Found Mounds…

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‘…We didn’t go to High Bradfield to look for a mound we went to High Bradfield for the church there but we found a mound anyway.

It was hidden behind the church and was purporting to be a disused Motte-and-Bailey.

It was also overgrown with curly trees not unlike those we were surrounded by when looking for the Chat-Stone, now lost…for the moment at least.

I am doing the mound itself something of a disservice here because it is not actually purporting to be anything other than what it is, how could it do otherwise, but the ‘authorities’ for want of a better word are now passing it off as a disused Motte-and-Bailey and have been, perhaps, for some considerable time.

Now, far be it from me to cast aspersions upon the dictates of authority and as there have been excavations at the site which did indeed uncover large blocks of dressed stone there can be little doubt that at some point this ‘man-made conical mound’ did serve the populace, or at least the people who governed the populace, in a defensive capacity.

This does not alter the fact that in all probability the ‘man-made’ structure was already there before the addition of the dressed stone which thus was not constructed specifically for defensive purposes which is unfortunately how the record now tends to read and indeed how it now almost exclusively tends to be read.

Once an acceptable reason has been assigned no one looks for another.

Why should they?

…And, as Wen quite rightly points out there is an even higher natural hillock just up the way which is now actually known as Castle Hill! I mean how many hills upon a hill is it advisable to have, for defensive purposes…?

However, whatever the truths involved in and behind ‘man-made conical mound’ construction, Wen and I were undoubtedly going to have to go up it…

“…Undoubtedly…”

Unfortunately, on our first two visits, partly because of the weather and partly because of our rather stressful escapade looking for the afore-mentioned Chat-Stone we were unable to investigate properly but as Wen continues to insist, three’s and thirds are important.

So, we will come back again on our third visit with someone else in tow and we will scale the man-made-mound covered in curly trees that hides behind the Church of St Nicholas at High Bradfield… and that is a promise…’

Excerpt from, ‘Doomsday: The Aetheling Thing’, by Stuart France and Sue Vincent.

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