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One of my favourite walks is around Athelney, Burrow Mump and the surrounding Somerset Levels. Few landscapes can have been transformed quite as much as this area which once upon a time were deadly swamps and marshlands that could only be traversed with wooden walkways or through obscure trails known only to those with an intimate understanding of the area. This was the landscape known to King Alfred and his much diminished band of Saxon warriors who had been forced into hiding here on the Isle of Princes (Athelney - and it really was an island at the time) in 878 AD. Later, windmills and steam power would transform these marshes into the landscape we see now of straight drainage canals, fields and embankments. Although nature has a way of reclaiming these low lying lands with fairly frequent flooding most winters.
It is no exaggeration to say that in the 9th Century the Anglo-Saxon nation was reduced to what could be viewed from the Isle of Athelney. The Vikings had been so successful that Alfred had been forced to retreat to rebuild, rearm, reconstitute alliances in this almost inaccessible marshland environment. Effectively, ‘England’ was the view from Athelney and a soggy view it was too. The area around Athelney was all that remained of the Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. It would have been a desperate time for the embattled King and his followers.
The monument itself was constructed in 1801 by John Slade at a time of similar peril for the nation although this time the danger was a young Napoleon Bonaparte. John Slade was a soldier himself commanding the Royal Dragoons at the time. His father had bought Maunsell House and Estate which included Athelney Farm on the side of this rare bit of raised ground in the area. One wonders whether his motivation in building this monument was to conjure up the spirit of Alfred to help a beleaguered England once more at the start of the new century. Perhaps fittingly it was a kinsman of his, Sir Thomas Slade, who was the naval architect who designed Nelson’s ‘Victory’ which would help to seal England’s freedom from Napoleonic tyranny. John Slade would later be awarded a baronet for his services leading cavalry through the Peninsular Campaign.
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It never ceases to amaze me that this is one of the most consequential places in English history (and reputedly the location where Alfred burned the cakes of a local lady who chastised him right royally) and yet I have never ever seen another person at this site—other than the farmer who owns it. He also took a starring role in both episodes of Time Team that were filmed here. Indeed, this site’s historical importance was why the Channel 4 programme used it as their very first episode and also why it was the first site they ever returned to in order to do a second dig on their 100th episode 10 year anniversary.
Alfred used the island to gather his strength, set up blacksmiths to produce weaponry and armour and sent out messengers all over the country to gather forces to Edington where they would score a great victory over the Vikings and return to the path of power that would ultimately lead to the creation of England under his grandson Aethelstan. Appreciating the significance of this island in preserving his kingdom, Alfred founded an Abbey on the site in 888 AD. This religious house would be for the monks of St Benedict, and it would remain in operation until the Reformation swept it aside. This adds yet another level of importance to this remarkable location. I should add that the site is now surrounded by iron railings but it is clear that this was not always the case as graffiti from across the ages attests—some of them helpfully pointing out the antiquity of their own marks from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
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From here we walked alongside the River Tone towards Burrowbridge which lies on the even larger River Parrett—one of the main waterways in the region. This community built up around the old toll bridge that was built in 1828 as the levels became more traversable thanks to land reclamation through the far more reliable pumps utilising the steam power of the industrial revolution. Turnpike roads were built and toll bridges constructed as the government hoped to improve infrastructure at minimal cost to the taxpayer. It is a very busy road and bridge to this day.
Towering over the old bridge is Burrow Mump. This was an even more substantial island than that of Athelney. It was almost certainly used as a look out point in the time of King Alfred. And that is probably where the name came from. We now spell it Burrow but old maps show that it was spelt Borough which itself is derived from King Alfred's name for fortified positions - his famous Burhs. East Lyng was a burh as we shall see later. Some old maps mistakenly assumed this was where King Alfred hid from the Vikings and King Alfred's Fort is often labelled incorrectly on the feature. Burrow Mump might not have been quite as big at that time, though, as it is likely that the Normans built up the mound to support an adulterine castle (basically a fortified house) possibly during the anarchy years of Matilda and Stephen. Later the monks from Athelney Abbey oversaw the construction of a church dedicated to St Michael—an appropriate saint for a site with so many military connections. Indeed it would see even more military uses as its strategic location was clearly obvious.
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In the Civil War, Royalist troops occupied this church in the aftermath of General Goring’s defeat at Langport by Sir Thomas Fairfax in 1645. They would surrender to Colonel Okey who had made his name just the month before at the Battle of Naseby when his troops enfiladed the advancing Royalists and set the stage for their defeat. The site was also used in 1685 during the Monmouth Rebellion which culminated just a couple miles North at Westonzoyland. Later during some excavations of the church the burial of a man with a lead bullet was discovered although it is not clear which of those clashes he was killed in. The church itself seems to have been damaged during that Civil War clash and was never used again - despite some attempts to have it repaired in the 18th Century. In the 19th Century it was decided to build a church in Burrowbridge itself confusingly also called St Michael’s—and even more sadly all locked up! The old St Michael’s has been designated as a war memorial to the men and women of Somerset who died in the Second World War. The views are spectacular from up here, you may not be that high, but when everything around you is at barely above sea level you can see for miles. We were also treated to a fly by from an RAF A400 Atlas pretty much directly above us, perhaps they were using the hill as a navigational aid.
We descended back into Burrowbridge and had a bite to eat in the appropriately named King Alfred Inn. This pub itself was something of a victim of those Turnpike roads when it was deemed necessary for the Lyng road to be built through what was the front of the Inn in 1806. It was during this enforced remodelling that it earned its new name of King Alfred Inn. Possibly this was because of the renewed interest engendered by John Slade’s monument just a few years earlier. In its modern iteration Rupert was a big hit with the serving staff who brought him a steady stream of treats! After lunch, we crossed back over the Parrett. Amusingly when we had first crossed the bridge we had spotted two naughty sheep enjoying themselves on the bank of the river. Not believing their luck. By the time we returned they had gone, perhaps feeling a little ‘sheepish’ at their escapade.
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The weather was steadily warming up as we headed north east along the River Parrett although it was largely hidden from us by its substantial anti-flooding embankments. It was still a lovely walk with some impressive farmland. I loved seeing swallows swooping above fields of wheat. Dragonflies and butterflies danced all around us all day. The irrigation channels make this a wonderful ecosystem for flora and fauna alike. And their straight lines remind us that this is no natural environment, this is a landscape made by man for agricultural purposes - but one that nature has adapted to in its stride.
Nothing emphasised these straight constructions better than Lyng Drove, which we followed unbending for two kilometres straight. The Drove refers to its role in allowing cattle to be moved around these complex irrigation waterways. And sure enough we saw plenty of fields of cattle along this route. Fields of young bulls, fields of cows and calves and one field with a huge white bull who was clearly letting all the others know who was the boss!
We were heading to East Lyng which once upon a time was the main defensive burh and entrance way to King Alfred’s hideaway. It was something of a guarded gateway from where you could follow a wooden pathway through the marsh to Athelney. In times of danger, the wooden boards could be destroyed to make it even harder to get to the island.
We headed to St Bartholomew’s church hoping it would be open, and were delighted to find that it was. Its very location shows us where the defensive burh was once located. At the end of the cemetery is a sharp boundary wall which marks the end of the Saxon defences. Most burhs are long buried deep under the urban ‘boroughs’ that they often spawned. But this is one of the few where you can actually see the Saxon defences although of course the land all around it has been transformed beyond all recognition.
This church was also built by Athelney Abbey as their own power and wealth increased as land reclamation and agricultural production on their lands increased. There is a delightful stained glass window showing King Alfred wearing what is known as the Alfred Jewel. This Saxon Pointer (used to follow Scripture) was found nearby in the 17th Century and is regarded as a masterpiece of Saxon artisanship. The case intriguingly says that ‘Alfred caused me to be made’ hence its name as the Alfred Jewel. These days it is held in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford although a replica was made for the church itself.
The church has some wonderful bench ends at least some of which may have been carved by the monks from Athelney Abbey not long before its dissolution. The reason that at least one can be so confidently dated is due to the carving of a couple ‘hand-fasting’ in a betrothal ceremony. The lady in that particular bench end wears a gable coif in the style popular in the early years of Henry VIII’s reign. But some were definitely done later—as one of them very handily displays the date 1614! They show all sorts of interesting images including a man pole vaulting across a water filled ditch, a green man, dragons, wrestlers, a unicorn and one where a boy stands on a friend to reach acorns.
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In the tower there were two very large and impressive 18th Century paintings showing Moses and Aaron. They are huge and in a very distinctive style. They are close to the 12th-century Norman font. The pulpit is believed to be a repurposed rood loft when they were ordered to be dismantled in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Just like many churches, St Bartholomew’s was extensively revamped in the Victorian era with some nice Arts and Crafts touches including Minton tiles and some very good quality stained glass windows. And just like most churches, there is a memorial to those who lost their lives and those who served in the World Wars. Sadly there are individual memorials to local sons who were killed in the First World War.
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It really is a lovely church and as we looked around the outside, taking in its strategic location we were intrigued to find three graves dating back to the 17th century and all of them surprisingly well preserved. They were very easy to read in fact far better than many more modern grave stones.
But as it was getting late we had to head back to Athelney to finish our circuit. As we did so we took one more historical route. Now it is called Cuts Road but it is quite a narrow road taking something of an odd route. The reason for this is that it is following the Balt Moor Wall which might be some of the oldest surviving flood defences in the country. It definitely dates from the medieval period and probably back to the Saxon era as a defensive wall to try and control flood waters. It itself might have been built along the route of the original wooden trackway built to King Alfred’s hideaway in the 9th Century. The reason being that once a route was marked out, it may well have been improved over the years and made higher forming a barrier that subsequent generations maintained rather than having to build a new one. So, as you walk (or drive) along this route, who knows, you may be following in the exact footsteps of King Alfred from all those centuries ago. He would have been much closer to the water and he would have been surrounded by marshland and reeds. It is hard to appreciate that vanished landscape now, but even in its transformed state, it has achieved a different kind of beauty. But even though it has changed beyond all recognition, it will never lose its history.
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