Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday, 28 September 2022

Arminghall Henge


I must confess that as someone with no special knowledge of prehistory I had never even heard of the significant site at Arminghall on the outskirts of Norwich.

The Arminghall Henge with its innermost horseshoe of timber uprights and its bank and ditch appears to have been a regional cult centre focussed on the Winter Solstice. Around the site burials took place, some in barrows destroyed in modern times.

The site was discovered from the air in 1929 and was initially excavated in 1935. Recent centuries have not been kind to Arminghall. The railway system had already had adverse effects on the area before it was identified. Since then road and electricity works have further encroached on the site and in the long term it faces the risk of flooding.

The Eastern Daily Press has an illustrated report about the recent excavations which are just ending which can be seen at 'It’s a magical place' - the secrets of ‘Norfolk’s Stonehenge’


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