Stan is an archaeologist who can often be seen walking the countryside, turning over a clod of earth to reveal buried evidence of past folk who lived and worked here long ago.
Blewbury takes its name from Blewburton Hill - Image © Bernard Mattimore
Place names are the guide to historical facts; clues to location, topography, function and land ownership.
We often take place names for granted forgetting that their origins can be traced far back in history; at first handed down by the spoken word. In southern England most place names were created by the well-ordered society of the Anglo-Saxons.

Shirley and Steve have added an extra dimension to this project with their joint article on interesting objects found in the ground.

Photo of a roman coin found near Blewburton Hill - Image © Bernard Mattimore

Tools, coins, weapons, jewellery… this article is about things found where they were lost or hidden by our ancestors sometimes thousands of years ago. They tell a fascinating story of their own.
The richest source of this material is metal detecting. This has become the hobby, indeed the passion, of dedicated individuals throughout the country. Alan George and Cyril Godwin are two such enthusiasts. Their carefully documented, local, collections cover a period exceeding 2000 years.
Shirley Kay and Steve Russell have added an extra dimension to this project with their joint article on these interesting objects.

Jane is a member of the Oxfordshire Geology Trust which is dedicated to protecting and promoting our rich earth heritage.

Blewbury Church - Image © Bernard Mattimore

Before man-made bricks and tiles became available our churches were built from local materials; timber, lime, mud and flint. Stone was imported mainly from quarries in Oxfordshire.
After reading this article it will be impossible to walk past any of our village churches without scrutinising the stone walls both outside and in. Each stone harbours so much information: how it was formed millions of years ago, where it came from and how it was quarried and transported. Also how it reacts to or resists weathering.

Audrey is the chair of the Local History Group and works with a dedicated team unearthing and recording the history of Blewbury.
One of the older cottages in Blewbury Image © Bernard Mattimore
From Domesday to the coming of the internet and broadband Blewbury is seen as a microcosm in a wider world.
Look down from the lynchets on Blewburton Hill and you can see Blewbury village partly hidden by trees. Today it is a hub of activity, but this has not always been so. Its history has been mainly agricultural and peaceful but not without interest. This small, quiet village has always kept pace with changes over time and responded to the many influences surrounding it especially since the Second World War.

Canon Edwin Clements lives in the rectory at Blewbury, but recently his duties were extended when he was appointed priest-in-charge of the new United Benefice of Aston Tirrold, Aston Upthorpe, Blewbury, Hagbourne, North Moreton, South Moreton and Upton. In spite of his busy life he was keen to include St. Birinus in the Blewburton Hill project.

St Birinus window in All Saints Church, Aston Upthorpe. Image © Bernard Mattimore
King Cynegils of Wessex permitted St.Birinus to give his first christian sermon on the pagan burial ground of Churn Knob perched high above the Thames Valley overlooking Blewburton Hill.
Myth, legend and fact all merge in the story of St Birinus, but no misgivings are evident in the minds of the Christians who year after year go on his pilgrimage from Churn Knob, through Blewbury, to Dorchester-on-Thames. His arrival marked the advent of Christianity in this part of England, an event of lasting significance. He is also commemorated in the stained glass windows of St Michael’s church in Blewbury, All Saints in Aston Upthorpe and Dorchester Abbey. His name is even kept alive in Didcot by lending it to the boys’ secondary school.

Judy Barradell-Smith lives in Aston Tirrold and is chairman of the Aston Local History group.

This battle, so precisely dated, is surrounded by conjecture, by tales handed down the generations and by Saxon records.
Where was the battle of Ashdown?
Its exact location remains a mystery but Aston Upthorpe and Blewburton Hill play a prominent role in its story. It is not always realised that the Vikings invaded and fought over this part of England. The heroes of this battle were the Saxon King Ethelred and his brother Alfred the Great. It was a bloody battle resulting in great loss of life; difficult to imagine now looking up at our green and tranquil downland. What happened to the bodies of the slain? This fascinating account grips the imagination.

“Not so much Dark Ages as different ages.”

They were times of opportunity for new ideas and regrouping of power structures.

Five hundred years of relatively obscure history is here brought to life and illuminated. The “tools” of discovery, unearthed by archaeologists, help to link the centuries and point to gradual economic, political and religious development. These were not always happy times. Land disputes, battles for power and the Viking invasion all caused big upheavals. Blewbury was sufficiently important to be seen at the centre of unrest but escaped unscathed. The author skillfully and concisely takes us up to the tenth century when the village had by then become a settled agricultural community.

Alfred the Great

Dave with fellow Archaeologist Jane Harrison

From farming to tribal politics, protected settlements, ritual burials, the Roman period and on into the Dark Ages. 1300 years of our distant past is put into perspective.

Following the trends of the Bronze Age the population increased and farming became more intensive in the Iron Age. Tribal interaction and competition also increased, fierce warlords emerged to dominate events. This article describes in detail the probable lifestyle on and around Blewburton Hill as the people found themselves in a transition zone between rival tribes. The politics of the late Iron Age followed by the rise and fall of the Roman occupation over several centuries is made clear as is the descent into the Dark Ages as the Roman influence declined.

An Iron Age roundhouse reconstructed at Butser Ancient Farm

Paul is Oxfordshire’s County Archaeologist. He lives within the shadow of Blewburton Hill. He has provided an authorative summary of current archaeological thinking in South Oxfordshire today. His article contains up-to-date and in some cases as-yet unpublished material about the area. The three parts outlined provide superb backgrounds, at a rather deeper level, to the period themes written by Stan Hughes, Dave Carless and Jane Harrison.

Beneath Didcot Power station lie a neolithic settlement and a Saxon cemetry

Blewburton Hill was in a strategic position to influence management of the land surrounding it. It was well placed to be a centre for socio-religous activity.
In recent times an observer on Blewburton Hill may have viewed with dismay the building of Didcot Power Station, Tesco, glimpses of developments at Harwell including the Diamond Synchrotron and the Transco gas pipeline etc.

Regrettable though these invasions into the countryside may be they have allowed archaeologists to uncover layers of history and knowledge of the peoples who once lived here. For example, there was a settlement on the Tesco site at least 4000 years ago.

• Part 1: Neolithic to Bronze Age: “By the late Bronze Age, certainly by the 8th century BC, there were hilltop settlements enclosed by palisade-fences, including that on Blewburton Hill”.
• Part 2: Iron Age: After a lull in activity, on Blewburton Hill, came “the construction of the first major defences - the massive and technologically advanced six metre high box rampartss urrounded by a three metre deep ditch”, probably between 500 and 300 BC.
• Part 3: Roman and Saxon periods: “The defences of Blewburton would have rapidly become obsolete once the Roman invasion took place”. The increased number of farm settlements indicated that agrarian activities expanded and flourished. The Saxons followed the Romans; their cemeteries and grave goods provide information on this period, 5th to 6th century AD, in particular the burial on Blewburton Hill.

St Birinus’ Mound
A Bronze age burial mound with Didcot Power station in the background.