Evidence of Early Medieval Welsh in Kintbury, Berkshire Plus the Landing Place (“hyð”) on the Kennet 

And his parents were almost definitely Christian. It’s the equivalent of calling a child Lucifer unless (a) the word meant nothing after a while or (b) they had a sneaking admirati9n for such concepts

The only male names still used that I can count are Oswald (not that popular after Mosley), Edward, Alfred and Godwin. There are quite a few women's though.

@@AllotmentFox cheers - I didn’t know the origin of Audrey and would never have guessed it was old English. My attempts to name a son Godwin were vetoed, but I got away with Edward.

@WC21UKProductionsLtd where does Darren come from? It’s not a Christian name, I don’t think, or is it?

@@AllotmentFox sadly it comes from the 1960s to my knowledge! A character in an American TV show called Bewitched, I believe! I have seen some attempts to give it a Medieval basis, but it’s just wishful thinking!

It is only the river names (except for Spinis) that survive in West Berkshire and quite a few of them are Celtic (Grundy thinks some are pre-Celtic but how he would know that heaven knows). The early English were often hegemonic in imposing their culture, or it was just too sexy and everyone abandoned their own culture in favour of it. I think hegemony. But the river names were a blind spot for them. I suspose they just weren’t important enough to claim or they respected the watery gods. The gods of the land aren’t all that likely to kill you, the river gods, though …

I have thought about it. The most I have ever written was 35,000 words so I could probably stretch to 70,000 with some effort.

I was looking at the use of the word melancholy-an old-fashioned word-and it had declined from the 19th-C but has seen a big resurgence in the latter part of the 20th-C. Why not use the word depression? I suggest because some people can be melancholic without being unwell: a character trait as legitimate as optimism if we allow people to be what they are. It might be related to introspection in some way. Spotting the difference between ‘wall’ and Welsh “Wealh” is really hard but the authorities are clear of the Welsh link here. They are less so with Wallingford though between you and I I reckon it might be Welsh. I don’t want to be wrong with my videos (and there have been a couple of stinkers) so I am careful to make sure my assertions are more likely supported than not. Thanks for commenting!

@@AllotmentFox Yes I'm quite possibly misusing it compared with the original meaning of the word but melancholy to me suggests a state which is not too serious, adjacent to wistful perhaps. ...and I think we might have touched on this before in a previous discussion of where the Ridgeway might have crossed the Thames originally, but do I recall correctly Wallingford was likely too far north to be a reasonable candidate? I like the idea that in the early medieval period the English might have called things "Welsh" to suggest they were remembered as being pre-Roman. So as a piece of completely unsubstantiated conjecture, if the Ridgeway around there had been repurposed under Roman rule, they might have found a more pragmatic river crossing (Moulsford?) but a memory of the former pre-Roman route might have been fossilised in Wallingford.

@@tweedyoutdoors yes I agree with that assessment with melancholy, I’m just surprised anyone still uses it and it seems from the statistics everyone is. THE Ridgeway: I think if we are talking really old use then Goring is our man. But in the summer a short cut could be had at Wallingford. I don’t think the ancestors were any different from us so they wouldn’t have turned down a short cut if there was a good road. Consider the names Cholsey and Mackney, both having ey meaning island and the more in Moreton means marsh so it would’ve been tough walking going up to Wallingford. Moulsford has the element -ford so that is a good candidate, the Thames being a dangerous barrier. If there was a ford at Goring that would be our best answer (apart from digging). Plus the official ridgeway on the west bank meets the Icknield way on the east there so that is a compelling clue as long as whoever decided those marks on the map were competent. If you were a mesolithic hunter the whole landscape would have been wooded, the only means of navigation would have been to follow a river or keep to the ridges. So if we are interested in the concept of THE Ridgeway being meaningful at that distance in time then I think that is the answer: ridge, ford, ridge with the shortest gaps in-between. All in all, I would be sceptical of a built up, ditched road short-cut to Wallingford until the Iron Age and probably the Roman period. There is a Roman road going to Dorchester-on-Thames from (probably) the Ridgeway/Icknield Street through Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.

Did you ever get to see any locally held documents about Wawcott? The place is intriguing. Avington also has Norman carvings inside apparently and I am gutted I couldn’t get in. I have been enjoying the Hungerford virtual museum. They should take over a room in tha5 underused white elephant of a town hall. I’ve never seen it open.

@@AllotmentFox No, I've never seen any local documents, they're probably all held by craven estates if they exist, they used to have their hunting kennels down there. Not sure if your aware but Gelling does suggest in the bounds of Oare (Chieveley not Wiltshire BCS 1225) that 'Wealcottes Leahe' may have been a detached piece of woodland belonging to Wawcott.

@@thebeatentrack156 That's chuffing miles away. Can you imagine the Saxon lord telling his tenants to walk 8 miles cut some trees down and walk back again? If I remember rightly that location was: (1) called 'wall' rather than Welsh by Grundy and (2) the HER suspects a Roman villa there, which is a very enticing idea the last of the occupants being called Welsh.

@@thebeatentrack156 is there still a Craven estate, ie a working farm?

@@AllotmentFox No, I don't think so. I do know that the Museum Of English Rural Life hold a collection from the Craven family but its contents I know not.