The River Thames

It's interesting how a river can have a personality, and how that personality can survive through millennia and countless waves of incoming people.
The Thames is Britain’s most important river. Today it is a reflection of Britain’s commercial might as it flows through the heart of London, and for millennia it has been central to trade, defence, invasion, sustenance and ritual.

‘Thames’ is perhaps Britain’s oldest place name. It derives from Tamesis, the name recorded by the Romans, which has a pre-Celtic origin and means ‘dark’. This is in common with other river names including the Thame, a tributary of the Thames, and the Tamar in Cornwall. Its flow is typically muddy and it is tidal for a large stretch of its course. 'Dark' may also reflect its spirit, which even now is said to demand human lives each year, to suck swimmers inexplicably beneath its surface, and to whisper to people on its banks and entice them to jump. 

The confluence of the Thames and the Windrush in Oxfordshire

The river's importance far predates the Romans who founded Londinium. The Thames has one of the highest densities of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments of any British river. These include the great henge monuments of Stanton Harcourt near Oxford, the Dorchester Rings, and the henges under the city of Oxford and at Abingdon. Many of these were situated at confluence points, which were perhaps used strategically for their landmark value or symbolically as a meeting point of waters and people.

The Devil's Quoits at Stanton Harcourt

The source of the Thames is disputed but often said to be at Seven Springs in Gloucestershire. The river Kennet which flows through Wiltshire is one of its earliest tributaries, and is suggested by some to be the original ‘source’ river. The Kennet is sourced at the springs which surround the world-famous monuments of Avebury and Silbury Hill. Perhaps some of these monuments’ prestige came from their location at Britain’s watery heart.

The ritual importance predates even the Neolithic period. Large numbers of human skulls and other bones, along with stone axes and tools, were deposited in the waters of the Thames during the Mesolithic period, long before the first farmers arrived. There is increasing evidence that many of Britain’s sacred sites had a sanctity thousands of years older than previously realised.

                 The River Kennet

Many rivers have a female identity. The Thames is one of the few that is considered male. ‘Old Father Thames’, a bearded old man, has long been the personification of the river. It is often linked to the Egyptian Goddess Isis. The Thames at Oxford is called ‘Isis’. This is suggested to be a cult brought by the Romans, or an esoteric mystery cult of much greater antiquity, but in fact this is a much more recent name, probably coined by Oxford students in the Medieval period, and is a truncation of the Latin ‘Tamesis’.

Unusually, there is little more folklore associated with this mysterious and long-revered river.

            Old Father Thames

Tintagel Castle

Tintagel Castle is precarious on a near sheer promontory, almost now an island, on the wave- and wind-battered north Cornish coast. More is known about Tintagel’s legends than its history; it is famous as the birthplace of King Arthur.

According to legend, Tintagel was the castle of Gorlois, a Cornish Duke. Gorlois’s wife, Igraine or Ygerna, was much desired by the powerful and ruthless Uther Pendragon. During a battle between Uther and Gorlois’s armies, the wizard Merlin disguised Uther in Gorlois’s form. Uther rode to Tintagel, seduced the unsuspecting Igraine, and nine months later she gave birth to Arthur, Britain’s greatest hero.

Other supporting legends grew up around Tintagel. Merlin’s Cave is a 100m-long sea cave which runs all the way under Tintagel. This was where, as described in Tennyson’s 19^th century poem Idylls of the King, Merlin found the baby Arthur washed up at his feet and raised him until he became king. The cave is accessible at low tide and is an eerie place with the booming surge of the sea echoing along its length. Folklore states if you take a stone from the cave you will have good luck. But woe betide if you take two!

                                   Merlin's Cave

The Arthur connection has traditionally been dismissed as fairytale by historians. The ruined castle visible today is a 13^th century fort built by the Earl of Cornwall, 700 years after Arthur’s time. But excavations in recent years have found evidence of a settlement dating to the late Roman period and a century or two afterwards, precisely the time Arthur supposedly lived. Archaeological finds suggest a high status settlement, perhaps home to a powerful warlord or a ruler of the kingdom of Dumnonia. Red slip pottery was imported from Africa and wine amphorae from the Mediterranean, present here in higher quantities than any other site in Dark Age Britain. It has been suggested Tintagel was a trading post, although the sheer cliffs and treacherous coastline appear an unlikely haven for trading ships.

The site is easily defensible, guarded by the cliffs, the sea and the narrow stretch of land which has to be crossed to reach it. Tintagel derives from the Cornish Din, meaning fortress, and tage, meaning choke, probably referring to the narrow access. It would make a good site for a powerful ruler.

            Archaeological work in 2017

The Arthur legend was written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12^th century, in The History of the Kings of Britain. Geoffrey claimed his work to be an accurate historical account, but it is generally now discredited as a blend of fact, myth and personal supposition.

But Geoffrey must have been inspired somehow. He claimed his work was factual so must have acquired supporting evidence, no matter how tenuous or fantastical, to back up his ideas. A legend likely survived of the great fortress at Tintagel, only a few hundred years before Geoffrey’s time, perhaps even of a great hero who was born here, and Geoffrey took that information and worked it into his story. Some of Geoffrey’s more outlandish ideas have been recently shown accurate. Perhaps his story about Tintagel will one day prove the same.

Devil’s Quoits Stone Circle

The Devil’s Quoits, a stone circle near Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, was one of the bigger stone circles in Britain. Little of its original structure survived Medieval destruction and the construction of a Second World War airfield, and what is seen today is a near-entire reconstruction.

The 80-metre wide, slightly flattened circle today comprises 28 stones, originally 36, with an outlier outside the circle to the south-southeast. Folklore states that the devil was playing quoits one Sunday on nearby Wytham Hill, the only prominent landmark in the area, and these stones are the result. They are local stone with a lot of gravel inclusions, of irregular shape, up to 2m in height. Most of those present today are replacements.

The stones are set inside a henge ditch with an outer bank, which probably predate the stone circle. The ditch was originally 7m wide and 2.5m deep, with two entrances to the west and east. As was standard practice, antler picks, presumably those used to dig the ditch, were laid in the bottom after work was finished. The ditch was dug around 2900BC or slightly later, with deposits of cattle bones and pottery continuing for the next thousand years.

The circle with the outlier. The bank is in the background.

The Devil’s Quoits is located on the entirely flat floodplain of the river Thames, which today is three kilometres to the south but in Neolithic times was probably a multitude of braided streams winding through a marshy landscape, flooded in winter and reasonably dry with a few flowing channels in summer. The confluence with the river Windrush is nearby.

Several great ritual complexes were sited along the Thames during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, almost all of them on confluence points. The Thames and its tributaries were of vital importance for travel and navigation when the land was still largely impenetrable forest with few roads or paths, and the river was also used for rituals, offerings and burial.

The confluence of the Thames and the Windrush.

The local landscape bears no resemblance to former times. Gravel extraction pits have left huge lakes, and mounds and banks have destroyed any natural features. In the original landscape, the huge site would have been a landmark for miles around and a focal point for journeys, gatherings and trade. It was a focus for Bronze Age burials long after its construction. Those which were excavated before their destruction revealed the graves of men, women and children, often with elaborate grave goods such as daggers and pottery vessels.

The western causeway.

The site was abandoned by the Iron Age and was extensively ploughed during the Roman period, although it remained a feature of local folklore, and the village name derives from ‘stone-town’. Gravel extraction during the past half-century has destroyed around sixty Bronze Age barrows, ring ditches which often surrounded burials, and other graves containing an unknown number of human bodies, which are now incorporated in roadworks and construction sites across the country. It’s perhaps a blessing that a small part of the site survives.

The River Severn

The River Severn, at 220 miles, is the longest river in Britain. It has been of vital importance for trading ships since historic times, was of strategic significance to the Romans, and possibly provided the route the earliest Neolithic farmers took into Britain, from which they spread into the Severn valley, the Cotswolds and the Welsh lowlands.

As well as transport, the river provided drinking water, fish and shellfish, a hunting ground for drinking animals and waterbirds, and it snatched life away through floods and tides surging over the mudflats. Like many rivers, the Severn was said to demand a human life every year. Its ever-changing moods were pivotal to the lives of those who lived around it.

The Severn is tidal as far as Maisemore, just north of Gloucester, and its tidal range of 15 metres is one of the highest in the world. This contributes to the formation of the Severn Bore, a tidal-wave like phenomenon caused by the vast volume of water forced into the river channel. The highest bores, of up to two metres and travelling at up to 13mph, are seen at the equinoxes but the bore occurs to some extent at each full and new moon. Tradition stated incorrectly that it took place each Good Friday, and Gloucestershire miners were traditionally given the day off to go and watch.

The Romans believed the bore was the approaching end of the world. The locals would have been well used to the occurrence, but no doubt would have linked it to a magical phenomenon or the actions of Gods or spirits. This probably links to the folklore surrounding the river.

‘Severn’ derives from Sabrina, a Romanised version of ‘Hafren’, the Celtic name which is still used in the Welsh language. This itself is a later adaptation of ‘Habren’, of unclear etymology but perhaps the oldest known British river name.  

Like many rivers worldwide, the Severn in folklore has a female identity, perhaps deriving from a long-forgotten River Goddess. In one story, a great Welsh landowner called Plynlimon, the geographic source of the Severn, decided to divide his estates between his three daughters, Severn, Wye and Rheidol. Each had to travel to the sea within a day and would then own the land they’d covered. Their travels became the three great rivers which arise in the Welsh hills.

In another story, Sabrina or Hafren was a maiden drowned in the river on the orders of her stepmother. She is sometimes seen swimming fruitlessly towards the bank.

The Severn is also linked to the God Nodens, likely a variation of the Celtic Lludd or Nuada, whose temple overlooked the Severn at Lydney. Unusually for an important river in Britain, there are almost no prehistoric sacred or ritual sites along its course. Perhaps its spirit, epitomised by the destructive bore, demanded otherwise.

Crickley Hill

Crickley Hill, just south of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was occupied for 5000 years between the Mesolithic period and the Anglo-Saxon period. It was at the intersection of an important routeway leading south across the Cotswold Hills from Gloucester, and some archaeologists believe the famous bluestones were brought this way on their journey from the Preseli Mountains to Stonehenge. It is also one of the earliest known battlefields, with evidence of prehistoric warfare in the 4^th millennium BC.

Crickley Hill is on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, with the vast plains of Cheltenham and Gloucester stretching beyond. Its stunning views would have given good information to the early hunters on the whereabouts of herds, or in later times, the whereabouts of approaching enemies. Its very steep slopes were a key part of the fortifications of later eras, but in the earlier, more peaceful times, the dramatic landscape seems to have been chosen for its own sake.

Several Mesolithic huts were built on the hill around 4500BC, and a series of pits were dug on the highest point of the hill. Pits were usually used for offerings, but nothing has been found in these. They may have contained plants, fruits, woodwork or other biodegradable items.

The view north across the Vale of Cheltenham

A causewayed enclosure was dug in the early Neolithic period, around 3700BC. This comprised a low, circular stone bank, dug from a ditch immediately outside, with a wooden palisade inside it incorporating several entrances. These enclosures were common and seem to be gathering places for feasting, trading, exchanging livestock and affirming community relations. In common with other places, Crickley’s enclosure was levelled and the palisades burnt several times before being rebuilt. It seems as if the memory and spirit of the gathering was sealed back into the soil on each occasion.

A shrine was built on the western end of the promontory. This spot is hidden from the rest of the site by a natural dip in the slope and only the sweeping view across the vale is visible from it. It’s interesting how the alignment focuses on a small hill in the near distance, the only obvious natural feature in the vale. Many of these sites have a focus on other landscape features.

The location of the stone circle, focusing on a hill in the near distance.

Crickley Hill was the site of a largescale battle around 3500BC. Hundreds of arrowheads have been found, clustering on the main entrances. This is the earliest evidence of largescale violence in Britain. The site was then abandoned but the shrine was eventually rebuilt. A stone slab was laid over the original structure, surrounded by a small stone circle, and a 100m mound of soil was raised leading to it. Stone slabs all along its length covered items such as animal bones. Eventually the stone slab was smashed and the circle of uprights pushed over, a clear destruction of its power. But people kept an uneasy respect for the site: objects such as brooches were buried in the mound well into the Roman period.

         The remains of the Iron Age rampart

Crickley Hill was reoccupied in the Iron Age, around 600BC, and a large defensive ditch and bank was dug around the settlement, still visible today. Not long after, the wall was torn down, brushwood piled against the timbers and the site incinerated in a fire intense enough to turn the limestone walls to quicklime. Another new settlement a hundred years later was also destroyed.

An Anglo-Saxon village built on the site around AD420 was also burnt on at least two occasions, and then people abandoned it for good. It became rough grazing and woodland as it remains today. Now its unspoilt woodland and hundreds of wildflowers are of as much importance as its history.

Lindisfarne

Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, lies in the North Sea near Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland. It can be reached by a mile-long walk across the causeway at low tide, or for the more dedicated visitors, posts mark the pilgrims’ route across the mudflats.

Walking across the open expanse of mudflat, surrounded by flocks of foraging wading birds whose piping calls are the only sound in this seemingly vast emptiness, with the sea unseen in the distance until it turns and rushes back across the mudflats, is a profound experience and certainly illustrates why the island was considered special.

The island’s recorded history is mainly linked to the Christians who settled here in the 7^th century, but it was considered sacred before this point. Its oldest name, Medcaut, probably derives from the Latin Medicata Insula or ‘Healing Island’. Lindisfarne is a Celtic name: Farne means land and Lindis is the name of the river which flows across the mudflats at low tide.

St Cuthbert’s Isle, just off Lindisfarne. The cross marks the former altar of the chapel known as St Cuthbert in the Sea.

King Oswald, who came to the Northumbrian throne in AD634, had converted to Christianity and arranged for a team of monks to come from Iona to convert his people. They built their monastery on Lindisfarne. Soon afterwards Oswald and his bishop, Aidan, died and the church was burnt by marauders.

A shepherd named Cuthbert had a vision of Aidan telling him to continue the bishop’s work. Cuthbert trained as a monk and began to preach. The conversion of the Northumbrians to Christianity is credited to his work. He eventually retreated to a small island off Lindisfarne where he lived in solitude for many years, and he was eventually buried in Lindisfarne’s church. The famous Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated manuscript containing the four gospels, was written here at this time.

Page from Lindisfarne's illuminated Gospel of St Matthew. 

Almost two centuries after Cuthbert’s death, when Vikings attacked the island, the monks abandoned the site and Cuthbert’s body was carried on the long journey to Durham where it was laid in the cathedral along with the monastery’s other sacred relics. Many places in Northumberland are linked to that journey, including St Cuthbert's Cave in the Kyloe Hills.

Following the Norman Conquest, the priory was rebuilt in typical Norman grandeur and remained a large and influential site until its closure in 1537 following Henry VIII’s Reformation.

The Norman priory, which replaced an older building in the 12^th century.

Silbury Hill

Silbury Hill, a mile south of Avebury in Wiltshire, is one of Britain’s most enigmatic monuments. It is an artificial chalk mound, 31m in height and around 140m in diameter, built in a curve of the spring-fed River Kennet. It was built in the early Bronze Age, between 2400BC and 2300BC.

Tradition says it was the burial mound of King Sil (pronounced Zel) who was buried on horseback in golden armour. Other local lore says it was formed when the Devil dropped a sack of earth with which he had intended to bury Marlborough, foiled in his intent by the Avebury priests.

Despite eager exploration, no evidence of Sil or his gold has been found, but in the 18^th century, a body was found buried in the top of the mound, complete with a horse bit. This probably dates to the Medieval period when the top was levelled and fortified.

              Silbury from Waden Hill

Excavation has found Silbury to be far more complex than previously imagined. First, a gravel mound was raised, around a metre high and 10m in diameter. This was covered by turf and soil with a wooden retaining wall, then marsh-soil, chalk and gravel. The mound was now 5m high and 34m in diameter.

At least two other small mounds were incorporated into it. One contained yew berries, sloes, hazel shells and brambles: woodland soil which seems to have come from some distance away. The area around Silbury was open grassland grazed by farm animals. Sarsen stones were seeded through the mound ‘like raisins in a cake’.

The mound was soon expanded. Chalk was dug from a surrounding circular ditch and built over the mound. This ditch was 6m deep, 6m wide and 100m in diameter. As soon as it was dug, it was backfilled and redug further out, presumably linked to the new layer of chalk added to the mound. This happened five times.

Digging a ditch of those proportions with antler picks would take months of back-breaking labour, and raises questions of the mindset of these people. Why immediately destroy their achievement and start again? Assuming the labourers were working through free choice –there is no evidence of slavery at this time – they must have shared some common vision that lauded what to us seems entirely pointless work. Many monuments were continually remodelled, Stonehenge an obvious example, and it seems the process of construction was more important than the finished product. Perhaps the growing mound reflected the community’s growing spiritual or real-world prospects, so every remodelling was a celebration.

Silbury Hill is often thought to be unique, but another smaller mound at nearby Marlborough, long thought to be natural, has recently been proven to be human-made. Another mound, now entirely destroyed, was built in Marden Henge near Salisbury Plain. All three are situated in the curve of a river, on low-lying and probably very wet ground. Silbury is known for its springs, which flowed much more freely in the past, and would have filled the huge ditch with an unbroken sheen of water. The springwater is naturally warm and steams on a cold day, so the mound appears to be rising from the mist. Did the mounds represent the birth of the world, rising from the mists and the primeval waters, as features in so many mythologies? We shall probably never know.