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Inkpen
Inkpen is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, southeast of Hungerford, most of the land of which is cultivated fields with scattered woodland once part of a former forest of Savernake. Inkpen has boundaries with Wiltshire and Hampshire, including parts of Walbury Hill, the highest point in South East England, and Inkpen Hill. History The earliest record of Inkpen is in the Cotton Charter viii, dated between AD 931 and 939. This includes the will of a Saxon thegn named Wulfgar, whose name means "wolf-spear". Wulfgar owned ''"land at inche penne"'' which he ''"had from Wulfric, who had it from Wulfhere who first owned it"'', his father and grandfather respectively. Wulfgar left this to be divided amongst named heirs: three quarters to his wife, Aeffe, the other quarter to ''"the servants of God"'' at the holy place in Kintbury. Following Aeffe's death, her share was also to go to the holy place at Kintbury ''"for the souls of Wulfgar, Wulfric and Wulfhere"''.Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inkpen Hill
Inkpen Hill is a summit in Berkshire, England, with a maximum elevation of . The hill is about southwest of Newbury on the Hampshire/Berkshire border and is part of the north-facing scarp of the North Hampshire Downs, a chalk ridge within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It lies between Walbury Hill, the county top of Berkshire, to the east and Ham Hill to the west. Parts of the hill lie within the Inkpen and Walbury Hills SSSI. Inkpen Hill is accessible on foot from a car park on a minor road just to the west of Walbury Hill, by a byway that passes by Combe Gibbet before reaching the summit of Inkpen Hill. The Test Way long distance footpath passes along this byway, on its way from Walbury Hill to Eling in Hampshire. A triangulation pillar stands near to, although curiously not at, the summit of the hill, whilst a dew pond, known as Wigmoreash Pond, lies between the summit and Combe Gibbet. The hill lies within the civil parishes of Inkpen (w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walbury Hill
Walbury Hill is a summit of the North Wessex Downs in Berkshire, England. With an elevation of , it is the highest natural point in South East England. On the hill's summit is the Iron Age hill fort of Walbury Camp, whilst the flanks of the hill lie within the Inkpen and Walbury Hills SSSI. The hill is one of three nationally important chalk wild grasslands in the North Wessex Downs, the others being in the Rushmore and Conholt Downs SSSI and the Hog's Hole SSSI. The summit of the hill is marked by a triangulation pillar, but lies on private land with no public access, although public access is available to the north of the summit via a byway. Walbury Hill lies on the north-facing ridgeline of the North Hampshire Downs section of the North Wessex Downs, flanked to the west by Inkpen Hill and to the east by Combe Hill and Pilot Hill. Combe Gibbet stands to the west on Gallows Down between Walbury and Inkpen Hills. The town of Hungerford is around northwest. The hill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Berkshire
West Berkshire is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. It is administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural District, Hungerford Rural District and Newbury Rural District, along with part of Wantage Rural District. Until 1 April 1998, Newbury District Council and Berkshire County council were responsible for the region at local government level. On 1 April 1998, Berkshire County Council was abolished and Newbury District Council changed its name to West Berkshire Council and took on the former County Council's responsibilities within its area. Geography West Berkshire is semi-rural in character, with most of the population living in the wooded Kennet valley. Apart from Newbury, the other main centres in the district include Thatcham, Hungerford, Pangbourne and Lambourn. Larger villages include Burghfield, Mortimer a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately . Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Marquess of Ailesbury and his son the Earl of Cardigan, and is administered by trustees. Since 1939 the timber of the forest has been managed by Forestry England on a 999-year lease. The private status of Savernake Forest is maintained by shutting the forest to the public one day per year. Geography Savernake's landform is rolling downland, dissected by both dry and wet valleys. The valleys within the forest, of which there are four, are all dry, and the presence of Cretaceous deposits of Clay-with-Flints creates the damp, heavy soils suited to dense cover of oak and beech. There are patches of poor drainage and wet soil. History The first mention of a woodland ''"Safernoc"'' was made in AD 934 in the written records of King Æthelstan, but th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practice subsistence agriculture and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church.-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... ''village'', from Latin ''villāticus'', ultimately from Latin ''villa'' (English ''vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prehistoric Britain
Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Great Britain for almost a million years. The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints probably made by ''Homo antecessor''. The oldest human fossils, around 500,000 years old, are of ''Homo heidelbergensis'' at Boxgrove in Sussex. Until this time Britain had been permanently connected to the Continent by a chalk ridge between South East England and northern France called the Weald-Artois Anticline, but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through the ridge, and Britain became an island when sea levels rose during the following Hoxnian interglacial. Fossils of very early Neanderthals dating to around 400,000 years ago have been found at Swanscombe in Kent, and of classic Neanderthals about 225,000 years old at Pontnewydd in Wales. Britain was unoccupied by humans between 180,000 and 60,00 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gibbet
Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet () was also used as a method of public execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called "hanging in chains". Display Gibbeting was a common law punishment, which a judge could impose in addition to execution. As a sentence for murder, this practice was codified in England by the Murder Act 1751. It was most often used for traitors, robbers, murderers, highwaymen, and pirates and was intended to discourage others from committing similar offenses. The structures were therefore often placed next to public highways (frequently at crossroads) and waterways. Exhibiting a body could backfire against a monarch, especially if the monarch was unpopular. The rebels H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beaker People
The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the beginning of the European Bronze Age, arising from around 2800 BC. The term's English translation ''Bell Beaker'' was introduced by John Abercromby in 1904.''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology'' Bell Beaker culture lasted in Britain from BC, with the appearance of single burial graves,Armit, Ian, and David Reich, (2022)"What do we know about the Beaker Folk" in: Antiquity Journal, Youtube, min: 1:11: "So, the Beaker Complex in terms of Great Britain and Ireland is from ... around 2450 BC, when we see in Britain the appearance of single inhumation graves ...." until as late as 1800 BC, but in continental Europe only until 2300 BC, when it was succeeded by the Únětice culture. The culture was widely dispersed throughout Western Europe, being present in many regions of Iberia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Berkshire Museum
The West Berkshire Museum, in Newbury, Berkshire, holds various artworks and collections related to Newbury and West Berkshire. Established in 1904, the museum is housed in two of Newbury's most historic buildings. The Cloth Hall was built in 1627 by Richard Emmes, a master carpenter of Speenhamland for the Newbury Corporation as a cloth factory. Originally part of a larger range of buildings with a courtyard in the centre, the building was subsequently used as a workhouse, hospital and school before being used for storing corn from 1829 until its conversion to a museum. The museum itself has exhibition galleries, café and a local history library, along with a Conference room which can be hired. A permanent exhibition tells the story of West Berkshire. From the geology to the stories of people who have lived in West Berkshire; early ancestors, to well known characters like Jack O'Newbury: the people who have created the towns and villages, roads and canals, fields and farms, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Barrow
Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material represent the oldest widespread tradition of stone construction in the world. Around 40,000 long barrows survive today. The structures have a long earthen tumulus, or "barrow", that is flanked on two sides with linear ditches. These typically stretch for between 20 and 70 metres in length, although some exceptional examples are either longer or shorter than this. Some examples have a timber or stone chamber in one end of the tumulus. These monuments often contained human remains interred within their chambers, and as a result, are often interpreted as tombs, although there are some examples where this appears not to be the case. The choice of timber or stone may have arisen from the availability of local materials rather than cultural difference ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
