Cotswold History and
Lore
Those of us who learned our history at school were taught about kings and queens and invasions and battles. Archaeology tells a different story. The current archaeological picture of the Cotswolds stresses continuity, not sudden change. The Romans did not replace the Iron Age Celts in Britain, and neither did the Saxons. Culture did not end when the Romans left Britain, and the Dark Ages were anything but dark for those alive at the time. The Roman villas in the Cotswold area were built from the distinctive local stone and were not so very different in size or purpose from the great manor houses which still stand. Change was slow and continuous. The person sitting in the big house might speak Norman French instead of Saxon, and the Saxon abbot in the local abbey might be replaced by a Norman abbot when he died, but the people on the land stayed the same and continued to do what they had continued to do for centuries.
You can see four thousand years of history and slow change in the Cotswold landscape. It is in no way a natural landscape. It has been intensely lived in. Even in Roman times it was densely settled, and population estimates continue to rise as more and more settlements are discovered. The beauty of the Cotswolds, and it is the beauty of any fine garden, is that it is possible to add something to nature. It is possible for buildings and villages and towns to merge harmoniously into the landscape, adding to it rather than detracting from it. It is a reminder that it is possible to live in a place without destroying it. This is not a backwards looking sentimentality. We have been so exposed to technological change over the last fifty years that many people experience a sense of dislocation. The Cotswold landscape may not have changed, but people have. In the Cotswolds the past mingles effortlessly with the present, and it is possible to rediscover that sense of place and proportion and harmony that has taken countless generations to create, but only two generations to lose.
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The Neolithic period spans from about 4000BC to 2000BC. Neolithic remains are very visible in the Cotswolds in the form of 70 or so long barrows, dating from about 2500BC. These long barrows are large tombs in shape of small hills, usually with some kind of inner chamber constructed out of massive stones - for details and pictures of two of the better-known long barrows, see our page on Tumuli, Tumps, Humps and Other Bumps. Another feature dating from approximately the same period are the famous Rollright Stones in the north-east of the Cotswold area.
See our list of Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Sites in the Cotswolds for a larger (but by no means complete) list of archeological sites.
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In about 500BC, Celtic tribes from the continent made their way across the Channel into Britain, displacing the aboriginal people. These people used iron weapons, and were clearly warlike because they built great fortifications along the high points of the Cotswold Edge, superb forts with a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside. Most of these remains can still be seen in the form of ditches and embankments, although the wooden ramparts obviously disappeared not long after the Romans arrived.
The fact that warfare was endemic can be seen from Julius Caesar's description of British tactics in The Gallic Wars:
"The following will give some idea of British charioteers in action. They begin by driving all over the field, hurling javelins; and the terror inspired by the horses and the noise of the wheels is usually enough to throw the enemy ranks into disorder. Then they work their way between their own cavalry units, where the warriors jump down and fight on foot. Meanwhile the drivers retire a short distance from the fighting and station the cars in such a way that their masters, if outnumbered, have an easy means of retreat to their own lines. In action therefore, they combine the mobility of cavalry with the staying power of foot soldiers. Their skill, which is derived from ceaseless training and practice, may be judged by the fact that they can control their horses at full gallop on the steepest incline, check and turn them in a moment, run along the pole, stand on the yoke, and get back again into the chariot as quick as lightning."
In her classic book on the Celts in Britain, Anne Ross characterises the Celts as "a brilliant, brave but foolhardy, undisciplined yet intelligent people, winning brave victories, but without the political organisation to consolidate the gains, internecine strife weakening the whole, and laying it wide open to the machinations of a sober, politically stable state such as Rome".
Despite their warlike temperament, British Celtic society was essentially agricultural and the Cotswold area was densely settled.The Celtic tribe native to most of the Cotswold area were the Dobunni and excavations suggest their capital was only a couple of miles north of Cirencester - it is probably no accident that Cirencester also became the Roman capitol for the region.
See our extensive list of Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Sites in the Cotswolds. There is often very little left to see at most of these sites, but they are almost without exception places of great natural beauty and the past hangs heavy in the air.
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When the M5 motorway was built through Gloucestershire, skirting the River Severn on one side and the Cotswold Edge on the other, a large number of hitherto unsuspected Romano-British sites were discovered. On the basis of this (very linear!) sample, archeologists have conjectured that there are 4,500 Romano-British sites in the Severn Vale, of which 4,400 remain to be discovered!
It is believed that the Cotswold area was heavily farmed at that time. Some of the finest remains are of large country villas, with finely crafted mosaic floors and pavements, and it is possible to view several sites such as Chedworth and Great Witcombe. See our list of the more popular Roman Sites in the Cotswolds.
Cirencester (Corinium) was the largest Romano-British town outside of London and the remains of part of the city wall and the amphitheatre can still be seen. There are also fine displays of Romano-British life in the Corinium Museum. Gloucester (Glevum) was an early fortress town on the Welsh border, and second to Corinium in size.
A very visible remnant of the Roman occupation is the pattern of roads which converges on Cirencester: the Fosse Way, which forms the backbone of the Cotswolds and runs in a straight line for almost 400 kms; Ermin Street, which runs to Gloucester, and Akeman Street, which no longer goes anywhere in particular. Sections of these old roads are by-passed by modern roads and provide the basis for an extended ramble through the countryside.
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The Romans were in Britain for nearly four hundred years, and while that may seem like a long time, Anglo-Saxon culture lasted for even longer, almost 500 years from the time when they entered British history until the downfall of the Saxon kingdom of Britain at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
When the Romans abandoned Britain, their towns and villas became ruins inhabited by ghosts and wild animals.It was the invading Saxons who laid the foundations for most of the communities which still exist in the Cotswolds, and in many cases the Saxon charters describing these ancient grants of land still exist. The Saxons founded the majority of the great monasteries which dominated the area until their dissolution several hundred years later. Most of the Cotswold churches are on Saxon sites, many have Saxon foundations, and a few are still substantially Saxon churches. There are inns, such as the Royalist in Stow which date back to Saxon times.
The most important Cotswold town in Saxon times was Winchcombe. Another site of great historical importance was Malmesbury, famous in Saxon times for its abbey, part of which still stands.
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Medieval stuff is common enough to be genuinely surprising. A house you have walked past a dozen times turns out to have been built in the thirteenth century. The brass lectern in the local church was made before Christopher Columbus set sail for the Indies. A farmer's barn was built for a Norman abbot. The mausoleum in the local church is 700 years old and depicts a knight in full armour who might have shaken hands with Richard the Lionheart. It is surprising because you don't expect it outside of a museum. And it keeps happening.
Churches are the best place to start, because most of them (with no disrespect intended) are 1000 year-old community museums. All sorts of things end up in churches, like the Viking gravestone cemented into the wall of the (heavily Saxon) church at Bibury. You might find a very early example of a clock built by a village blacksmith, as you can in Castle Combe. The finest churches were adorned like grand ladies in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, using money earned from the wool trade, and the best examples of these magnificent "wool churches" are at Chipping Campden, Northleach, and Cirencester. Don't just visit the better known churches - every village in the Cotswolds has a church, and you can find anything from gargoyles and grotesquery to scenes right out of Tolkein, and if you know where to go, an entire church glazed by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. And what about this Norman doorway in the church at Little Barrington, a place so far off the tourist trail that when the swallows return after a winter in North Africa, they have to fly around for days trying to find it. It isn't even the best Norman archway around - it's just the sort of thing you find when you aren't really looking.
If the abbeys had survived they would have been marvels. Much of the wealth of the Cotswolds went in to feeding the monks, adorning their magnificent buildings, and making them very, very comfortable. Many of the abbey churches were as large as cathedrals, and although much of it has collapsed, the small part of Malmesbury Abbey which survives is still a very large building. Tewkesbury Abbey church is another lucky survivor. As for the rest, well, an abbey was just a vertical quarry with nicely shaped boulders and it was easier than digging stone out of the ground. One suspects that most of the large manor houses in the Cotswold are 10% quarried rock and 90% consecrated stone.
Oddly enough, while the abbeys were torn down, many of their tithe barns were not, and continue to lord it over farmyards here and there. You can find out more in our page on Tithe Barns.
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Wool made the Cotswolds. For centuries it was what people wore, and if you have an opportunity to wear period woollen clothing on a winter's evening you will understand why. It is a natural product, and when people spend their lives working with a natural product, with all its variability, it becomes arcane. Wool is as arcane as coffee beans, as arcane as vintage wines, as arcane as Cuban cigars. In the Middle Ages, the Cotswolds were the Microsoft of Europe, and William Grevel of Chipping Campden must have been Bill Gates. Wool financed the manors, and the abbeys, and the huge Perpendicular wool churches.
If you want to know more about the mysteries of wool, read our page on the Cotswold Woollen Industry.
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The Arts and Crafts movement was British in origin and went on to have an international influence. It began with a feeling of revulsion against the ornate, mass-produced goods of the mid-Victorian era, and emphasised craftsmanship and quality of materials, producing goods which were simple and subtle by comparison, and usually superbly executed. Although very different in style, it can be regarded as a precursor to the later Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements.
The movement had its centre in the influential designer William Morris who formed William Morris & Co in 1861 with the goal of re-vitalising the arts through craftsmanship. In this he was joined by several other designers such as the architect Philip Webb, the cabinet maker Ernest Gimson, and the designer C.R. Ashbee. The movement also overlapped with the influential (and now very famous) Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and many of the designs by Morris & Co were executed by the likes of Burne-Jones - examples of his stained glass can be seen in the Cotswold area.
The Cotswold connection arises because Morris liked the area and persuaded others to move there. C.R. Ashbee and a large number of craftsmen moved into the town of Chipping Campden at the turn of this century, and although the Arts and Crafts movement had mixed fortunes (quality is not always economic), it is impossible to see much of the Cotswold area without coming across examples of their work and influence. Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery has a good collection of Arts and Crafts artifacts.
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Copyright Digital Brilliance 1995
