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The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
Silchester, Hampshire
Bath, Somerset
Speen, Newbury
Cunetio Roman Town
Verlucio Roman Town
Roman Road Crossing of the River Avon
West Kennet Avenue
The Sanctuary
Roman Road from Silchester to Bath is in Roman Roads.
The Roman Road from Silchester to Bath connected Silchester, Hampshire [Map] with Bath, Somerset [Map] via Speen, Newbury [Map], Cunetio Roman Town [Map], Verlucio Roman Town [Map] and Lacock [Map] where it crossed the Gloucestershire River Avon.
Avebury by William Stukeley. Table X. Prospect of the Roman Road & Wansdike Just above Calston May 20. 1724. This demonstrates that Wansdike was made before the Roman Road.
Avebury by William Stukeley. Table IX. The Roman road leading from Bekampton to Hedington July 18. 1723.
Colt Hoare 1812. 1812. Plate X. represents the situation of the Temple at Abury, with its two extending avenues; Silbury hill [Map], the principal source of the river Kennet, the British track-way, groups of barrows, and the line of Roman road between Bath and Marlborough. This Plate may be considered as one of the most interesting views which our island can produce. It unites monuments of the earliest British and Roman antiquity, and will, I trust, convey a more correct and explicit idea of Abury and its environs, than any that has heretofore been given. The Plate No. VIII of Stukeley, is both confused and incorrect, because not drawn from actual survey.
On examining this ground plan, we perceive a degree of symmetry, of which, except upon paper, we could form no conception, nor for which could we give credit to the early Britons. We behold the grand circle placed in the centre of the picture, and the huge mount of Silbury in a line opposite to it1. Two avenues, like wings, expand themselves to the right and left, as if to protect the hallowed sanctuary, and the holy mount. The eastern avenue, terminates with a circular temple [Map], thus distinguishing it as a place of peculiar eminence. From the winding form of this work, Dr. Stukeley has very ingeniously developed the form of a serpent, and distinguished this temple as one of that class called by the ancients Dracontia.
This plan receives additional interest by comprehending same groups of barrows, which I investigated, the principal source of the river Kennet, a small portion of the British Track-way, passing from the district of South Wiltshire, throughout the whole extent of Berkshire2, and a large portion of the Roman road between Bath and Marlborough.
Note 1. Dr. Stukeley remarks that the meridian line passed through the centre of the Grand Circle, and of Silbury Hill; and on making our observations, and allowing for the variation of the compass, we find it still does the same.
Note 2. The course of this ridge-way has already been described, page 45. still does the same.
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