History Shorts: snippets of local history

The idea of a lost medieval village sounds mysterious and thrilling, conjuring images of streets and houses lost to modern maps, abandoned for reasons unknown and buried under layers of subsequent history. In reality these deserted villages were most likely very small settlements populated by a few families linked to a manor house and perhaps a church. There are literally thousands in England alone and the factors driving their abandonment were probably more mundane than catastrophic.  One such abandoned settlement is Bix Brand nestled in a valley in the Chiltern Hills a few miles from Henley. What remains today is the ruins of a Norman era church dedicated to St James but the area is known to have been populated in Roman times - a Roman farmhouse and artefacts have been discovered in the vicinity. Also nearby lies part of the prehistoric earthworks known as Grim's Ditch.  By the time of the Domesday Book, there were two settlements in the area known as Bixa Brand, which had ten fa

Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire stands as an important historical and religious site in England, its origins dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era. St Wilfrid (c. AD 633-~710) played a significant role in the foundation of what was to become Ripon Cathedral. The church he constructed in the 660s-670s, dedicated to St Peter, was one of the first stone buildings erected in Northumbria since the Roman legions left Britain more than two centuries earlier. While much of that structure has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, ultimately becoming Ripon Cathedral, the stone crypt from Wilfrid's church remains to this day - more on that later.   The hagiographical  Vita Sancti Wilfrithi , written by Stephen of Ripon and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People ( Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ), both near-contemporary, are the main sources for Wilfrid's life and activities. Stephen's account stresses the impressiveness of Wilfrid's church at Ripon,

Inside the tiny church , a photo by bishib70 on Flickr. This is my favourite image of my photographs of the delightful model village of Bourton-on-the-water, which has been given Grade II listed status by English Heritage . The detail of the tiny stained glass windows in the church of St Lawrence is exquisite!

Green man , a photo by bishib70 on Flickr. I've just spotted in the Radio Times that Dr Richard Taylor's excellent Churches: How to Read Them series is getting a repeat run on BBC4. (Tonight, Nov 30, is episode 2 Medieval Life - try to tune in if you haven't seen it. There's also a DVD or iPlayer!). In a (very) little nod to the series I'm blogging this photo of a carved Green Man from All Saints Church, Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire! (The church was built in the late 12th century although includes later additions.)