Knowlton Church... Explained by a discovery 2 miles away! [9:45] [Leo AI formatted transcript]

[Leo AI formatted transcript -- "Please remove timestamps and format this into paragraphs."]

Oddness
Now, you might think that this picture just behind me is one of the oddest things you'll see in this landscape. A thousand-year-old church plonked in the middle of a henge, an earthwork that's around about 4,500 years old. Quite a bizarre picture, but let me show you something just across the road. Now, don't get me wrong, as a picture, that is unique, but there's something else extremely curious.

If I can just find a gap in the hedge here across the road, we can see a tree line, a hedge line which is still there today. And that marks the edge of a huge henge so much bigger than this one. We might be able to see a better view from above. In fact, back beyond the church, we have another two henges. We have barrows. We have an abandoned medieval village. In fact, an aerial survey undertaken in 2000 established that within 1 and a half km radius of this complex, there were 178 ring ditches, that being the only thing left of a barrow, unsurpassed anywhere in Wessex.
The Question
So, we have this really curious-looking church stuck in a henge that is probably over three and a half thousand years older than it. That's curious in itself. We also have the southern henge with very little remaining above ground. This is almost comparable to something like the Durrington walls near Stonehenge. However, we have very little evidence for domestic activity here. So, not only do we have this curiosity right here of the church and the henge, but if I spin the camera around, we've got another significant bar almost D-shaped. If I swing just a further this way, we've got Churchyard henge as well. No relation to the church itself, just the proximity. And finally, behind the church, you can see another barrow in the distance there. And that has got two concentric circles around it. Could well have started its life perhaps as a henge in itself as well.

So, what exactly was going on with all these henges in the landscape? And of course, the other question is why the church plonked right here as well. Often places like Avery significant henges like we see here to a degree. Well, they started out as a house, a settlement which was then memorialized. The heritage of that place was memorialized. But nothing here was found. Now, archaeologists have been working on this site over the period of many years and they found no evidence of domestic activity here. No pre-settlement prior to this henge. So, that lack of activity here in terms of a living presence.
Building a Picture
Well, what did that tell us? To answer that, we need to head south. And we are following to a degree the banks of the river Allen just here within a mile or so we get to a small hamlet called Horton in. And there on that same side that eastern bank where they found a cluster of arrows. And if we continue along this river, we come to another settlement that of High Lee and we find there once again and perhaps more importantly for this topic today a cluster of barrows. And you may be thinking, of course, what has all this got to do with Knowlton Church and the henge back there? Highly specifically, this area was subject to some archaeological excavations. What intrigued them was the triple linear alignment of over 30 barrows. They noted that only two remained. The rest have been reduced to what are now ringing ditches. They decided to excavate both.

So, the first of these two was a little underwhelming for one of a better word. We have the earthwork um remains and we have one uh bottom of an urn inside it with the remains of a cremation. That was it. The second one though, they had another chance and could this perhaps provide us with some archaeology, something to give us a really tangible insight into what was going on in this landscape. Well, it certainly didn't disappoint. Lots of things were found here which could almost deserve a video in their own right. But what we're after is how could this help us with the Knowlton complex and our understanding of this whole landscape. In the center of the barrow was a wooden frame inside a rectangular pit. No base, no lid. So, think of a bookcase on its side without shelves led down and two cremations were inside. They're dated this to 1948BC to 1747 BC. That's all good. Very Bronze Age. But what came next?

Archaeologists had not seen before. You see, prior to these cremations, an elaborate enclosure was built consisting of a number of concentric rings of stakes. These were surrounded by regular pits also forming an even wider circle beyond. Now, this combination of pre-barrow features, this combination of these irregular pits and these stakes, well, that was unique. Now, those stakes were clearly marked out this mortuary space that was later then obviously important with context to the barrow itself which came later. So, was this actually a rare thing? Or perhaps it's just that we haven't found any like that to date. Another pit was opened and they found that this wasn't the only pre-barrow activity. Here we have more stake holes, but this time the stake holes were part of a structure. Perhaps oval in its shape with supportive stake holes towards the center providing support for this superstructure. The pits contained significant quantities of domestic waste, all indicating domestic usage, a lived space.
A Link
Some of what was found within the pits was burnt timbers and ash. And of course, this would give us a date. In fact, not only would it give us a date, but it would also begin to help us piece together this puzzle of what was going on here and at Nolton. That date was 2411 to 2270 BC, which not only predated the barrow for sure, but it was also contemporary with the henges back in Nolton. So, now we have a link at least in date form. And as the archaeology continues, well, we start to see evidence of a settlement. We start to see larger staked more rectilinear type buildings and we start to see people having settled there. Now, all of these features appeared along this eastern bank of the river Allen. Perhaps in some ways, they were linked to it unifying that space.

The significance of the water should not be overlooked. We have this well-documented in many areas. Now, over on the west side of the river Allan, the banks of it while we see earlier activity we see the Neolithic and we see their monuments. The long barrows and the cursus monument of course the Dorset great cursus 6 and a half mi long. We see the landscape littered with those monuments, long barrowers and such. But here on the east side, we now see new and emerging social and religious ideas at the time of the introduction of the Beaker people and the Bronze Age. That's not to say we don't see some of that on the west side, but here on the east, we seem to have far more structure.
Take me to Church
The Bronze Age came to an end around 800 BC give or take in this era and then we move into the Iron Age and then on to the Roman era and as Christianity slowly starts to settle in well 1100 AD the Normans decided that they would put this church right here in the middle of this pagan henge and whilst their philosophy was we're not going to deface or remove these old pagan sites in a really sort of obvious way.

Well, we are going to stamp our authority of Christianity here. Certainly a knolwton did a better job than that than perhaps any. Now, this church would serve the abandoned village I think just down in the valley there. You can still see remnants of it today. Now, that would suffer greatly from the black death. Whilst it would continue, be renovated on a couple of occasions.

I think in the 1700s the roof finally fell in and it was in the abandoned state thereafter and as we see it continue in that state still today.
Continuity
Nolton church not only stands as this relic of the faith that was here but also a quiet testament to the continuity here. This really obscure medieval church sat in the bounds of this Neolithic late Neolithic early bronze age setting. This henge here. Our lives themselves aren't disconnected from that ancient past. In fact, I feel like on hot days like this, you feel much more of a connection to these people that would have lived here, worked here, built the henes, built the barrerows, and then of course built more modern churches.

I think everything is this long continuation in I guess being out here in the landscape. You do really feel part of that connection. I've been Paul. If you've enjoyed this, click on subscribe and I'll see you this time next week.

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