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Combe Gibbet
Combe Gibbet is a gibbet at the top of Gallows Down, near the village and just within the civil parish of Combe in Berkshire (formerly Hampshire). Location The gibbet is located at , on the Test Way close to the Berkshire-Hampshire border, it is named after the village of Combe, but it is also close to Inkpen. The nearest sizeable town is Newbury in Berkshire. It is built on top of a long barrow known as the ''Inkpen long barrow''. The long barrow is 60 m long and 22 m wide, and is a Scheduled Monument. Walbury Hill (the highest point in South East England) is just a little further to the east. History It was erected in 1676 for the purpose of gibbeting the bodies of George Broomham and Dorothy Newman and has only ever been used for them. The gibbet was placed in such a prominent location as a warning, to deter others from committing crimes. Broomham and Newman were having an affair and were hanged for murdering Broomham's wife Martha, and their son Robert after th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Test Way
The Test Way is a http://documents.hants.gov.uk/countryside/walks/TestWayleaflet.pdf long-distance footpath in England from Walbury Hill in West Berkshire to Eling in Hampshire, which follows much of the course of the River Test. The northern end of the footpath starts in the car park on Walbury Hill. It passes through the towns of Romsey and Totton and the villages of Linkenholt, Ibthorpe, Hurstbourne Tarrant, St Mary Bourne, Longparish, Forton, Wherwell, Chilbolton, Stockbridge, Horsebridge and Mottisfont. The southern end of the footpath is at Eling Quay. The trail also passes alongside Horsebridge railway station. Much of the route between Kimbridge and Chilbolton follows the route of the former Andover and Redbridge Railway. The entire route is waymarked by metal and plastic disks found attached to wooden and metal posts, trees and street furniture. There are several wooden 'finger' signs along the route that count down the number of miles along the footpath in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gibbet
A gibbet is any instrument of public execution (including guillotine, decapitation, executioner's block, Impalement, impalement stake, gallows, hanging gallows, or related Scaffold (execution site), scaffold). Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet was also used as a method of execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called "hanging in chains". Display Gibbeting was a common law punishment, which a judge could impose in addition to execution. This practice was regularized in England by the Murder Act 1751, which empowered judges to impose this for murder. It was most often used for traitors, murderers, highwayman, highwaymen, pirates, and sheep stealers and was intended to discourage others from commi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Downland
Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is derived from the Old English word dun, meaning "hill". Distribution The largest area of downland in southern England is formed by Salisbury Plain, mainly in Wiltshire. To the southwest, downlands continue via Cranborne Chase into Dorset as the Dorset Downs and southwards through Hampshire as the Hampshire Downs onto the Isle of Wight. To the northeast, downlands continue along the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills through parts of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and into Cambridgeshire. To the east downlands are found north of the Weald in Surrey, Kent and part of Greater London, forming the North Downs. To the southeast the downlands continue into West Sussex and East Sussex as the South Downs. Similar cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Berkshire
Historically, the English county of Berkshire has been bordered to the north by the ancient boundary of the River Thames. However, much of the border with Oxfordshire in the western part of the county was moved in 1974. Alfred the Great was born in Wantage, historically in Berkshire, but now in Oxfordshire for administrative purposes. The Great Western Railway reached Didcot in 1839. MG (part of Morris Motors) was founded in Abingdon in 1929. The Vale of White Horse and parts of Oxfordshire south of the Thames were previously part of Berkshire, but were lost to the county in 1974. Conversely, the Slough area north of the Thames is historically part of Buckinghamshire, but became ceremonially part of Berkshire in 1974. Important historical abbeys include Abingdon Abbey and Reading Abbey. Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol after his court case. The county is known as the Royal County of Berkshire since the Royal residence of Windsor Castle is within it. Politically, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hills Of Berkshire
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as tall, or as steep as a mountain. Geographers historically regarded mountains as hills greater than above sea level, which formed the basis of the plot of the 1995 film ''The Englishman who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain''. In contrast, hillwalkers have tended to regard mountains as peaks above sea level. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' also suggests a limit of and Whittow states "Some authorities regard eminences above as mountains, those below being referred to as hills." Today, a mountain is usually defined in the UK and Ireland as any summit at least high, while the official UK government's definition of a mountain is a summit of or higher. Some definitions include a topographical prominence requirement, typically or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1676 Establishments In England
Events January–March * January 29 – Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia. * January 31 – Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, the oldest institution of higher education in Central America, is founded. * January – Six months into King Philip's War, Metacomet (King Philip), leader of the Algonquian tribe known as the Wampanoag, travels westward to the Mohawk nation, seeking an alliance with the Mohawks against the English colonists of New England; his efforts in creating such an alliance are a failure. * February 10 – After the Nipmuc tribe attacks Lancaster, Massachusetts, colonist Mary Rowlandson is taken captive, and lives with the Indians until May. * February 14 – Metacomet and his Wampanoags attack Northampton, Massachusetts; meanwhile, the Massachusetts Council debates whether a wall should be erected around Boston. * February 23 – While the Massachusetts Council debates how to handle the Christian Indians they had ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kennet Valley
The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which – together with the Avon Navigation, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames – links the cities of Bristol and London. The length from near its sources west of Marlborough, Wiltshire down to Woolhampton, Berkshire is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). This is primarily from an array of rare plants and animals completely endemic to chalky watercourses. When Wiltshire had second-tier local authorities, one, Kennet District, took the name of the river. Etymology The pronunciation (and spelling) was as the Kunnit (or Cunnit). This is likely derived from the Roman settlement in the upper valley floor, Cunetio (in the later large village of Mildenhall). Latin scholars state Cunetio is very unlikely to be a Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Test
The River Test is a chalk stream in Hampshire in the south of England. It rises at Ashe near Basingstoke and flows southwards for to Southampton Water. Settlements on the Test include the towns of Stockbridge and Romsey. Below the village of Longparish, the river is broadly followed by the Test Way, a long-distance footpath. Much of the Test is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is part of the Solent and Southampton Water Ramsar site and Special Protection Area. The river is used for fly fishing for trout from its source to its tidal limit. Etymology Recorded forms are Terstan from 877 and 901, Tarstan stream in 1045, Terstein 1234, and Test in 1425. If Common Brittonic, not Old English, all related dictionaries show three suitable words beginning with Tre- and none with extremely rare Ter-. There is precedent to such metathesis: as for the river Tern in the far west, from tren 'strong'. If so it most likely relates to the Welsh ''tres'' (tumult, commoti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Watership Down, Hampshire
Watership Down is a hill or a down at Ecchinswell in the civil parish of Ecchinswell, Sydmonton and Bishops Green in the English county of Hampshire, as part of the Hampshire Downs. It rises fairly steeply on its northern flank (the scarp side), but to the south the slope is much gentler (the dip side). The summit is 237 m (778 ft) above sea level, one of the highest points in Hampshire. The Down is best known as the setting for Richard Adams' 1972 novel about rabbits, also called ''Watership Down''. The area is popular with cyclists and walkers. A bridleway, the Wayfarer's Walk cross county footpath, runs along the ridge of the Down which lies at the south-eastern edge of the North Wessex Downs Area of Natural Beauty. Other nearby features include Ladle Hill, on Great Litchfield Down, immediately to the west. Part of the hill is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, first notified in 1978. The hill has a partially completed Iron Age hill fort on its su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pilot Hill, Hampshire
Pilot Hill is the highest summit in Hampshire, England, with a maximum elevation of . It lies around to the south-east of Walbury Hill, the county top of Berkshire, which is high. The hill is about southwest of Newbury on the Hampshire/Berkshire border and is part of the north-facing scarp of the North Hampshire Downs, a chalk ridge within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The upper slopes are open calcareous grassland, while the lower slopes are wooded. The hill lies within the civil parishes of East Woodhay (which includes the summit), Faccombe and Combe. East Woodhay is within the district of Basingstoke and Deane in the administrative county of Hampshire, Faccombe is in the Hampshire district of Test Valley, and Combe is within the unitary authority area of West Berkshire and the ceremonial county of Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South Ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reading Post
The ''Reading Post'' (until 2009, the ''Reading Evening Post'') was an English local newspaper covering Reading, Berkshire and surrounding areas. The title page of the paper featured the Maiwand Lion, a famous local landmark at Forbury Gardens. The paper was most recently published by Surrey & Berkshire Media Ltd., a division of Trinity Mirror plc. Editions In 2009, the paper changed from daily publication to publishing weekly on a Wednesday as a paid-for paper with a free edition on a Friday titled ''Get Reading''. The paper was previously promoted as an evening paper and published Monday to Friday. In recent years, all editions were tabloid though it was launched as a broadsheet. Sale In February 2010 the division of Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the financial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overton, Hampshire
Overton is a large village and parish in Hampshire, England located west of the town of Basingstoke, and east of Andover and Whitchurch. The village contains smaller hamlets of Southington, Northington, Ashe, Polhampton, and Quidhampton, the latter two lying to the north of the village. The River Test has its source to the east in Ashe. There is evidence of habitation since the Stone and Bronze Ages with finds and barrows located nearby. The area has a history of banknote paper manufacture starting in the 18th century, and Overton Mill, as of March 2020, still produces the paper for pound sterling banknotes for the Bank of England. History Earliest origins The area around Overton has been inhabited for millennia with evidence of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Celts, Celtic occupation scattered across the parish and surrounding countryside, including tumuli at Popham, Hampshire, Popham Beacons at the southern tip of the parish; Abra Barrow on the boundary south west of Overton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
