The Antiquities of Ashbury

One of the things I love about print on demand is that antiquarian books that previously you could only access by visiting the British Library are now available to own at a modest price. So it is that I am now the proud owner of Henry Miller’s book: “Some Account of the Parish of Ashbury in Berkshire etc” written in 1877. Henry Miller was a vicar and fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. His book is short, a mere 17 pages, but it is fascinating on the history and folklore of the area and as a window into how the village was seen in the Victorian era. For example he bemoans the use of Sarsen stone and chalk in building because so many cottages are as a result dilapidated and “worthless rubble.” How times have changed!

Miller traces the history of the parish from 400 years before the Norman Conquest when it was first

mentioned as the boundary of the lands of Kinewulf, King of the West Saxons who ruled from AD 688 to 757. It was disputed land between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia for two centuries, the site of battles and encampments along the Ridgeway. He explores the legends and tales about Wayland’s Smithy, including the suggestion that it is the burial site of King Bagseek of the Danes, killed at the Battle of Ashdown. However Miller does not seem very interested in the rival theories over where the name of Wayland’s Smithy came from, or the old (even in his time) arguments about whether the name Ashdown is specific to this area or covered the whole area of the Downs.

He writes:

“To enliven a dull subject I may add that at a distance of about two miles below the hill… among a clump of trees, there is a large stone partly embedded in the ground…Weyland Smith hurled it from his forge at his familiar imp when he was attempting to run off. From the tears the imp is supposed to have shed, the spot is appropriately called “snivelling corner.” Snivelling Corner still features on the OS maps today and I have always wondered about the derivation of the name!

On the subject of Ashdown Park, Miller exercises some poetic licence as to which member of the Craven family bought it, when and why, and also gives some fanciful tales about the family. He does however fix the date for the building of the Victorian extensions to 1850, which was within thirty years of when he was writing. He also gives a tantalising glimpse into life in that country house: “In the modern billiard-room is a large picture representing one of the great coursing meetings held on the downs near the house.” This is the original picture by Stephen Pearce or which there is a copy at the top of the stairs. It was commissioned by a committee of coursers and presented to the Second Earl of Craven in 1862.

Ashdown House is getting ready for the 2013 Season!

Spring is around the corner, the snowdrops and daffodils are coming through and in less than 2 months, Ashdown House will be open again. We can't wait to show you around!

The 2013 National Trust Handbook does not feature any opening times for Ashdown so we're giving all the dates, times and other information here on the blog in order for people to plan their visits. I'll be repeating this throughout the season. We would like to encourage as many visitors as possible to come to Ashdown because as one of the little gems of the National Trust, this is a house well worth visiting!

Opening times for Ashdown remain unchanged from 2012. Ashdown House and the parterre gardens are open on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, 2pm - 5pm.

The first day of opening is Wednesday April 3rd and the season runs to Wednesday 30th October. The woodland is open all year round every day except for Fridays.

Our rather special guided tours take place at 2.15pm, 3.15pm and 4.15pm. We view the elegant entrance hall, the magnificent 17th century staircase and take in the view from the frankly splendid roof platform. Along the way we take a look at Ashdown's renowned 17th century portrait collection and give visitors some background on the fascinating characters who have been a part of Ashdown's 350 year old history, including the dashing cavalier William, 1st Earl of Craven, Elizabeth Stuart the Winter Queen, King Charles II and even Jane Austen. From the royal court to the servants' hall, Ashdown has a tale to tell!

Throughout the year there will be talks, walks and exhibitions in the Information Centre. Our talented lace makers, wood turners and re-enactors will be around to give people a flavour of 17th century life. For those who prefer to visit at their own pace there are self-guided walks around the gardens and also a children's tour. (Don't miss our gorgeous Balleroy ponies!)

Also not to be missed is the atmospheric Iron Age hillfort of Alfred's Castle, said to be the rallying point for Alfred the Great's army before the Battle of Ashdown against the Vikings in AD871.

The ancient track the Ridgeway is nearby, as is the magnificent hillfort at White Horse Hill and Wayland's Smithy Long Barrow. The picturesque village of Ashbury with its 15th century manor house and pub, The Rose and Crown, is just down the road and there is fabulous walking and cycling all around on Weathercock Hill and the Berkshire Downs.

I hope we have whetted your appetite for a visit!

For more information please see the Ashdown House National Trust page at:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ashdown-house/

You can follow us on Twitter as well on @AshdownHouseNT

There is also an information line on: 01494 755569.

For all bookings and any other enquiries please do contact the regional office on 01793 710252 or email asdownhouse@nationaltrust.org.uk or direct to this blog at ncornick@madasafish.com

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Unspoilt England

Ashdown House is in the press again, this time featuring in a list from Candida Lycett Green of the places she loves in England. In her list Candida comments that "Ashdown’s remote downland setting stirs the soul as much as the chalk-white perfection of its architecture." Her article in the Times Online explains in lyrical language the appeal of the unspoilt places that can still be found in this country and describes the romance that thousands of years of history lends to different sites.

Many of the people who work at Ashdown Park or visit the house and estate recognise and understand that it is a very special place. They feel the spirit of the place. From the Bronze Age barrows on the nearby ridge, to the Iron Age hillfort of Alfred's Castle, from the sarsen stones linked by legend to Merlin to the paths through the medieval deer park, from the weathercock on the hill to the little white "palace" at its foot, there is a timeline of thousands of years of history at Ashdown Park that is recorded in the barrows, buildings, holloways and stones that men have placed here down the centuries.

As Candida Lycett Green also comments, these days you sometimes have to dig deep to find unspoilt England. Around here it can sometimes be almost obliterated beneath the bags of litter that people leave on the Ridgeway after a rave at the full moon, no doubt expecting that the mysterious tidy fairies will spirit their rubbish away. Or it can be threatened by the crop circles that appear in the local fields when those pesky "aliens" create something extraordinary without thinking that maybe in the process they are destroying something equally valuable. At times like that it is good to be able to dig deep and connect with the spirit of the place, to stand on the hills above Ashdown Park in a keen breeze and to feel "the continuance of things."

The Herepath

The other day I came across the word "herepath" and didn't know what it meant so being a bit of a geek when it comes to words I looked it up on the internet. As a result I came across the website of the wonderful organisation The Friends of the Ridgeway. This is a great site for anyone interested in the Ridgeway, its natural history, geology, archaeology and history. They have some excellent articles on the legends and literature of the area and whilst I was browsing I came across an entire page on "The Herepath." This turns out to be an Anglo-Saxon term for Army Road and according to the article the greatest military activity near the Ridgeway in historic times was in the Anglo Saxon period because the Romans preferred to build their own army roads and did not use the Ridgeway. Indeed the road that runs from Wantage to Wanborough, along the northern line of the Downs but at a lower altitude than the Ridgeway was originally Roman in origin and called the Portway. This road, unlike the Ridgeway, was built along the spring line so that there was water available to travellers along the route. There was a Roman fort in the field to the south of Ashdown Park (which of course wasn't there at the time!) and a Roman villa was built into the Anglo Saxon site at Alfreds Castle and another only a mile to the west. These were rich lands for Roman agriculture, all part of the timeline stretching from the Bronze Age to the present at Ashdown.

Field of Dreams

To the south of Ashdown Park is a walk that takes you straight back into history. It begins, prosaically enough, in a layby near the water pumping station where you go through a gate into what I call the Field of Dreams. It's a bit like the Secret Garden; on one side you're standing by the road to Lambourn. On the other you're in Deep History.

On your right the remains of the medieval Park Pale of the Ashdown deer park sweep down the hillside, still imposing after hundreds of years. The park pale was erected in the Middle Ages when Ashdown was a hunting chase belonging to Glastonbury Abbey. It consists of a bank and ditch and in places it is still five feet wide and several feet high. Originally there would have been a paling fence on the top too high for a deer to leap.

As you cross the field, the remains of what look like a small camp come into view on your left. Some antiquarian books record this as a Roman fort although I have never been able to discover any details about it or find it on any maps. It's true that there were a number of Roman villas scattered across this part of the Downs, one of which was built into the centre of the Iron Age hillfort at Alfred's Castle. The current road along the Downs beneath the Ridgeway, the Portway, was a Roman Road to the major settlement at Wanborough. So it's possible there might have been a small fort nearby. As is the case with Alfred's Castle, you can see what look like banks and gateways, ditches, entrances and possibly the outline of internal walls.

A little further away across the field is an enormous barrow with a sarsen stone on the top and a ring of what I at first thought were sarsens around the base. On closer inspection they turned out to be tree stumps that looked almost petrified and I wondered if this had once been a site like Waylands Smithy that the Victorians had prettified by adding a ring of trees to complement the rugged beauty of the stones.

As you walk on across the wheat field you have a magnificent view of the park pale ascending the escarpment of Ashdown Upper Wood, a mysterious and ancient woodland with trees up to eight hundred years old and abundant wildlife. The path leads directly to a line of three Bronze Age barrows on the top of the hill. This was a Bronze Age tribal boundary and there are actually four barrows but one of them was sunken and now it is a pool in the winter. As you stand on the top of the hill looking at the sun on the gold dome of Ashdown House you can feel the years roll back. This is a place to come to dream.

King Arthur's Castle?

Although the history of Ashdown Park naturally focuses around the house that stands there today and the Craven family who built and lived in it, there are many other fascinating aspects of both history and legend in the local Ridgeway countryside.

The 200 years following the official withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain in 410AD are known as the Dark Ages, the least well documented in the recorded history of the British Isles. The inhabitants of Britain were Romanized to some extent, especially in urban centres but by blood and by tradition they were primarily Celtic. Under the Romans, local chieftains had played an active role in the government of the territory, and some of these leaders took up the reins after the Roman officials were gone. Vortigern, who declared himself Hugh King of Britain in 425AD hired Saxon mercenaries and granted them land in payment for their services. By 440AD the Saxons had rebelled and were demanding more land and territory. Tradition and legend have it that a succession of Romano-British leaders rallied the population against Saxon raids and that one, Arthur, succeeded in defeating them at Mons Badonicus, the Battle of Badon Hill.

Where was Badon Hill? There are no contemporary records about the battle and precious little legend other than that it lasted for three days and nights. The site has been located all over Britain but a strong contender is Baydon, four miles from Ashdown. For a start the clue is in the name. It is an uncommon name – there is no other place in England called Badon or Baydon. But was it called Badon as far back as the 5th century? A medieval reference to it in the Salisbury charters refers to it in the Latin form Beidona and states that the origin of the name derives from Old English “Beg-dun” meaning a down or hill once noted for the berries gathered there. Gildas, writing in the 6th century, also Latinized the name as Mons Badonicus and Bede followed him.

Then there is location. The Saxons controlled the Thames just as the Danes would do five hundred years later when Alfred the Great defeated them at the Battle of Ashdown. The hill-forts that had originated centuries before show archaeological evidence of occupancy in the fifth and sixth centuries, suggesting they were used to evade and hold off the invading Saxon tribes. If the Romano-British forces held the great Ridgeway forts of Uffington Castle and Liddington Hill, then Baydon, on a ridge of high ground between the two would be an ideal place to stand and fight. And the link with Ashdown Park? Just to the west of the park pale, within sight of the house, stands the Iron Age hillfort of Alfred’s Castle. It is equidistant between Uffington and Liddington and it guards the approach to the Ridgeway from the south, beneath the Baydon Ridge.

If Baydon was the site of Arthur’s Battle of Badon Hill, should Alfred’s Castle more properly be re-named Arthur’s Castle?