At Christmas 870 the Great Heathen Army moved from East Anglia into Berkshire and fortified a camp at Reading where the Kennet meets the Thames. This base camp was the launching point for the remarkable series of nine battles in the year 871 — the "Year of Battles" — in which Alfred and his brother King Aethelred struggled to drive the Danes out of Wessex. The archaeological and documentary evidence for the Danish fortifications at Reading is well attested.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
Research a location near Berkshire