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Hills & Beacons of the Thames Valley |
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| Beacon hills mark sites where signal fires were lit to warn of invasion such as when the Spanish Armada approached these shores. Telegraph hills mark sites of telegraph stations which, during the Napoleonic Wars, sent semaphore messages across the countryside. In 1136 it is recorded in the Orkneyinga Saga that the Earl of Orkney instituted a system of beacon fires to pass, from island to island, news of the approach of raiders from Shetland to the North. In 1324 a report of an Inquisition in the Isle of Wight gives details of a system of 32 beacons used for the defence of the island. Joseph Houghton Spencer in his Ancient Trackways in England (1889) investigated a system of what would now probably be called "Ley Lines" centred on the estate of Barton Grange, Corfe (near Taunton). He suggested that these formed a system of long distance signals connecting natural harbours and also connected by early ridgeway paths. He also thought that these signal stations fell into the hands of the religious houses but the knowledge was lost at their dissolution by Henry VIII. Royal occasions are still celebrated by the nationwide lighting of beacons organised by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and other events are marked by the lighting of beacons (The midsummer fires in Cornwall for example). Many fairs and gatherings were held at traditional hill top sites, events including chasing after cheeses rolled down the hill etc. |
| SO8612 | Painswick | Painswick Hill | . | ||
| SO8818 | Churchdown | Churchdown Hill | . | ||
| SO8914 | Brockworth | Cooper's Hill : Cheese Rolling | . | ||
| SO9216 | Brockworth | Crickley Hill | . | ||
| SO9418 | Leckhampton | Devil's Chimney | . | ||
| ST9467 | Lacock | Bowden Hill | . | ||
| SO9826 | Woodmancote | Cleve Hill | . | ||
| SO9828 | Woodmancote | Nottingham Hill | . | ||
| SU0764 | Devizes | Tan Hill | . | ||
| SU1068 | Avebury | Silbury Hill
:On
Palm Sunday local people would climb to the top for cakes, ale and merry
making. Legend says that King Sil is buried here on horseback in a
golden coffin or that the Devil dumped his shovel load of earth here. He
was on his way to smother Avebury but met a cobbler with a sack of shoes
and asked how far it was to Avebury. The cobbler told the Devil that he
had worn out the sack of shoes walking from there, so the Devil gave up
and dumped his load. |
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| SU1274 | Broad Hinton | Hackpen Hill : A shepherd lost his way and found himself inside a Fairy Hill where he was shown strange underground places and heard music. | . | ||
| SU1576 | Wroughton | Barbury Castle | . | ||
| SP2020 | Wyck Rissington | Wyck Beacon | . | ||
| SU2079 | Liddington | Liddington Castle | . | ||
| SU2694 | Faringdon | Badbury Hill | . | ||
| SU3086 | Uffington | Whitehorse Hill : Sports and games were held on
Whitehorse Hill when the hill figure was scoured. The first recorded event
was in 1755 and the last in 1892. Events included: backsword
play (basically fighting with sticks), chasing a cheese down the
hill, wrestling, various races, climbing the greasy pole, catching a
greased pig, "jingling matches" and "grinning through a horse
collar" |
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| SU3561 | Inkpen | Inkpen Beacon, Combe Gibbet & Walbury Hill | . | ||
| TL0019 | Dunstable | Dunstable Downs: 19th July 1988 400th anniversary of sighting of the Spanish Armada. Beacon lit after receiving signal from Windsor Great Park | . | ||
| SU4557 | Burghclere | Beacon Hill | . | ||
| SU4585 | East Hendred | Scutchamer Knob : marked by a tumulus along the Ridgeway. A place where local people held fairs and gatherings. | . | ||
| SU5692 | Long Wittenham | Wittenham Clumps: Tree topped hill much loved by the artist Paul Nash. Nearby is a clump of trees known as The Cuckoo Pen after the tale of the Wise Men of Gotham who tried to pen in the Cuckoo to stop it flying away and the summer with it. |  | ||
| SU7297 | Aston Rowant | Beacon Hill | . | ||
| SU8063 | Finchampstead | The Ridges | . | ||
| SP8203 | Whiteleaf | Whiteleaf Cross | . | ||
| SU8294 | West Wycombe | West Wycombe Hill | . | ||
| SP8306 | Ellesborough | Beacon Hill | . | ||
| SU8493 | High Wycombe | Desborough Castle | . | ||
| SU8671 | Binfield | Cabbage Hill : On the
evening of June 3 2003 a crowd gathered to watch the lighting of a beacon
to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Entertainment included the
national anthem played on electric guitar!
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| SU8756 | Farnborough | St. Michael's Abbey: Benedictine Monastery situated on densely wooded
hill. You may certainly hear some Gregorian chant on this hill but
definitely no dancing or may games.
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| SU8774 | Binfield | Hawthorn Hill : See Legends | . | ||
| SU8786 | Marlow | Winter Hill | . | ||
| SU9972 | Runnymede | Cooper's Hill | . | ||
| TL9616 | Ivinghoe | Beacon
Hill :Merry making would take
place here on Palm Sunday. Also known as Fig Sunday and it was popular to
eat figs or fig puddings at these gatherings. The flower is the
Pasque Flower which blooms around Easter and is said to mark the sites of
battles with the Danes. |
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| SU8746 | Farnham | Crooksbury Hill: Viewpoint overlooking Waverley Abbey | . | ||
| TQ0248 | Guildford | St. Martha's Hill : Situated along the Pilgrim's Way from Winchester to Canterbury. People from the neighborhood of Guildford would make a pilgrimage to the hill on a Good Friday. "Thither from all the countryside youths and maidens, old folks and children, betake themselves, and gathered together on one of the most beautiful spots in Surrey, in full sight of an old Norman church which crowns the summit of the hill, beguile the time with music and dancing." There was said to have been a maze here at one time. |  | ||
| TQ0267 | Thorpe | St Ann's Hill : Armada Beacon replica. Near the top of the hill is a clear spring where nearby use to lie the Devils Stone which was said to be unmoveable and to have treasure hidden underneath - this was obviously false since someone has totally removed the stone. Another spring in Monk's Grove was valued for its medicinal properties. |  | ||
| TQ2783 | London | Primrose Hill The Gorsedd of Bards established here in 1792 | . | ||
| TQ2786 | London | Parliament Hill Stronghold for parliamentary troops in the civil war. | . | ||
| TQ2887 | London | Highgate Hill Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London | . | ||
| TQ3894 | Chingford | Pole Hill :Nothing to do with Maypoles (it was in Chingford St Paul's parish) but being on the Greenwich meridian it was used by astronomers at the Greenwich observatory to set their telescopes bearings to true north. | . | ||
| TQ4376 | Greenwich | Shooters Hill (132m) :Highest Point in South London. It was once the haunt of highwaymen. | . | ||
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Selected National Sites
| SW6840 | . |
Carn Brae : Midsummer Eve is the Feast of St John (Goljowan - Johns Feast) and it is time for the lighting of the Midsummer Bonfires. The first fire use to be lit on Garrack Sans (Holy Rock) Sennen from where the chain of fires spread. The custom was restored by the Old Cornwall Movement in 1929. Mounts Bay was alight with fires and young people danced "thread the needle" through the streets of Penzance. Further festivities followed 5 days after on St Peter's eve. Today the fires begin on Carn Brea and continue to Kit Hill on the eastern border of Cornwall. |
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| SW5129 | Mounts Bay | St. Michael's Mount | . |
| SX0790 | . | Firebeacon Hill | . |
| SS8941 | Exmoor | Dunkery Beacon | . |
| ST5239 | Glastonbury | Glastonbury Tor |  |
| ST3530 | . | Burrow Mump |  |
| ST3251 | . | Brent Knoll. An annual race is held to the top and back. |  |
| SO7645 | Malvern Hills | Worcestershire Beacon | . |
| SO5528 | King's Caple | Caple Tump: Alfred Watkins mentions this mound as a dancing place, describing it as " a pretty circus ring with its low parapet of earthen banking for sitting out with fine elms all round the rim" Caple Feast took place on the Wednesday of Whit week. | See: The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins figs 1 & 2 |
| SN9921 | Brecon | Brecon Beacons | . |
| SU2002 | . | Burley Beacon | . |
| SU5243 | . | Popham Beacons | . |
| TQ3312 | . | Ditchling Beacon | . |
| TQ4805 | . | Firle Beacon | . |
| TL3714 | Ware | Ware Beacon | . |
| TG1841 | Cromer | Beacon Hill & Church Tower Beacon | . |
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