Prehistoric Find Sheds Light On History Of Castle

This Is Bristol ^ | 6-7-2005

[blam]

PREHISTORIC FIND SHEDS LIGHT ON HISTORY OF CASTLE

11:00 - 07 June 2005

Archaeologists from Bristol University have added 1,000 years of history to Berkeley Castle by uncovering remains of an Iron Age settlement there. The unexpected discovery was made in the kitchen gardens of the castle during a training excavation for students from the university.

Parts of a ring ditch that might have circled a barrow - a mound over an ancient burial site - prehistoric flint tools and a few fragments of human bone have been found immediately below the Victorian kitchen garden's flower beds and greenhouses.

Berkeley Castle is one of the most historic places in Gloucestershire, still inhabited and owned by the same family who were granted the castle in 1156.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the castle played a important and colourful role in both local and national politics.

However the early history of the site remain mysterious, and uncovering this was the target of Bristol University's research.

Dr Mark Horton, head of the department of archaeology and anthropology, who is leading the investigations, said: "We know that there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey close to the site of the castle, but to find prehistoric remains is an exciting and unexpected discovery.

"Very few prehistoric burials are known in the Severn Vale. It is possible that this settlement was located on a small ridge of high ground, to be visible from the river Severn, and might even had been located to help prehistoric navigation up the Berkeley Pill."

The investigations have been undertaken by first-year students studying archaeology at the university, and will be continued in July by aspiring archaeologists who are still at school and want to find out what it is like to work on a dig.

The excavations will be filled in shortly, but it is hoped that there will be a display on the discoveries at the castle for visitors.

[patton]

845. Kenneth MacAlpin.

[RightWhale]

England. Place is crawling with them now.

[ken21]

nice digs.

[RegulatorCountry]

" first appears in English records during the Templar inquisition of 1185."

Well, let me correct that... an actual, known human being bearing the name. The name itself goes back to the Domesday book.

[mollynme]

Looks like they lost possession a few times but eventually got it back.

[RegulatorCountry]

"845. Kenneth MacAlpin."

Originally Scot, I take it? Mine supposedly derives from O'Tuathail, one of the old, tribal warrior kings of Ireland. The various coats of arms from England and Ireland would seem to support this, as they are quite similar. But, no proof other than "legend."

[patton]

In 845, Kenneth MacAlpin crossed the Irish sea, and eventually, wed the matriarch of the blue picts - thus forming Scotland.

[RegulatorCountry]

Not originally Scot but the original Scot, then? Are you fortunate enough to actually have an uninterrupted, documented line back to 845? I'm "stuck" in the 13th century, LOL.

[patton]

Yep - three sources, every step of the way. After that, it gets fuzzy.

[ZULU]

Yes.

The Wars of the Roses, Henry VIII's religious reformation,
the English Civil Wars, the Restoration, the expulsion of James II. They certainly were an adroit bunch to keep their holdings for so long.

I wonder how many others did so and if any family exceeded their success at maintaining their property?

[blam]

"think they have found some 10,000 years old with descendants living nearby."

That would be 9,000 year old Cheddar Man who still has relatives living in the area. The world's oldest geneological record.

[GoLightly]

Because of 1156, I wondered if the former owner had backed Stephen of Blois. Instead, I find that a merchant from Bristol bought the grounds from Maud's half-brother, Robert of Gloucester & he was granted rights to the estate after Maud's son, Henry II rose to the throne.

http://home.freeuk.net/bgas/record.htm

"In the reign of Henry V, a lawsuit was commenced between Lord Berkeley and his cousin, the heiress of the family, which was continued 192 years."

http://www.britannia.com/history/castles/berkeley.html

A civil suit lasting 192 years is what I find to be absolutely amazing. LOL

It is claimed that the castle is where Edward II met his gruesome end. Almost makes you wonder what the family has in their private records.

[AppyPappy]

The original one sank in the swamp

[Natural Law]

So do you think the mortgage is paid off by now?

[Plutarch]

Sir William Berkeley was immensely important in U.S. history. He helped recruit displaced nobles to come to Virginia to form plantations, which established the culture of Virginia, and later the South.

Sir William Berkeley, Berkeley, Sir William, 1606–77, colonial governor of Virginia. Appointed governor in 1641, he arrived in Virginia in 1642. Berkeley defeated the Native Americans and the Dutch, extended explorations, and encouraged agriculture, but so persecuted dissenters that many of them left the colony. An uncompromising royalist, he made Virginia a haven for supporters of Charles I and declined to recognize the Commonwealth. Berkeley was deposed by a Puritan force from England in 1652 and lived quietly on his Virginia plantation until the Restoration in 1660, when he was reappointed governor. His second term as governor was marred by great domestic discontent and strife. A drop in tobacco prices brought great economic suffering to the colony. At the same time it was charged that Berkeley was showing favoritism toward a small group of friends and depriving the freemen of their rights. When, in addition, Berkeley refused to take the measures demanded by the frontiersmen for protection against the Native Americans, Bacon's Rebellion broke out. Temporarily forced to flee, Berkeley regained power after Bacon's premature death and ordered the hanging of many of Bacon's followers. The executions were carried out in defiance of a royal commission that had arrived with pardon for all except Bacon. Finally he yielded to the commission's order that he return to England, where he died discredited.

[RegulatorCountry]

"after Bacon's premature death and ordered the hanging of many of Bacon's followers."

An understatement, to put it mildly. Try drawn and quartered, with your entrails burned in front of you, until dead. Ol Virginny was not kind to backcountry folk or religious dissenters, many of whom went on up the valley and ended up in NC, whose near-anarchy at the time was a welcome relief from the persecution.

[lizma]

Nice web site. The Berkleys held the first American Thanksgiving.
Their recipe for Lamprey Pie:

For baking 4 lampreis for to send to Callodowne uppon my lords letter the tenth day aforesaid (10 Feb 1605)



Item 4 lampreis 18d a pece 11s

Item a peck and a half of whetton meal 18d (pence)

Synomon half an ownce 2d

Butter 3 pound 12d

An ownce of Nutmegges 4d

Item 3 ownces of pepper 6d

Shuger one quarter 5d

Onions one trace (string) 6d

Paper on penny worth 2d

Clarret wine one quarter 8d

Gynger one ownce 1d

For a lof of bred 1d

Item for Drink in the castell for Kymberley (clerk of kitchen) and his boy 2d

Item for Drink in the Town at night 3d

[blam]

"• with Yale and the University of California – who both benefited from the legacy of Bishop George Berkeley of Cloyne in the 18 th Century."

I wonder if the city of Berkeley, California was named after this family.

[Drammach]

. It is possible that this settlement was located on a small ridge of high ground, to be visible from the river Severn, and might even had been located to help prehistoric navigation up the Berkeley Pill."

A good place to check in any area..
A high point, be it ridge or promontory, would be the ideal point to place markers, affording travelers directions, and an overview of the surrounding terrain for the following day's travels..