Inkpen is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a Town or City. A civil parish in the United Kingdom is a unit of local government. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Berkshire (ˈbɑːkʃə or /ˈbɑːkʃɪə/ say Baak-shuh/-sheer sometimes abbreviated to Berks) is a Home County in the South It is situated in the south-west of the county, close to the Wiltshire and Hampshire border. Etymology The county formerly 'Wiltonshire' or 'Wiltunscir' (9th century is named after the former county town of Wilton (itself named after the River Wylye Wildlife Hampshire has wildlife typical of the island of Great Britain It is located at grid reference SU367642. The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude
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Amenities and landmarks
There are no shops in Inkpen. The only public commercial establishments are two public houses, the Crown & Garter and the Swan. There is a village hall and a small primary school, Inkpen County Primary School, with approximately eighty students. There used to be a Post Office, but it closed down during the 1980s. A post office is a facility authorized by a Postal system for the posting receipt sorting handling transmission or delivery of Mail. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989.
The highest point in the south-eastern region of England, Walbury Hill, is situated half within the parish, only 1. South East England is one of the nine official Regions of England. Walbury Hill is the highest point in the South East England region of the UK at 297 m (974 ft) Above sea level. 5 miles (3km) to the south of the village, within the North Wessex Downs area of outstanding natural beauty. The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire It stands 974 ft (297m) above sea-level, dominating the whole area, and is surmounted by the Iron Age hill fort of Walbury Camp, the start of both the Test Way and the Wayfarers Walk . This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age for the mythological Iron Age see Ages of Man. A hill fort is a fortified refuge or defended settlement The Test Way is a 49 mile long-distance footpath in England from Walbury Hill in West Berkshire to Eling in Hampshire The Wayfarers Walk is a long distance footpath in England from Walbury Hill, Berkshire to Emsworth, Hampshire. On the adjacent Gallows Down, but just within Combe parish, are Combe Gibbet and the incorrectly named Inkpen Long Barrow. Combe is a Village and Civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. Combe Gibbet is a Gibbet at the top of Gallows Down, near the Village and just within the Civil parish of Combe in Berkshire Up on the Down, skylarks may often be heard and hang gliders and paragliders seen circling high above the ancient landscape.
Archaeology
Prehistoric
The area used to be part of Savernake Forest, one of the first landscapes to appear when the last Ice Age receded at least 10000 years ago. Savernake Forest, located between Marlborough and Hungerford in the English county of Wiltshire, is privately owned by the Trustees of Savernake An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the Temperature of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere resulting in an expansion of continental Ice sheets The ice was also responsible for the deposits of heavy clay soil found in Inkpen that give rise to the boggy lowland areas. From the Downs, pockets of ancient woodland scattered in and around Inkpen may still be seen today.
The earliest sign of habitation in Inkpen dates to the Mesolithic period, between 10000 to 4500 BC. Only a single artefact has been uncovered, to the west of the gibbet, but even this helps confirm the traditional view of small groups of Mesolithic people following established cyclic seasonal trails through the forested countryside, often along hilltops. They may have attempted to manipulate resources through forest clearance.
There were people living on the Downs of Inkpen some 5000 years ago. Intact pots by the Beaker People have been unearthed at the Hungerford end of Craven Road in Inkpen, opposite Colnbrook Copse, as well as on the Downs. The Bell-Beaker culture (sometimes shortened to Beaker culture, Beaker people, or Beaker folk; Glockenbecherkultur) ca For other uses see Hungerford (disambiguation Hungerford is a Market town and Civil parish in Berkshire, They show skill and artistic design and now reside in the West Berkshire Museum. Early Beaker People flint tools have also been found close to the old saw mills at the end of Folly Road, along with evidence that suggests they were manufactured nearby. The pottery finds at Craven Road were found in a layer of sand close to where an ancient brook known as the Ingeflod would have run. At the bottom of the hill on the Hungerford Road leaving Inkpen, flooding in wet weather, still sometimes re-enacts the meanderings of this river through the fields to the north-east. It seems likely that this fresh water attracted the beaker people to settle down and live in their round houses there, using the fertile soil for crops and livestock grazing. Evidence of an ancient field system is certainly still visible not far from the Inkpen Long Barrow. The West Berkshire Museum has a number of bone tools and a bronze knife found in Inkpen that date from this period. In 1908, trenches dug at Sadler's Farm, the site of a ploughed-out barrow, revealed a large quantity of animal and some human bones, horns and some early or pre-Romano-British potsherds. Year 1908 ( MCMVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410 The beaker people buried their dead in simple stone mounds since called round barrows, often with a beaker alongside the body. Round barrows are one of the most common types of archaeological Monuments Although concentrated in Europe they are found in many parts of the world because Several of these remain on the hilltop to the west of the Gibbet. Four were explored in 1908 when Neolithic tools and small urns with burnt human bones, suggesting cremation, were found. The Neolithic (from Greek νεολιθικός — neolithikos from νέος neos, "new" + λίθος lithos Later, in the Bronze Age, communal long barrows were used, like the one under Combe Gibbet. The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for A long barrow is a prehistoric monument dating to the early Neolithic period
Iron Age and Roman
In the Iron Age, burial mounds and circles gave way to permanent fields and hill forts such as Walbury Camp on Walbury Hill adjacent to Gallows Down. This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age for the mythological Iron Age see Ages of Man. A hill fort is a fortified refuge or defended settlement Walbury Hill is the highest point in the South East England region of the UK at 297 m (974 ft) Above sea level. It was built in around 600 BC and remained in use until about the time the Romans arrived in Britain. This page refers to the conquest begun in AD 43 For other Roman invasions see Caesar's invasions of Britain and Carausian Revolt. The construction of its massive banks and ditches, encircling some eighty acres, would have been an enormous feat. It would have been defended by a timber fence or palisade and populated with round houses and maybe pens for livestock. palisade is a steel or wooden Fence or wall of variable height usually used as a defensive structure Walbury Camp was built, not only for the protection of the locals from attack by warring groups, but also in response to the increasing importance of the hilltop tracks for trade and the movement of livestock.
There is not much evidence of Roman activity in Inkpen. Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410 Some of the hill trail trade was diverted down to the Ermin Way and Romanized Brythons certainly lived in the area. Ermin Street or Ermin Way (not to be confused with Ermine Street, which is further east is one of the great Roman roads of Britain In 1984, archaeological finds were discovered near Lower Green suggesting the presence of a Roman dwelling of some kind, possibly not unlike the villas found at nearby Kintbury and Littlecote. Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) A Roman villa is a Villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. Kintbury is a large Village and Civil parish in central-southern England, located in West Berkshire between the towns of Newbury and Littlecote House is a large Elizabethan Country house and estate in the Civil parishes of Ramsbury and Chilton Foliat in the English During building work near Combe in 2003, a Roman burial was also found. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.
Saxon
The Roman army left Britain in around 410 and the settlement of Anglo-Saxons from Denmark and Northern Germany followed soon afterward. The Roman army was a set of military forces employed by the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and later Roman Empire as part of the Roman military Events By place Western Roman Empire Alaric I deposes Priscus Attalus as Emperor. For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. At the foot of the Inkpen Beacon sits what some believe to be the eastern end of the Wansdyke, a long ditch and bank (or linear defensive earthwork) constructed sometime between 400 and 700. Wansdyke (from Woden 's Dyke) is an early medieval series of defensive linear earthworks in the West Country of England, Events By Place Western Roman Empire Italy is first invaded by Alaric (probable date Events By Place North America The Mount Edziza volcanic complex erupts in northern British Columbia, Canada. Current theory suggests a date around 470 when some hill forts were also being refortified by the Romano-Britons. Events By Place Europe Euric, king of the Visigoths, defeats an attempted invasion of Gaul by the Celtic It runs east-west, from the Inkpen Beacon all the way to Portishead near Bristol. Portishead (pɔːtɪsˈhɛd IS an English musical group from Bristol. Bristol ( ˈbrɪstəl is a city, Unitary authority and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London Although its eastern end is generally thought to be just south of Marlborough, this small section is named 'Wansdyke' on Inkpen's enclosure award map of 1733. Marlborough ( IPA /ˈmɔːlbrə/ " Maul bruh" is a market town in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road Enclosure or inclosure (the latter is used in Legal documents and Place names is the term used in England and Wales Year 1733 ( MDCCXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Its construction clearly points to danger from the north, perhaps from the first Saxons of what is now Berkshire, who settled around Abingdon. Early Saxon coins known as 'sceattas' have been found on the Downs. Sceattas (singular sceat, not sceatta) were small thick silver Coins minted in England, Frisia and Jutland
History
The earliest record of Inkpen is contained in the Cotton Charter viii, dated between 931 and 939. Events By Place Europe Ramiro II of Leon becomes the King of León. This article is about the year 939. For the CPU socket see Socket 939 Events By Place Asia This includes the will of a Saxon thegn named Wulfgar, whose name means 'wolf-spear'. A thegn or thane was an attendant servant retainer or official in Early Medieval Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon culture. Wulfgar owned "land at inche penne" which he "had from Wulfric, who had it from Wulfhere who first owned it", his father and grandfather respectively. Wulfgar left this to be divided amongst named heirs: three quarters to his wife, Aeffe, the other quarter to "the servants of God" at the holy place in Kintbury. Following Aeffe's death, her share was also to go to the holy place at Kintbury "for the souls of Wulfgar, Wulfric and Wulfrere".
Below is a selection of subsequent spellings of a dictated 'Inkpen' interpreted over a period of some three hundred years by various scribes:
- Ingepenne 935. Events By Place Europe Estimation Córdoba, capital of Al-Andalus, becomes the largest city of the world taking the lead
- Hingepene 1086.
- Ingepenna 1167, Ingepenn 1167, Ingepenne 1167, Yngepenn 1167, Yngepenne 1167.
- Ynkepenee 1230, Yngelpenne 1235, Ynkepenne 1241, Ingelpenne 1241, Hingepenna 1242, Ingepepenn 1242, Ingelpenn 1252, Enkepenne 1282, Inckepene 1292.
External links
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