo‑Saxon, and that the key to recognising this lies in the suffix ‑ton. The PDF you have open confirms this discussion in its treatment of early Plympton history .

🏰 What ‑tonActually Signifies

The core point is that ‑ton(Old English tūn) originally meant:

• An enclosed place— literally a fenced or hedged area

• A defended homestead or settlement— often with a palisade

• A farmstead that could grow into a village or manor

So when you see a place‑name ending in ‑ton, you are almost always looking at:

• A Saxon foundation, or

• A Saxon renamingof an older site they took over.

This is why Isaac Taylor calls it a “test word”: it reliably marks Anglo‑Saxon occupation or administrative control.