Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Specific Location: The Ridgeway

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Legends

Scutchamer Knob (Cwichelmslaewe)

Within a small woodland adjacent to the ancient Ridgeway path, where it crosses the parish of East Hendred, stands Scutchamer Knob. It is a raised earth mound and legend has it, that it is the burial mound of the Saxon king Cwichelm.

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Featured Sites / Legends / Pantheons

Wayland’s Smithy

Wayland’s Smithy is one of the most impressive and atmospheric Neolithic burial chambers in Britain. Somehow this ancient grave became associated with Wayland, the Saxon god of metalworking, from whom it takes its name.

History

Ancient Sites / Chalk Hill Figures / Dragons / Featured Sites / Folklore / King Arthur / Legends

Uffington White Horse and Dragon Hill

The White Horse of Uffington is one of the most impressive sites close to the ancient Ridgeway path, which traverses the steep chalk downs brooding over the Vale of the White Horse. Other sites include Dragon Hill, The Manger and Uffington Castle, which have been the subject of legend and folklore for over a thousand years.

Apparitions / Civil War Hauntings / Hauntings

Wigginton Common

During the English Civil War, Wigginton Common served as camp for some of Cromwell’s troops. They used it as a base from where they could bombard Berkhamstead castle. There have been reports of Roundheads, seen on the common in the evening at twilight as the light begins to fade.

Featured Sites / Folklore / Giants

The Aldworth Giants

The tiny atmospheric parish church at Aldworth, contains numerous huge effigies of the De La Beche family. The figures are supposed to be life size representations, depicting knights all over seven feet tall. The De La Beche family were powerful landowners and knights in the 14th century.

Apparitions / Hauntings / Road Ghosts

Compton Bridge

According to local legend, the bridge was haunted by the ghost of a man who met an unfortunate death here. During the 1920s a train travelling to Compton pulled to a halt with one of the carriages straddling the bridge. A male passenger stepped out of the door thinking the train had come to a halt at the platform, and fell to his death onto the road below.

Ancient Sites / Earth Works

Grims Ditches

Grims Ditches are a series of linear earthworks that stretch along part of the Berkshire border, to the Southeast of Wantage and Southwest of Chilton. The purpose of the ditches is not entirely clear but it is likely they had an enclosing function, to define land and protect it.