9th April 2025

 I started with Bowles wallflower, something I always believed was cultivated by the Reverend Bowles of Bremhill (near Calne) and then went through the rabbit hole as names from that part of my life trickled through.  It started with the plaque the Reverend had written (he was a poet, but mocked unkindly by the great names of the time, including Byron) his short verse on Maud Heath's Causeway outside Chippenham, a pathway constructed high above the muddy path as you made your way to Chippenham Market.

Then the mention of Langley Burrell a village further down the road. Here my then husband had excavated a medieval kiln, I remember I found a medieval jug, almost intact and having to extract it very carefully from the soil.  Around the kiln was a cobbled surface and I used to dream of the traffic of horses and people.  At this stage I wasn't married to Dr. R. Wilcox - yes that was the name that popped up as I went through the Google tunnel.  

He wasn't very good at writing reports so I cannot find one on that excavation but I note that another quickfire excavation we did was at The Golddiggers Club in Chippenham (it must have been in the carpark), though the land is now being built over for elderly homes.  Here we had uncovered large post holes.  Hopefully it was to be a Saxon Hall, where King Alfred The Great had fled from Chippenham down into the marshes of Somerset to burn the cakes.

"Alfred blockaded the Viking ships in Devon, and with a relief fleet having been scattered by a storm, the Danes were forced to submit. The Danes withdrew to Mercia. In January 878, the Danes made a sudden attack on Chippenham, a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Christmas "and most of the people they killed, except the King Alfred, and he with a little band made his way by wood and swamp, and after Easter he made a fort at Athelney in the marshes of Somerset, and from that fort kept fighting against the foe".

Wessex illustration

I had excavated one of the holes on a hot Saturday afternoon and was disappointed only to find a piece of pottery at the bottom.  But of course large post holes could mean a Saxon Hall and I notice that another excavation has been undertaken to find further evidence, 30 large post holes must surely point to Saxon. And the story of Alfred the Great must be true because it can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle!

  After this at Easter, Alfred with a small band,

 raised a fortress at Athelney, and from it warred on the host,

with the men from that part of Somerset which was nearest to it.

Then in the seventh week after Easter,

He rode to Egbryht's stone on the east of Selwood

And there came to meet him all the men of Somerset

And the men of Wiltshire, and the men of that part of Hampshire

which was on this side of the sea; and they rejoiced on seeing him

And on the following day he went from that camp to Iley.

and one night after that to Ethandune

And there he fought against all the host and put it to flight,

and rode after it as far as the fortress [at Chippenham]

and laid siege to it for fourteeen nights

History does truly lie under our feet, it is layered like a cake, you scrape off horizontally and record vertically.  Most of our finds went to the Chippenham Museum and one of Ron's students Mike Stone became curator there, but moved eventually to a London museum to be head curator there.

We were a small group of friends with Ron as our mentor and most weekends we would take the old college bus and either do a small excavation or go on trips to Wales or 'Up North'. To visit castles or even one of my favourite places which is Llanthony Priory or Tretowers Court, all within a day's driving.  Sometimes I think because Britain is such a small country, the land absorbs the layers of history, it is like a book just turn the pages and something will always appear.