-5000
About this time,
-800
Start
of Iron Age in
-55
Julius Caesar
lands in
-54
Julius Caesar
again invades
43
The emperor
Claudius sends legions to invade
47
Autumn: Romans
complete the southern terminus of the
`Between Axmouth
and Seaton was the site of the Roman station of Moridunum, from which the Romans carried their great Fosse Way
inland to Lincoln, keeping almost parallel with the ridge road along the chalk
downs, and the Cotswold Hills.'[1]
`Moridunum, a settlement near Branscombe, is
tentatively placed on the Roman road between
Branscombe is situated near the border between two
pre-Roman tribal confederations, the Dumnonii, and the Durotriges. Many of the Iron Age hilltop forts in
In Branscombe,
the only examples of contemporary pottery are
The Branscombe
area and south
Yet Branscombe is
only a short distance from
`A vital component
of the settlement hierarchy was the Romanised farm, or villa. The presence or
absence of villas can be used in one kind of assessment of the cultural
frontiers of Roman Britain.'[3]
`When the Romans
invaded
`Long before the
decline of the empire, the Teutons were beginning to drive the Celts
westward and away, a process which is clearly marked in these islands by the
prevalence of place-names in the west
country. Thus, the percentage of Celtic place-names in
47
`A major problem
in assessing the importance of Celtic language is that it did not develop as a
written language in
50
The second Legion
Augusta, brought from
`The wide estuary
of the Axe at that time afforded a safe harbour, so a settlement came into
being on the banks of the river and gave rise to the need for a building
material and, to men accustomed to the use of stone in their homeland, the
sight of the nearby white cliffs of must have suggested a possible local
source. An investigative expedition would then have discovered, at the base of
the massive chalk cliffs, a seam of fine limestone of a similar texture to that
used in
Quarrying from the
shore would have been impractical, so they followed the steep wooded combe,
which was later to become the village of Beer, inland and then westwards,
parallel to the cliffs, until they discovered the outcrop on the northern slope
of the hillside approximately one mile from the coastline ... Although it is
apparent that the Romans quarried vast quantities of stone, the only
authenticated findings of its use in buildings is in Honeyditches Villa, Seaton, the bath house of which was excavated by
Henrietta Quinnell, in 1969 ... it is interesting to note
that the method employed by the Romans in the building of the bath house walls,
.i.e. the use of stone as quoins and the remainder of the
walls local chert (flint), continues to be used in local buildings ... it is
evident the Romans transported it even as far as Exeter, a great distance at that time. Here an
air raid in 1942 exposed the west doorway of the Saxon church of which was found to be constructed from Beer
stone of Roman origin...It is probable that the Romans continued with their use
of the quarry until their departure early in the fifth century.'[8]
`More than once in
Term
of
52
Term of Scapula,
60
The
beginning of Boadicea's initially successful
revolt.
69
Roman Emperor
Flavius Vespasian (to 70)
81
The Roman
governor, Agricola, having conquered
100
Claudius Ptolemy
of
122
The
building of
150
A map of
160
There was an
established trade from the area with the Empire, at this time. The route from the
190
`The Christian
faith reached
208
The emperor
romanemperorsSeverus drives barbarian invaders from northern
300
As early as the
4th.century, Christian pilgrims journeyed to
300-900: The
classic flowering of the Maya civilisation in the tropical rainforests of
Meso-America.
303
A Roman military
tribune, , is martyred at
400+
Romans begin
withdrawal from
410
Emperor romanemperorsHonorius tells
432
In about this
year, St.saintsPatrick begins his Irish mission.
449
The English came
from between
`The Anglo-Saxon
conquest is traditionally accepted as beginning in 449, the date given by Bede
for the landing of brothers (Hengest/Hengist?)[14] and Horsa [`stallion' and `horse']. But
raids on the coasts had been in progress for a considerable time before that,
and small settlements of Germanic-speaking peoples were probably already in
existence. Exactly what language the invaders found in this country is
uncertain.'
`By the middle of
the century Britain had been cut off from the rest of the Roman empire for at
least a generation, and although some Latin speakers might have been found in
the larger towns, it seems probable that Celtic was normally the language with
which the invaders came into contact.'[15]
`Alone among all
the surrounding parishes, the name Branscombe
is, I believe, of pure Keltic origin ... Our first idea is that, lying off the
great western highway and being somewhat difficult of access, the Saxons did
not meddle with the place as much as they did with the others.'[16]
`Saxon invasions
exterminated Christianity in
By the time the
Saxons conquered
500
`The decisive
defeat of the Saxons in the battle of battlesMount Badon,[19] circa 500 was followed by a long period of
peace for British Christians, and it was then that the foundations were laid
for the great expansion that lasted from the sixth to the ninth centuries and
gave to
Christianity its form and special characteristics. Historical information, in
any strict sense of the term, especially for the earlier periods, is extremely
scanty, for most of the extant "lives" of the British saints were composed not earlier than the
eleventh century for other than historical purposes, though they often preserve
earlier sources. For the later periods, information survives only as it has
been edited by interested persons whose prejudiced outlook on the church was due at least as much to national and political causes as to ecclesiastical
differences. Certain general characteristics of the church can, however, be distinguished.
In doctrine and
worship it was one with the rest of western Christendom; in both respects it
was orthodox and catholic. The charges of heresy later brought against it are
misleading; such charges were weapons common to the armoury both of the Celtic
church and its opponents.'[20]
564
4 June: St.Petrock
dies, in
577
597
Christianity
officially comes to
600+
The Benedictines establish in
`
613
650
Approximate year
of martyrdom of Winifred, `...an obscure north saint.'[23] Branscombe's
parish church, St.Winifred's, is dedicated to her. It may be that the
chapel at Edge was built on the site of an original Celtic monastic community
dedicated to the same saint. A community of celebate clergy,
observing a religious rule, and entrusted with the care of souls over a wide
and ill-defined area. At some later stage, when the present parish
church was built, the monastic community had ceased to exist, but the
dedication was transferred. Hoskins gives parallel cases of this process.[24] The term Barton
applied to the site of Edge would also indicate an early importance as a farm-dwelling.
`Wheat, rye, barley an oats were the standard cereals of Anglo-Saxon England
... Ground into meal for bread-making or converted into malt for brewing,
barley easily eclipsed all other cereals. The Anglo-Saxons consumed beer on an
oceanic scale. This will not surprise us when we bethink ourselves how much of
their meat had to be salted for preservation through the winter months. The
original meaning of beretun and berewic is "barley-farm" in
each case, but barley was so clearly taken to be the principle Anglo-Saxon
grain that both words came to be used of the establishments where corn of any
kind was stored; hence the numerous Bartons and Berwicks to be found on the map
today ... Until quite late in the Old English period the use of stone as a building
material was confined to churches and some fortified strongholds. With a few
exceptions, every dwelling-house was built of wood, turf, or some form of
unbaked earth. This is true not only of farmhouses but of manors and even royal
palaces.'[25]
Barton, or Bere tun, is the Saxon word for a place
enclosed for the storage of barley in ricks. The
664
Synod of
673
The bishops of
688
Ine is King of
Wessex. Between 688 and 694 he commits to writing a code of law which remains
one of the few documents remaining in modern times that give any insight into
the workings of Anglo-Saxon society. It is clear from this and earlier
documents that slavery is accepted by both state and church as part of a
natural order of society. Crimes against individuals, including murder and
rape, were subject to a scale of fines, depending on the status of the
individual or the person they belonged to, or on whom they were dependent.
Slaves were an important part of the booty arising from tribal/regional
conflicts.
Dwellings at this
time were either wood and/or mud and thatch long-houses which included shelter
for animals, or simple wattle and daub covers over holes. There were very few
stone buildings, even for manors or palaces. Those that were built were mainly
churches or strongholds.[28]
732
Charles Martel defeats the Moslems at
735
Death
of Bede, the scholar-monk of
Jarrow.
770
The first written
form of the word combe is found in a
Saxon document attributed to about this year, according to the Oxford English
Dictionary.[30]
Combe
is a form of coomb (also comb,
cumb, coomb). Coomb in Old English [Anglo-Saxon] is cumb, a
masculine word, meaning a small valley, or hollow. It occurs in charters, in
descriptions of local boundaries in the south of
As a separate
word, it is not known in Middle English literature, but has survived in local
use, in which it is quite common in the south of
The Old English cumb is usually supposed to be of
British origin. Modern has cwm
in the same sense, also in composition in place-names. There are a large number
of place-names beginning with cum in
such places as
The Saxons and Angles brought an old Germanic word, kumb or kump, which was remarkably similar in meaning, being a cup or small
measure, a round deep basin, or trough. This coincidence would favour its
retention and common use, even after colonisation. This might further be
strengthened after the Norman Conquest by the existence of a French combe, meaning a small valley surrounded
by hills. There are also equivalent words based on comba, in Spanish, Portuguese and northern Italian. Indeed, a Celtic
origin has been claimed for all these.[31]
Polwhele suggests bran means crow, thus: valley of the crows.[32]