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But you have had the choice of urban living, the right to leave your employer, free trade: cheap (mass-produced) goods from abroad, the ability to look up facts, clean running water, your waste taken away, organised and quick communications, some money so you can buy things instead of needing to grow everything you need. All of those things disappeared. The underfloor heating is just symbolic of ancient modernity. Thanks for watching and commenting!

Yes and no. The main Roman road from Newbury to Cirencester you can drive with minimal deviation. It is the B4000. The other one no longer exists but is crossed by two or three public footpaths so you can go and see if you can see anything. They and the Roman road are marked on the Ordnance Survey map.

@@AllotmentFox oh ok. I'll have to research more. Thanks.

I was looking at the use of the word melancholy-an old-fashioned word-and it had declined from the 19th-C but has seen a big resurgence in the latter part of the 20th-C. Why not use the word depression? I suggest because some people can be melancholic without being unwell: a character trait as legitimate as optimism if we allow people to be what they are. It might be related to introspection in some way. Spotting the difference between ‘wall’ and Welsh “Wealh” is really hard but the authorities are clear of the Welsh link here. They are less so with Wallingford though between you and I I reckon it might be Welsh. I don’t want to be wrong with my videos (and there have been a couple of stinkers) so I am careful to make sure my assertions are more likely supported than not. Thanks for commenting!

@@AllotmentFox Yes I'm quite possibly misusing it compared with the original meaning of the word but melancholy to me suggests a state which is not too serious, adjacent to wistful perhaps. ...and I think we might have touched on this before in a previous discussion of where the Ridgeway might have crossed the Thames originally, but do I recall correctly Wallingford was likely too far north to be a reasonable candidate? I like the idea that in the early medieval period the English might have called things "Welsh" to suggest they were remembered as being pre-Roman. So as a piece of completely unsubstantiated conjecture, if the Ridgeway around there had been repurposed under Roman rule, they might have found a more pragmatic river crossing (Moulsford?) but a memory of the former pre-Roman route might have been fossilised in Wallingford.

@@tweedyoutdoors yes I agree with that assessment with melancholy, I’m just surprised anyone still uses it and it seems from the statistics everyone is. THE Ridgeway: I think if we are talking really old use then Goring is our man. But in the summer a short cut could be had at Wallingford. I don’t think the ancestors were any different from us so they wouldn’t have turned down a short cut if there was a good road. Consider the names Cholsey and Mackney, both having ey meaning island and the more in Moreton means marsh so it would’ve been tough walking going up to Wallingford. Moulsford has the element -ford so that is a good candidate, the Thames being a dangerous barrier. If there was a ford at Goring that would be our best answer (apart from digging). Plus the official ridgeway on the west bank meets the Icknield way on the east there so that is a compelling clue as long as whoever decided those marks on the map were competent. If you were a mesolithic hunter the whole landscape would have been wooded, the only means of navigation would have been to follow a river or keep to the ridges. So if we are interested in the concept of THE Ridgeway being meaningful at that distance in time then I think that is the answer: ridge, ford, ridge with the shortest gaps in-between. All in all, I would be sceptical of a built up, ditched road short-cut to Wallingford until the Iron Age and probably the Roman period. There is a Roman road going to Dorchester-on-Thames from (probably) the Ridgeway/Icknield Street through Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.

Yes, that makes sense but you would need to keep piling it on. Some of the blokes do a similar system but much more simplified. They simply pile up about half a cubic yard of fresh manuee in the corner of the greenhouse in the late winter and it works wonders heating up the greenhouse.

@@AllotmentFox Another idea I've seen that I think is pretty clever is geothermal heating. It doesn't actually get very hot, just enough to keep things from freezing. It takes a bit of set up, but once set up, no costs. Essentially they dig a deep hole, say 6 feet deep, and layer in perforated drain tile (a flexible pvc pipe), and then burying this under the dirt. You can then use a small computer fan to blow the cold air in your greenhouse, down through the pipe, and back up into the greenhouse. The idea is the earth will warm up the air underground to 55 degrees. It won't get hot, but enough to keep things from freezing. The benefit is it takes up no space (because it is almost all underground), and once set up there is almost no cost (just a small computer fan to circulate the air. The pipe is perforated so any moisture that occurs inside the pipe will drain into the soil underground.

@@sirfranklloydi like that kind of engineering solution. I shall look into that

Pretend to be left-wing but vote national front? What are we talking about?

The only male names still used that I can count are Oswald (not that popular after Mosley), Edward, Alfred and Godwin. There are quite a few women's though.

@@AllotmentFox cheers - I didn’t know the origin of Audrey and would never have guessed it was old English. My attempts to name a son Godwin were vetoed, but I got away with Edward.

@WC21UKProductionsLtd where does Darren come from? It’s not a Christian name, I don’t think, or is it?

@@AllotmentFox sadly it comes from the 1960s to my knowledge! A character in an American TV show called Bewitched, I believe! I have seen some attempts to give it a Medieval basis, but it’s just wishful thinking!

I have thought about it. The most I have ever written was 35,000 words so I could probably stretch to 70,000 with some effort.

It is only the river names (except for Spinis) that survive in West Berkshire and quite a few of them are Celtic (Grundy thinks some are pre-Celtic but how he would know that heaven knows). The early English were often hegemonic in imposing their culture, or it was just too sexy and everyone abandoned their own culture in favour of it. I think hegemony. But the river names were a blind spot for them. I suspose they just weren’t important enough to claim or they respected the watery gods. The gods of the land aren’t all that likely to kill you, the river gods, though …

Did you ever get to see any locally held documents about Wawcott? The place is intriguing. Avington also has Norman carvings inside apparently and I am gutted I couldn’t get in. I have been enjoying the Hungerford virtual museum. They should take over a room in tha5 underused white elephant of a town hall. I’ve never seen it open.

Thank you Brendan, your town is fascinating and keeps coming up in my explorations.

North of Watling Street and I get a bit dodgy but that -or on the end would have been pronounced like the poets used to say over, that is o’er as in, “o’er the leigh”. I love that. Thanks for subscribing and watching!

@AllotmentFox Very true. We pronounce it 'Eener. We don't bother with the H and use the er at the end. We are located around 10 miles North East of Little Chester Roman camp (just North of Derby center).

@@iainmc9859 how you managed to shoe-horn brexit into this discussion eludes me. But as you brought it up I thought I’d mention that I am looking forward to the nationalisation of rail and a national energy company under a Labour government which would have been impossible in Europe. Secondly Norway has right-to-roam and it isn’t a member of the EU meaning the concept has nothing to do with the EU. Did you mean a Digger rather than a Leveller?

@@AllotmentFox Many EU countries effectively have State run train companies, or so heavily state subsidised that it is de-facto nationalised. Luxembourg I believe has simply stopped collecting fares and considers effective infrastructure as having a positive countrywide economic effect; so the EU doesn't fall stall any sovereign country having a state owned transport network (Article 93 of Treaty membership). The Fourth Rail Package, in place since 2023, does however now requires some element of private tendering, this doesn't stop a State owned/subsidised company tendering for the contract, the economy of scale comes into effect here, often making the State company the cheapest tender. I did not say that non-EU countries, although Norway is EU aligned, cannot have Right-to-Roam. Scotland made it law whilst still in the EU and retains it post EU membership. I posited the opinion that leaving the EU was simply a ploy by 'those that have' to limit the freedom and opportunities of those that don't, without EU law and social policies getting in the way ... the previous Government were quite keen on leaving the EU Convention on Human Rights. Lets see if a Labour Government grants the 'Right to Roam' to people in England or merely, by inaction, protects the privileges of the few regarding land access. It is a well understood aspiration of the Levellers, although a disparate group politically and religiously, to reduce the privileges of the rich and raise up the position of 'the common man'; which is why the King had them imprisoned and Cromwell had them executed (its where the movement gets it's name). The Diggers were, shall we say, an offshoot more specifically aimed at land access for farming. Either term could apply to the points raised above, although I didn't specify agricultural usage, merely access.

@@iainmc9859 i beg to differ on a few points though I welcome some of the clarity you have provided- (1) you said we had reclaimed our ‘sovereignty’ (the inverted commas suggesting that that sovereignty was in doubt or a concept lacking vigour) from those interfering foreigners, I would say directly linking what you had to say about countryside access with brexit. I objected mentioning the non-EU right-to-roam of Norway and you said your position had nothing to do with the EU. I think it is clear you originally claimed in your post that it did. (2) you have clarified the pretty good rail services run in the EU (for which I am grateful) but even with excellent services at a low price for the punter it is very, very hard to run a wholly state-run rail enterprise. The lie that having a line that is private that runs, say, to Devon and a public line that runs to, say, Kent means there is market competition raises its head again: there is not, you need to go where you need to go. I do believe in market restraints on cost but it just doesn’t work with rail. So a modern version of British Rail is near impossible in the EU. Is it worth comprising on full nationalisation for the sake of European unity and common purpose? Maybe, but it runs in the face of the people of this country. (3) You suggest that brexit was entirely for and fought for for the benefit of the rich which is not the case. The rich are very concerned by Brexit and it has interfered with their investment choices. Brexit was a populist movement, whether it was right or wrong is a different matter. I won’t regret it because like the Levellers I believe in a popular mandate from the people: it was a fair fight and the centre-left lost. The only remorse I have is that I am pretty sure war is coming our way in a decade or two in Europe and closer union would increase our ability to win it. I am pleased Starmer is trying to rebuild links and hopefully something like Norway’s or Lichtenstein’s agreement with the EU will come out of it. (4) The Levellers were the armed wing of what would become classical liberalism. Free trade, regular elections, popular mandate, checks and balances within government, freedom of religion: Levelling is way more closer to the American system than, say, anarcho-syndicalism or communism, as revoltionary at the time as it was.

@@AllotmentFox 1 - Perhaps the inverted commas around 'sovereignty' didn't come through in type the way that it sounded in my head. The right claimed UK sovereignty had been undermined by the EU. Whereas EU law is a black ball system, if one country says 'no' then any EU proposal does not become law, ergo any EU laws before Brexit that applied anywhere in the EU was voted in favour of by all, including the UK. Post Brexit all of laws are of UK origin and in the hands of the rich and powerful in the UK, which is why in England I do not foresee the common folk being allowed full access and 'Get ooff my laand' still applies ... in England. I certainly implied that some EU countries have more liberal land access laws. I don't foresee that happening in England post Brexit. 2 - Slightly unsure of your meaning/opinion regarding nationalised rail. I totally agree that if you only have one rail company option when travelling to a certain place there is no competition. I'd generally agree that nationalisation is the way forwards. I'd go as far as to say that critical infrastructure should always be in the hands of the State, roads, water, power etc. The EU doesn't state that it must be run one way or the other and leaves each nation to decide its own methodology (Article 93), although there should be a tendering process (Fourth Rail Package) it doesn't exclude the state from running every line. Its up to each government to pick what's right for them. As we are no longer part of the EU that no longer applies to us. If the UK Govt wants to nationalise it can, if it wants to privatise or some sort of half way house it can; but effectively so can any EU state as well. 3 - Its only a fair fight if its an even playing field and the truth is being told, by all sides. I don't agree that the truth was being told regarding the UK's 'lack of sovereignty' as portrayed by the right. There was also a whole heap of 'blame Johnny Foreigner' and false patriotism, when the intention of those running the Leave campaign was to undermining the rights of the common people within the UK without more liberal EU interference. 'You can fool all of the people some of the time ....' comes to mind. Its a lost battle, but the UK will pay the financial cost for many years to come. We also do not have a black ball any longer but will need to conform to EU trade rules if we wish to trade with them. I'm less pessimistic about war in the EU and/or Nato than you are. The Russians have certainly had a bloody nose in Ukraine and I doubt they will be spoiling for a fight they can't win along their whole border. However I am in favour of raising taxes a little for further spending on conventional weapons in the UK. 4 - I'm well aware of what in general the Levellers stood for, Lilburne and Winstanley being personal heroes of mine (and I've spent enough time in Pike Blocks to earn my scars). It was also at the roots of Quakerism after the Civil War when the armed struggle ended. Essentially Emancipation and Democracy; unfortunately that was also a lost battle until the C19th. I've just finished reading Thomas More's 'Utopia', which I thought would be dry, but is more lighthearted that Gulliver's Travels, so I can recommend it, if you haven't read it already.

As a local I quite agree and access to Avington Church (which has to be sought from a higher authority) where many locals have family burried.

@@thebeatentrack156 Oh dear. Always assumed Churches were free to visit regardless

@@pwhitewick Ah, you may be right, just what I’ve heard on the local grapevine. Made redundant in 1977 and bought by Howard de Walden Estates around 1980.

I stood at that junction for 20 seconds before I attracted attention. I've looked at the map all the way from Hungerford to nearly Newbury and there is no access to the Kennet apart from a small bit next to Hungerford sewage farm. I remember walking along the river when I was a youngster, it definitely wasn't the canal, you could see the bottom.

Me lurking in the bushes with a telephoto did attract some attention! Access to the Kennet is terrible

@@AllotmentFox It is awful for access, we get the brown canal for our riverside walks, the Kennet is the domain for the rich and privileged, always been that way round here. I'm suprised the SAM sites didn't detect your drone 🤣

@@thebeatentrack156 its alright I waved to the snipers on the way in

@@AllotmentFox Joking aside 🤣 Barton Court seems to me to be the landing place on the Kennet from the Leverton charter, its situated at the end of the valley Hyddene, (Hidden as its named today). Great to see you out this way, are you coming back?

@@thebeatentrack156 oh, heavens!-I shall have to re-edit part two now …

Oh God, the pressure. Do you drive a red van?

@@AllotmentFox 🤣I thought it was only mean't for those north of the river 🤣

You just have to accept it is what it is. To them a broken down villa may well have been seen the same way we see a broken down factory, yesterday’s news. I don’t think that charter has officially been solved but Grundy should’ve known better, meadland is always next to a river so that the Kennet was referred to by its meadow. 1920s was when he published a lot of this, around the same time as OGS Crawford. Spelling was inconsistent right up to the 1800s I think.

Even if that channel isn't the sihtre it is still clear about north of the mead. I'm starting to think that the B4000 is called the Greenway in this charter

They’re not that old, 18th-Century I would think. There is a 10th-Century tower on the church which I failed to show you (and I think is important to this hamlet’s story) which I got very excited about when I stumbled into it. It has Anglo-Saxon arches over the windows, can you imagine stumbling over that without expecting it? The thrill of it!

A friend and I had a similar experience in Leicestershire at a church perched on the rather diminished (from quarrying) remains of a small hill fort. Breedon-on-the-Hill. The church had fragments of Anglican Saxon carvings in the wall, probably reused after a Norman renovation. There were Tudor effigy tombs inside as well. Actually I think I mentioned this before as well, but this was the second day of my very first visit to England and that put the hook right in. It was like my own private episode of Time Team.

Thanks for watching and the nice comment!

Thank you, Pete

They certainly do.

Yep, from a glance at googleyou seem to be right. Is the information there, just not digitised?

@@AllotmentFox Not really. Scotland's written history (what there was of it) suffered really badly during the Reformation. St Kentigern's Cathedral in Glasgow only really survived the iconoclasts as a gothic masterpiece because the local people (still ostensibly Protestant) barricaded themselves in it for several days and refused to open the doors until the mobs moved on. The same thing sort of happened in Ireland during the Civil War (1920s) when the Freestaters and IRA were slaughtering each other and the Forecourts in Dublin were set ablaze, destroying most of Ireland's records. Looking at the photo's of it now feels like the destruction of the Library at Alexandria ... 😐😢😭

@@iainmc9859 a lot of tge English data comes from people looking at old deeds and legal rolls and then compiling it. I can’t imagine Scotland not keeping property documents

@@AllotmentFox If we ignore the saintly hagiographies the older documents belonged to the high aristocracy but Scotland was a much less centralised society than England. The Kings not really having a great deal of control outwith the Central Belt and their own ancestral lands. The Normans were invited in to consolidate some sort of control over a disparate people (Norman motte and bailey in my village), Britons, Gaels, Angles, Norse and the remnants of North Eastern Scots (previously Pictish), with different languages (there's three different words for waterfall within a few miles of my home even today). The Scot's throne had been largely rotated between Mormaer (Earls) families north and south for hundreds of years to avoid a singular Royal Family becoming overmighty. Primogeniture not establishing itself until Norman feudalism suited the crown, and this was of course scribed by the Catholic Church ... which brings us back to Reformation destruction (I'm politely ignoring 'excursions' into Scotland by English armies, eg: Edward 1st, Cromwell et al and their tendency to remove portable antiquities). Post Reformation 'official' records are much more comprehensive, but that is still largely in the Protestant southern and central areas; much of the Catholic and Episcopalian records were hidden or destroyed. Famous example The MacDonalds of Glencoe were murdered because MacIain of Glencoe was desperately trying to find any paperwork that proved they had title to the land and then was late to produce any documentation and swear an oath to George 1st. Oral history was still sacrosanct in a more trlbal society. Sorry, long answer to say early records are to say the least sparse,

It is very curious indeed that some RRs are still used (Fosseway, Ermin St) yet others were so obliterated we can’t find them. We still don’t know how Ermin street goes through Newbury or exactly where Spinæ is: Speen manor or the massive Roman cemetary at Newbury station? There is a good mile-and-a-half between them.

It’s not really an antiquity unless it is before, say, 1790. By leaving it where it is I give other amateurs a chance to experience encounters in the landscape, let the landowner have his property and should a professional come along who can date it and it is older than that then it can be recorded on the Heritage Environment Record with the county archæologist. It meant something to me because my last video was about my own billhook and finding this rusty one really touched me.

It is at grid reference SU38779 70947 if you are local and is on the left hand side facing the tarmaced road.

@@AllotmentFox Sorry I am on the wrong side of the world. Curious what can be done just in case it is genuine and not reproduction. Hate to see it lost if real.

@@Mr_Squiggle i might seem heartless here but up until about 50 years ago everyone who owned a spade would probably have one of these too. They are the European version of the machete. If I had the slightest doubt I would report it to the county archæologist, but it probably isn’t much older than a hundred years. If it was something significant that was over 500 years old I would photograph it, pace it out from the road and email the archæo. If it was really significant (Bronze Age axe, for instance) I would’ve taken it away for safety and handed it in. I have reported things a few times, my best being: (1) a Bronze Age pressure-flaked flint arrowhead and (2) an undiscovered barrow. This is interesting and a joy to stumble into but doesn’t hit that 200 years-old or more definition of antiquity. I can show you sites which reveal sherds of Roman pottery every time the farmer ploughs, it is better to leave it there so others can look at it in wonder.

@@AllotmentFox Makes good sense.

No Saxons had underfloor heating, nor plumbing, nor pumped water, public baths, sanitation, a market economy that could sustain urban living (in the first two centuries), mass produced (cheap) pottery except some imports in the West, saws?, written records (until 7thC). We see the disappearance of such basics as nails. Try making things without nails and saws. Not impossible, just inconvenient. The underfloor heating is just a symbol of the shrinking of human culture at the end of the Roman period. The Welsh retained Christianity which is important, but that is about it

People from Hungerford or south of there, perhaps you are making your way to the ridgeway. When driving to Wickham from Bristol I took the M4 not the A4 even though it was longer, I daresay the same decisions were made then too. The lack of a slip road to Newbury made me think there was also a route from Hungerford to Newbury south of the Kennet. I was pleased they found the junction, I have peered at maps for far too long trying to solve that.

It doesnt make sense. There is a missing Roman road going south from Hungerford, there has to be

@@AllotmentFox NOW we are talking.

@@pwhitewick are you looking for it? Please do. I’ll have to go back to the charters but I dont think there are any stray stræts but there are interesting ‘weg’s. The Green Way attached to chute cause way I think from the south west, does it continue north east? The ridgeway at Buttermere, Walbury, etc off the top of my head has a Herepath status and there is another near Burbage. Oh, I’ve just noticed you could form a line joining those two up with the B3087. I shall go back and have a look at the forest perambulations as well, see what they say. I don’t have anything like Margary, by the way.

@@AllotmentFox Hungerford didn't exist even at the time of domesday. Eddington would be the place to look, fording place of the Kennet. The road that cuts through from the A4 to the A338 at Eddington is called Oxford Street, must have been the main road at some point. (Can't believe you're in my backyard again)

Thank you. How very kind

@@AllotmentFox your very welcome

I did a couple of videos on Wanborough: its name means barrow of the Wagon (“wain”) and I picked up some (I believe Iron Age) pottery. And we have Saxons buried in a Roman villa, how could I resist? I don’t recognise Nythe / Nidem …

Never! Joking aside, there are loads of Bacgas, Bæggas and Baggas in place names west of Oxford. I think they are all the same man or family.

@@AllotmentFox Plenty of places named after a Bagot in Brum as well. I think it may have Norman connections though.

I couldn’t find one for sale anywhere, even in antiques shops so I bought a German import instead. Now I find them everywhere

Thank you for eating them for me!

We don’t play baseball here but someone with a sportsbag with a cricket bat wearing whites would not get stopped. Wandering around with a 12-inch blade is a different matter. I think it might be an issue for sport shooters trying to hit elite levels. There are gun clubs here but you have to pass a police check to get a license. There are no circumstances whatsoever to possess a handgun which would definitely affect that athletics sport that involves pistols, I forget what it is called.

Thanks Karen. My point is a billhook can pretty much do all the cutting jobs in your garden when a sickle can't. It's a weight thing. But it might not do it very well. I'm interested in your bouncing off the ground thing with the sickle. I can sickle grass but it never looked very good.

That was what I was tentatively suggesting, but there is a problem: the Old English of wash is wasc which is pronounced the same. Wasan is used three times in the local charters but without a hint of an h. ‘Was’ is (as GB Grundy interprets it) ‘Ouse’ as in river Ouse and therefore is Celtic/Brythonic/Welsh for water. The northern Ouse is a grand river with an ancient name (and probably a god) and these two are piddling ditches. It is the piddling ditches thing that was causing me to squirm. Thanks for commenting and watch8ng!

You’re the only one to spot it. He would’ve seen the funny side! There are some interviews with Mortimer Wheeler online, judging by them I think they would’ve got on well

@@AllotmentFox I think they were men of a certain generation; that may not be a compliment but they certainly were eminently watchable as 'characters'. I'm ploughing through your vlogs in chronological order, first to last. I'll comment more when I'm up to date !

@@iainmc9859 There are 409 of them, are you a young man?

@@AllotmentFox Unfortunately not. I picked you up from 'Tweedy Outdoors'. I was born a Mercian but I now live in the land of the Maeatae, where the later Gael, Picts, Britons and Angles had a few border disputes.

@@iainmc9859 don’t take offence but ‘Ian’ is a cryptic crossword answer to the partial clue ‘scotsman’, whether that is true in your case I don’t know. I know your name has the crucial and emphatic extra i in it, those i’s I always pay attention to in placenames because they imply an early extra syllable starting with ya. The Picts are damned interesting being a northern British-speaking (probably) offshoot that left us marvellous art just lying around. If I was up north half my videos would be about them.

The problem is this is an historical document from the perspective of people who lived there and were 1,000 years closer to the Romans than us. Also-though he is spectacularly wrong on occasion, hopelessly so sometimes-Grundy is an authority on the subject. One thing to remark on from my observation is that the Wasan (today the Appleton Brook) goes within bowling distance of the A420. The charter says go along the Wasan and the up a ditch to the Roman road, but then up to the headland which is an awkward occurence if I want to say they are talking about the A420. A (perhaps wishful thinking solution) is to take your straight stretch from Swindon through to the southern boundary of Appleton to join the Roman road from Wantage to Oxford. To make the charter fit that is tempting because you could lob a cricket ball from the Appleton brook to the A420 but the wording would smack of shoehorning to fit the situation. Nonetheless the obvious ridgeway is ancient and would probably have co-existed even if the English settlements weren’t there because you walk above the springs and streams unimpeded. Thanks for watching and giving me your thoughts!

@@AllotmentFox I like this solution a lot. I was never one for hitting a cricket ball... lobbing was definitely also my thing, so that works too!.