Some special places need us to defend them

Photo: Jane Hanbidge

Salisbury Journal, Thurs 23.11.23

But this isn’t just about today’s ‘residents’….

in 1065, King Edward the Confessor was a resident here too…

does that date ring a bell?

COUNTDOWN TO THE CONQUEST –
14TH OCTOBER 1066

Britford, Wiltshire, nearly a thousand years ago……

Towards the end of August 1065, King Edward, ‘the Confessor’ was staying in Britford, Wiltshire, probably at a Royal Manor there. He was enjoying the hunting with a friend who was staying with him, Earl Tostig Godwinson. They probably set off across the river valley, now water meadows, to a deer park on hill at the other side in a what was later to become known as Clarendon. There is mention of Edward already having been previously struck with illness (thought to have been strokes) but he was certainly in good health at that time: out on his horse; hunting and much involved with the politics of his realm – as we will see.

His companion, Tostig, was one of the Godwins, an extremely powerful (King Edward certainly often thought too powerful) family, huge land-owners who could raise large armies from the men on their lands. Edward had married a member of that family, Edith, some twenty years earlier and thus Tostig was his brother-in-law. Another of the Godwin brothers played a starring role in this story, Harold Godwinson, whose name was to go down in our history books, his image immortalised forever, with an arrow through his eye. It was Tostig’s role in that story which brought that about.

On 29th September 1065, St Bartholomew’s day, and possibly whilst the King and Tostig were actually out hunting, a rebellion broke out in the north of Edward’s realm, in the lands owned by his guest. During his absence, Tostig had been outlawed by the rebels and replaced with their own leader, Morcar. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle, written in that same century, recounts it:

“And then, after Michael’s-mass, all the thanes in Yorkshire went to York, and there slew all Earl Tosty’s (Tostig’s) household servants whom they might hear of, and took his treasures: and Tosty (Tostig) was then at Britford with the king.”

Tostig was a deeply unpopular figure: not only was he a southerner, even then that signalled cultural difference, but he was a cruel and greedy landlord known for peremptory seizing of others’ lands, summary executions and high taxes. The rebels had taken advantage of his absence and they in turn now murdered anyone loyal to him, seizing his lands and putting their own candidate, Morcar, in the role of leader.

Edward’s days of hunting must have stopped abruptly as he had to confront an extremely dangerous situation. Efforts by Tostig’s brother Harold and his army to stop the insurrection had been in vain and the king now faced a stark choice, should he call up all the nobles to fight on Tostig’s behalf, and face what might end up as a civil war, or should he ratify the rebellion led by Morcar, and hope it would all calm down?

It was in what is now a quiet Wiltshire village lying on the water-meadows just outside Salisbury, at Britford, that the King faced his decision. One imagines he would have sought divine guidance in St Peter’s, the little Britford church, an Anglo-Saxon foundation, which was probably part of his manorial complex. What followed was to end with the invasion of Britain in 1066.

The King summoned his nobles to discuss the situation and advise him. Foremost amongst them was Tostig’s brother Harold, by far the most competent of the siblings and, unlike Tostig, in control of his lands in Wessex, and of his army. Harold may or may not have attempted to intercede on behalf of his brother, but in truth there was probably no other possible outcome: Morcar had to be accepted as the new Earl of the North and Tostig had to be exiled. It was that or full-scale civil war with the North. In fury, abandoned by his family and friends, Tostig fled to Flanders – his wife’s home – to nurture his fury and resentment.

Things unravelled pretty quickly thereafter. King Edward had another stroke, probably at Britford, and possibly brought on by this emergency because of which he had summarily to exile his brother-in-law, friend and, up until a couple of days earlier, guest. The stricken King was taken to London.

On the 5th January 1066, twelfth night, King Edward died. He had no children and had not named a successor, instead he seems to have used the promise of succession to the throne of England by way of a bribe, dangling it in front of those he needed to help him, or who appeared to be threatening him. Even if he was clear in his final hours about who was to succeed him, that intention has remained elusive over the centuries.

There were three main contenders:
• Earl Harold Godwin, the powerful Earl of Wessex, brother of Tostig. Harold was not related to the royal family, but he was an immensely wealthy man at the heart of English government. Harold believed that he should be the natural successor and historical sources suggest that on his death bed Edward reached out to him, indicating this wish. (He may of course have wanted a drink of water, but history likes to find meaning in gestures).

• There was also Duke William of Normandy who was a first cousin once removed of Edward’s, and therefore shared the royal blood. Moreover, Edward had been brought up in Normandy and had close links across the channel. The two men knew each other well, and it is probable that William had given support and sent troops to help Edward fight and repel Danish incursions in the north. All in all, it is entirely reasonable that William believed that Edward had promised to make him successor to the English throne.

• The third contender was Edgar Aetheling who whilst in the direct line of succession, was still a child with few supporters. A few years later he was used as a rallying point for resistance in the North against the Norman invasion.

Whilst it was famously Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, (he of the arrow through the eye) who became the King of England on Edward’s death, there was also an unexpected contender, a late-comer. The resentful Tostig was not about to relinquish his desire for revenge on his brother and the other nobles whom he felt had betrayed him. He joined forces with the King of Norway, Harald Hardrada, and together they plotted an invasion into Tostig’s former territory in the North of England. There they were opposed by Morcar (the leader of the northern rebellion) and the army of the new King, Harold, whilst marching on York.

On the 25th of September, 1066, Harold famously defeated his brother and the Norwegian forces at the battle of Stamford Bridge at which both Tostig and King Hardrada were killed. The new King and his army had scarcely had a moment to celebrate that victory, however, when they learned of an even bigger threat in the south. What was, and might have been remembered as a glorious victory for the English, defeating Tostig and the Norwegian invaders, instead contributed to the undoing of King Harold, and to the conquest of all England by the Normans.

On 28th September, 1066, Duke William of Normandy, taking advantage of favourable winds and of the absence of much of the English army up near York, landed on the south coast at Pevensey. He had been gathering support from his neighbours and had amassed his own invasion force. The attack by Tostig in the north must have seemed heaven-sent and the landing was unopposed. Within a few days, the Norman invaders had surveyed the area, and within a couple of weeks had erected fortifications at Hastings and were ready to meet the spent English army after their long forced-march from York.

On 14th October, 1066,
The battle of Hastings took place: the one battle and the one date which surely any English person knows. William of Normandy emerged victorious and the Kingdom of England fell to the Normans. The country did not accede easily, and in particular the people of the North resisted the invaders forcefully. They were met with Norman military aggression bordering genocide. The Anglo-Saxon nobility was more or less wiped out, and entire settlements razed. Northumbria bore the brunt, and tens of thousands of people are thought to have starved to death through the despoiling of the land and raiding of the livestock. It was to go down in our history books as the ‘Harrying of the North’.

When finally William considered the subjugation of all England complete, he called his troops together, returning to a traditional seat of Royal Power round Salisbury. The Manor at Britford had of course become William’s as part of the Crown Estates, as is recorded in the Domesday Book, but William was a military man. He hunted men, not deer, and he built defensive castles in high places, not hunting lodges by the river. He had a stone castle built on the top of the mighty earthworks originally raised over a thousand years earlier by the Iron Age tribes at Old Sarum. It was power made visible. Here he sat in state and rewarded his men. And it was here, at Old Sarum, looking down over the rambling Saxon settlement which was soon to become the city of Salisbury, that he later assembled the great and the good of the new order, and took their oaths of fealty. Britford lost favour and its timber buildings fell into ruin and were lost to the ground. Over the course of the years, Old Sarum too, was abandoned and left to the embrace of nature.

Nonetheless, Old Sarum’s prominent position remained as a lasting reminder of its historical importance, and such was the desire to conserve its semi-rural setting that Hudson’s Field was created (through public acclaim) to restrict the encroachment of Salisbury’s expanding housing.

In many ways, a similar solution is necessary for Britford: its historic royal remains are less well-known and slighter in scale. Until such time as they are better understood and mapped, they are more vulnerable than Old Sarum. But just as was the case for Old Sarum, foresight and forward thinking can still preserve them in their current semi-rural setting – providing that housing is not permitted to overwhelm any surviving remains and their settings and one of Salisbury’s historic treasures is not inadvertently lost.

From an 11th century version of the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’:
“Count William came from Normandy to Pevensey on Michaelmas Eve [28 September 1066], and as soon as they were able to move on, they built a castle at Hastings. King Harold was informed of this and he assembled a large army and came against him at the hoary apple-tree.

And William came against him by surprise before his army was drawn up in battle array. But the king nevertheless fought hard against him, with the men who were willing to support him, and there were heavy casualties on both sides.

There King Harold was killed and Earl Leofwine his brother, and Earl Gyrth his brother, and many good men; and the French remained masters of the field, even as God granted it to them because of the sins of the people … and always after that it grew much worse. May the end be good when God wills!”

Translated by Dorothy Whitelock and others, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Revised Translation (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1961), pp. 142–45.

If you are interested in further reading about this period:

Stephen Baxter, Edward the Confessor and the Succession Question, in R. Mortimer ed., Edward the Confessor: the Man and the Legend (2009)

For one easily accessible version of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, see: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/ang11.asp

For Domesday online, see: https://opendomesday.org/

For an excellent synopsis see the History of Government’s website blog: https://history.blog.gov.uk/2016/01/05/the-death-of-edward-the-confessor-and-the-conflicting-claims-to-the-english-crown/

TODAY AN AAP (AREA OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL) PROTECTS THE PROBABLE AREA OF THE FORMER ANGLO-SAXON SETTLEMENT OF BRITFORD. Nowadays this is a quiet Wiltshire village, largely unspoilt, and much of it very pretty, lying along the water-meadows. There’s a great farm shop here, run by the pastry and chocolate master, Robert! Take that walk down Britford lane and through the fields to visit?

To see what is proposed, click HERE for the local plan, and scroll to pages 21-23

To see what the government guidelines are, which our Council should be trying to follow, click HERE for the National Planning Policy Framework (it’s a really good succinct doc, don’t be put off!)

And click HERE for the Sustainability Appraisal which means, will it work? – see pp. 65-71

Below is a list of excerpts and responses to the NPPF (national planning policy framework). You may find it interesting to compare this proposal with the (excellent and thoughtful) government guidelines. It’s an easy read.

nppf-excerpts-for-webDownload

Views and Vistas Matter too!

Two GRADE ONE monuments connected in their ancient setting by the water-meadows.. If you stand at the corner of the lane by the Farm in the corner of the conservation area and look one way, you see our amazing spire. Photo Jane Hanbidge
and if you turn around and look over the gate across the field behind you, you see this….the church with Anglo-Saxon beginnings, where Edward the Confessor would have sought guidance in 1065… Photo Jane Hanbidge

1. Conservation

The Britford Conservation Document is Here

The conservation policy talks of the ‘pastoral serenity’ of Britford. …Hardly applicable when a modern housing estate appears just to the left of this photo… Photo Jane Hanbidge

2. Flooding – rising ground water

The proposed site (red) is at present a large, absorbent field, guess what will happen when it’s covered in concrete?

3. TRAFFIC

Latest figures suggest that 220 houses will have in excess of 300 cars. These cars will enter and exit the site from Downton road a little way before the traffic lights and the Harnham gyratory. There is no doctor’s surgery, nor sufficient schooling provision here which means that younger children at least will have to be taken and collected by car. Does your experience suggest that this could cause any problems? Does this proposal ‘support sustainable transport’?

Please click HERE to see whether you agree that this proposal accords with the government policy, because if it does not, then it is unsound….: (see page 30)

4. PROMOTING WALKING/CYCLING/JOGGING

The last remaining path leading through green countryside by which the people of Salisbury can reach a village – popular with hundreds of walkers, joggers, families, cyclists. These remnants of real nature are so important in allowing us to relax and breathe and escape.

The government wishes to ‘promote healthy and safe communities’, and wishes to encourage people both for the sake of their health and for the good of the environment to walk or use their bikes rather than drive. There is just one easily accessible footpath left from central Salisbury out into a village, which goes through countryside. It became of extreme importance during the pandemic and remains a very popular escape for city-dwellers.

The route leads along the edge of playing fields with views to the cathedral, before leading through green fields and real ‘countryside’ to the conservation village of Britford. At the end of it is a farm shop and cafe. It is known as the ‘coffin path’. Do you consider that by replacing the ‘countryside’ to one side of this path with a housing estate, people will still wish to use it? Would this be contrary to the stated government policy?

Please click HERE to see whether you agree that this proposal accords with the government policy, because if it does not, then it is unsound….: (see page 27)

we-are-protesting-in-person-to-show-how-much-this-mattersDownload