swuklink: Child Okeford, Dorset: History  
   
HISTORY OF CHILD OKEFORD
Child Okeford, Dorset, England
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Child Okeford, Dorset

Pre-History

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Hambledon Hill from Shillingstone Churchyard
December 2002

   
POPULATION

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Hambledon Hill overlooking the centre of the village dominates the prehistory of the area. Seventy-four hectares of the 192 metre high hill has been established as a National Nature Reserve while the archeological remains are a Scheduled National monument.

During the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, about 8,000 BC, the inhabitants of the area would have been hunter-gatherers who made clearings amongst the climax forest which covered the British Isles.

The hill seems to have been and important ceremonial site from about 4,000 BC with the construction of long barrows, two of which can be seen quite distinctly on top of Hambledon Hill. The Iron Age 'hill fort' here was a 'causewayed enclosure' - a circular area enclosed by banks and ditches with causeways through them. The area was excavated in the 1980's and it seems that the dead were left in the central area, exposed to the elements and for the bones to be picked clean by animals before burial in the long barrows.

THE BRONZE AGE
The Royal Commission Survey found at least five Bronze Age barrows on the site but these are almost invisible. It is during the Bronze Age that the slopes of Hambledon Hill began to be cultivated and the field boundaries can still be discerned in the low light of summer evenings.

THE IRON AGE
Iron objects have been recovered from the site dating to between 700 and 500 BC. Early Iron Age pottery fragments were first discovered in 1925.

The simple hill fort was replaced in the mid-Iron Age, between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the double banks and ditches - the white banks on the 192-metre hill must have made the site visible for many miles around - to make the site probably the finest examples of its sort in England. There were impressive entrances in the south-west and north-east corners.

The site was probably used during the mid-Iron Age as, by the late Iron Age, its importance waned in favour of nearby Hod Hill.


The Roman Occupation

Dorset was invaded by Vespasian commaning the 2nd Augusta Legion between AD69 and AD79. Poole harbour, possibly the most important Iron Age port in the British Isles and well known to Roman mariners was used as the supply port for the invading army. Although Dorset was subjugated by the Romans, the tribes in the "civitates" of Durotriges held out against the invaders for as long as possible.

Vespasian attacked Hod Hill and a roundhouse within the Iron Age fort was found to be peppered with ballista bolts indicating that it had been specifically targetted by the Romans. The Romans built a small fort in the north-west corner of the site.

see also:   ROMAN DORSET


The Saxons

Fourteen Saxon burials have been found on Hambledon Hill. It was once thought that these were the graves of pagans who had been buried outside the Christian parish. More recent research would seem to indicate that the Saxons had a great respect for prehistoric monuments such as hill forts and barrows and chose their final resting place to be associated with such sites.

The present Parish Church built between 1250 and 1270 may stand on a Saxon site.


Medieval Child Okeford

The name of the village has been variously spelt as Acford, Chyld Akford and Child Acford.

The Domesday Survey of 1086 records Child Okeford as belonging to the King.

A century later, it was part of Cranbourne Chase, the western edge of Salisbury plain. King John claimed exclusive rights to hunt deer and boar on the chase and anyone found poaching on it was laible to have their hand cut off as a penalty by the King's foresters.

There were two seperate manors; Child Okeford Superior, probably centred about the High Street and the Church; and Child Okeford Inferior, to the north and west, from Gold Hill, over the common and centred on Bere Marsh over the river. The suffixes reflected their positions on higher and lower ground respectively (compare Ryme Intrinseca/Extrinseca).

The present Parish Church built between 1250 and 1270 may stand on a Saxon site. Galfrid de Stocks was the first rector at Child Okeford, presented in 1297 by his relative Roger de Stocks, patron of the parish, who held his lands from the King (Edward I).

The land surrounding the village was, in general, farmed in huge open fields consisting of broad ridges, seperated by furrows (Net Meads wasstrip-cultivated into the 20th century). Other fields were cultivated on the south-western slopes of Hambledon Hill and within the interior of the hill fort itself. The arable fields would have been interspersed with woodland and common grazing.

see also:   MEDIEVAL DORSET   MEDIEVAL BRITAIN


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DORSET
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Bibliography

Recommend a Book for this Page

Child Okeford: A Dorset Village
  edited by Kate M St George (1999) © Child Okeford Millenium Book Committee


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