Boating with Sue and Brian 1

Best couple of days meandering along the Thames and walking over ancient lands with Cousin Sue and Brian.

They picked us up at Crowmarsh Gifford where we had left our car and escorted us back to their boat. After a little while of catching up, drinks and a yummy lunch we ventured off down the Thames.

We negotiated 2 locks with Brian, Sue and Geoff doing all the work.

Talk about relaxing. Just floating past beautiful scenery and interesting houses.

One house was particularly interesting.

 

Apparently it was built in 1895 by one Frederick William Mortimer who was an affluent tailor for the future Edward VII. Mortimer was a close friend of the future king, who stayed at the house on several occasions with various paramours including Lily Langtry.

We moored at Dorchester on Thames which was a bit of a challenge. But our intrepid seamen and woman managed to tie up despite the wind.

Dorchester-on-Thames is one of very few places in the country where there are juxtaposed and overlapping Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon towns, an Anglo-Saxon bishopric and a nearby early prehistoric ceremonial centre of national importance.

There is evidence of human settlement in Dorchester from Neolithic times - see the Iron Age hill fort which dominates the area.

To the south, Iron Age people occupied a hill fort on Castle Hill; later the Celtic people enclosed their settlement by building the Dyke Hills, a rare example of a pre-Roman town, about half a mile from the present village.

Dorchester today lies over the old Romano-British walled town, of which the southern and western boundaries can still be traced.

After Roman times the town became the centre of a Saxon settlement.

In 1140 Dorchester’s Augustinian monastery was founded and the Abbey was built on the old Saxon foundations. Our 14the century accommodation was directly opposite this abbey.

At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 1530s, the church building was saved for posterity through its purchase for £140 by local wealthy man Richard Beauforest who left it to the village in his will.

So with all this in mind we set off to walk up to the top of Wittenham Clumps.

Geoff enjoying the fields of buttercups and daisies.

On our way we passed an old church St Peter, Little Wittenham which had a Star of David engraved into the front. Haven't been able to find out the reason for this on a Christian church.

Then onto Wittenham Clumps which is the common name for a pair of wooded chalk hills clearly visible in the distance from where we were moored. Or locally it is also known as Mother Dunch's Buttocks (after a disliked local former Lady of the Manor named Dunch).

The ramparts of the iron fort were quite distinct.

Our tour guides Sue and Brian.

 

The higher of the two, Round Hill, is 120 m above sea-level. The 110 m Castle Hill is about 380 350 m south-east and was the site of the Iron Age hill fort. A third hill, not normally considered one of The Clumps, is Brightwell Barrow, further to the south-east.

The grassed slopes of The Clumps lead up to summits wooded by the oldest beech tree plantings in England, dating to the 1740s. Standing over 70 metres above their surroundings, the Clumps have a prominent appearance and panoramic views, with the north slopes overlooking villages and towns whose sites mark some of the first settlements of the English. The view from The Clumps was described by the artist Paul Nash, who first saw them in 1911, as "a beautiful legendary country haunted by old gods long forgotten".

Hard not to agree with him!

Part of the Dyke Hills which is an Iron Age defensive earthwork near the village.

 

Our 14th century inn that we stayed in overnight.

 

The Babey opposite our room.

 

After our walk we returned to the boat for a rest and then walked over to the town for some tea. What a lovely, lovely day. Sue and Brian are most enjoyable company!