wysefool

from BERKSHIRE by F G Brabant (1911)

This entry is in an old book about Berkshire from 1911. It does mention the ‘knob’ as being a barrow, but I imagine every lump was termed a barrow in those days.

Scutchamore Knob is a remarkable barrow on the ridge of the downs, two and a half miles S. of East Hendred. It stands in the centre of a fine clump of beeches, and a large hole has been dug on its N. side. The name is a corruption of Cwichelm’s hlaew (or hill), which has also been altered to Schoomchamfly. Cwichelm was a chieftan or prince in authority under the King of Wessex, and he may well have defended the line of the downs against the advance of the Mercians, as his son Cuthred did, somewhat later. In 871, the Danes, after leaving Reading, are said in the Saxon Chronicle to have ‘turned along Ashdown to Cwichelm’s hlaew’ just before the battle of Ashdown. In 1006 the Danes, after burning Wallingford and Cholsey, turned again to Cwichelm’s hlaew, and stayed there out of bravado, because it had often been said that if they came to Cwichelm’s hlaew they would never go to the sea.

The blowing stone legend is related to King Alfred, like many places in the local area. The victorians were very fond of King Alfred and romanticised him heavily. The statue of him in the marketplace at Wantage is a lasting testiment to their love of the ‘first english king’.

The legend concerns the battles of King Alfred against the mighty Dane. It is said that he called his armies to battle by using the blowing stone as a huge horn which echoed around the vale (of the white horse).

I have found many references to the blowing stone being moved from somewhere on the ridgeway to its present position. This seems very likely. The legend is surely just a legend created much later in the life of the blowing stone.

Could it be more like a continuation of a pre-christian (i.e. heathen) tradition of ‘kissing the stone’ – pagan stone worship in the 21st Century? in the middle of rural Oxfordshire?

maybe, maybe not but you kiss the blarney stone in Ireland as well...

Scutchamer Knob was once a ‘moot’ or ‘gemot’ place in Anglo-Saxon times. This basically means a ‘meeting place’ and was used for the local Anglo-Saxon leaders as a sort of ‘Berkshire Parliament’. (Originally it was in Berkshire but the boundaries between Berkshire and Oxfordshire changed in the mid 1970’s).

Local law and justice would have been decided here. The tradition of meeting outdoors to deal with important matters, as opposed to indoors, has its roots in the Germanic (i.e. A-S).

It was at this place that criminals would be tried and sentenced (sometimes to death). See ‘Kilman knoll’ nearby on the OS map as a possible site for the hangings.

Originally named ‘Cwicchelmeshlaew’ (or variaitions on the spelling), the place literally meant ‘the law of Cwichelm’ and referred to one of the early Wessex Anglo-Saxon sub-kings (a long time before Alfred the Great). This gives a date of use in the early Anglo-Saxon period, early in the 600’s AD.

The place became symbolic in the later viking invasions and expansion into the area. The Wessex Anglo-Saxons were some of the last to resist the mighty and all-conquering viking invasions. It was sad if the vikings ever reached as far as Scutchamer Knob, then they wouldn’t escape alive. This was reached by the vikings and sort of came true. Alfred led the local Saxons to victory against the Danes in the Battle of Ashdown in the year 871 AD somewhere in the local area (there are various places suggested for this site). The invaders were beaten and retreated back to Reading. This was a pivotal point in Anglo-Saxon times as the vikings had never suffered such a defeat on a large scale before. Although Alfred the Great suffered further defeat at the hand of the viking hordes and ended up fleeing to the Somerset marshes later, it showed they could be beaten.

Scutchamer Knob has had an important place to play in the history of England. The Anglo-Saxons of the kingdom of Wessex came out stronger than the other A-S kingdoms of England at the time of the viking invasions and went to to form the country we now know as England. Out of Wessex, came England.

Realting to the naming of Blewbury village... Which came first? the hillfort? or the village? I suspect the village nearby was named after the iron age hillfort. The placename evidence suggests that the latter part of the placename of the village of Blewbury, the ‘bury’ is a derivative of ‘burh’ or ‘byrig’ in Anglo-saxon times. This means ‘Hill fort’. Although not all placenames that end in ‘bury’ mean ‘hillfort’, many do relate to an ancient structure, be it, barrow or hill fort.

An early recording of the placename in the year 944 is ‘Bleobyrig’. After the Normans came, it was recorded in the DB in 1086 as ‘Blidberia’. What a difference a new ruler makes in terms of culture (and indeed, spelling!)

So then, the village was named after the iron age hillfort.

The monument to Lord Wantage positioned high up on the ridgeway, is rumoured to be built upon a bronze age barrow. I have come across a reference to this a few times in some local research. Lord Wantage was a soldier and became a local landowner. He is most rembered for his services in the Crimean war and for the success of Ardington (a nearby village) as a model farming village, providing work for the local agricultural community in hard times.

Given the high up position (common for the siting of a lot of barrows of the bronze age), this wouldn’t suprise me.

In the area around the monument are some other barrow sites (marked on OS Explorer 170 map). This again is additional evidence.