The ancient Selwood Forest ran approximately between Gillingham in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

and

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

. It is described by the historian Barbara Yorke as a "formidable natural obstacle" in the Anglo-Saxon period, which was a significant boundary between east and west

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

. It may earlier have been a negotiated frontier between Wessex and the British kingdom of

Dumnonia Dumnonia is the Latinised name for a Brythonic kingdom that existed in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries CE in the more westerly parts of present-day South West England. It was centred in the area of modern Devon, ...

which was important in the later development of the West Saxon shires, and later boundaries between Wiltshire and Somerset and north Dorset run through the forest. The boundaries through the forest and Bokerley Dyke which separated Somerset and Dorset from eastern counties may date to the fifth or sixth centuries. Selwood's importance as a boundary was also recognised in 705 when the bishopric of Sherborne was established for those "west of Selwood". In 855 King Æthelwulf appointed his son Æthelbald to act as king while he went on pilgrimage to Rome, and when he returned the next year Æthelbald refused to give up the throne. Asser, who strongly disapproved of Æthelbald's conduct, stated that the plot was hatched by Æthelbald and his co-conspirators, the bishop of Sherborne and the ealdorman of Somerset, "in the western part of Selwood". Their motives are not known, but one factor may have been resentment of western nobles at the favour Æthelwulf had shown to Winchester and its bishop in eastern Wessex.

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...

rallied his forces against the Viking

Great Heathen Army The Great Heathen Army, also known as the Viking Great Army,Hadley. "The Winter Camp of the Viking Great Army, AD 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire", ''Antiquaries Journal''. 96, pp. 23–67 was a coalition of Scandinavian warriors who invaded ...

in Selwood 878. According to

Asser Asser (; ; died 909) was a Welsh people, Welsh monk from St David's, Kingdom of Dyfed, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne (ancient), Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join ...

's ''Life of King Alfred'': :In the seventh week after Easter -10 May he rode to the Egbert's Stone, which is in the eastern part of Selwood Forest (''Sylva Magna'' great wood'in Latin and ''Coit Mawr'' in Welsh); and there all the inhabitants of Somerset and Wiltshire, and all the inhabitants of Hampshire those who had not sailed overseas for fear of the Vikings – joined up with him. The ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

'' refers to Selwood in describing the gathering of English forces to oppose a Viking attack in 893: :Then Ealdorman Æthelred and Ealdorman Æthelhelm and Ealdorman Æthelnoth, and the king's

thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...

s who were then at home at the fortifications assembled from every

burh A burh () or burg was an Anglo-Saxon fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constru ...

east of the Parret, and both east and west of Selwood, and also north of the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

and west of the Severn, and also some part of the Welsh people. Wessex was divided between two ealdormanries in the tenth century and Selwood marked the boundary between them, but it lost its importance when Godwin was appointed earl of all Wessex around 1020. Today only a few surviving areas of ancient woodland, none of great size, are considered to survive from the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Selwood. One such area is Picket Wood at Yarnbrook.Ralph Bernard Pugh, ed., ''The Victoria History of Wiltshire'', vol. VII (University of London: Institute of Historical Research, 1953), p. 219

References

{{reflist Forests and woodlands of Somerset Forests and woodlands of Wiltshire Forests and woodlands of Dorset English royal forests

See also

References